| Kippreport.com

Are you being served? Part II

November 9, 2009 10:35 by Rania Habib

In fact, it would seem that this demand has made Grass Roots’ specialism an attractive field to be in, and now other companies want a slice of the action. Renno Communications Group, for example, recently launched its new “Customer Retention Program” (in essence a mystery shopper program). Such new arrivals underline the increased market interest in retail experience.

One regional retailer that has understood the need to invest in staff training is supermarket chain Choithram. Rheea Thanwani, director of marketing for Choithram, says the chain is revamping its brand identity, without changing its core values.

“We are improving on all aspects, such as better service, better quality, and training staff,” says Thanwani. “We’ve hired AIS Brand Lab who will do brand identity, like [working out] how we will revamp our new stores from A to Z. We want to improve the quality of customer service, and become more interactive with customer needs – basically understanding customers more. These are changing times, and we feel that focusing on improving our level of customer service and on the retail experience in our stores is key.”

Ghose believes Apple is the perfect example of an international brand successfully delivering a shopping experience to its customers.

“At the Apple store, there are “Genius Bars,” and standing behind are Apple geeks -that’s what they call themselves,” he says. “They’re really empowered, they have lots of knowledge, they love their brand, and they are brand champions. They care about you as a person because they’re just being human beings, delivering a very consistent brand message.”

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Tags: customer service, gcc, Grass Roots Middle East, report