A Comparison Of Louis Vuitton And Chanel Shopping Experience In Pacific Place Hong Kong Essay.

Louis Vuitton and Chanel stores in Pacific Place Hong Kong

Question:

Discuss about the Customer Relationship Management of Chanel And Louis Vuitton.

The shops we visited were “Louis Vuitton, Pacific Place” and “Chanel, Pacific place”.

Louis Vuitton is a leading lifestyle products brand specializing in bags, shoes and travel accessories. The brand came into existence in 1854 and since then has been a leading lifestyle brand (Tak, 2015). It has over 460 stores in 50 countries across the globe (Berg, 2014). We visited the Pacific place in Hong Kong store in evening at 5:30pm. The store was easy to locate as their address mentioned on Google was clear. The store was quite crowded but still the sales team was able to understand that we are potential customers and greeted us with a smile. They were all wearing black or grey color suits and looked professional (Dahlberg, 2016). Before visiting the shop, we can telephoned them but it went unanswered. We specifically asked for bags and shoes and the sales person assigned to us showed a great variety of them. We asked them to show us eye wear sunglasses but they did not have them in store and apologized for the same. They did not offer delivery of the products and told us that we can exchange them for full refund within 14 days or we can exchange the product for store credit within 1 month (Liu, 2014).

The store was elitist, sophisticated and classy. It had a very positive vibe. Most of the customers looked rich and belonged to upper middle class of the society (Solomon, 2014). We asked them if someone from the headquarters visits this store and they mentioned that they send a daily report to the headquarters about their sales and in store items. And once a quarter someone visits from the headquarters to take a look at the store ongoing. As a company policy LV sends mystery shoppers to gain an idea about customer service. They did not offer any student discount. Although they answered all our questions properly, they seemed to get impatient after 30 minutes. This could be because the store was getting more crowded.

Chanel is a French brand that has positioned itself as a luxurious lifestyle brand targeting the upper middle class of the society (Kottemann, 2016). The brand specializes in haute culture and read to wear clothes and caters mainly to women with an elegant taste (Sugimoto, 2017). We visited this store at 7pm in the evening. It was easy to locate once we entered pacific place. The sales staff was wearing uniforms and appeared extremely professional and well dressed. The store was clean and the lighting was sufficient. The number of sales person were also adequate. Their target market were mostly women from the upper strata of the society. They showed us a sundry variety of bags and shoes and told us that they can be returned within 90 days of purchase. However, the perfumes cannot be returned if they have been bought from the store. If they were bought online, they can be returned within 14 days subject to the condition of the item upon return. The sales lady was very friendly and offered us beverages. Their service was slightly slow as there are only two billing counters. The billing team did not offer any student discounts. When we asked them if anyone from the head office visits the outlet, they simply refused to answer this question. But they were polite and apologetic. They took our email IDs and promised to keep us up to date with the latest discounts and offers via mail.   

1. The staff was alert and polite. They were very friendly and answered all our questions properly.
2. They did not try to over sell any of their products.
3. They had a return and exchange policy of 30 days for store credit and 14 days for full refund
4. No chat bots on their website
5. No social media presence exclusively for a country. They do not have a Facebook page for Hong Kong customers. They are very active on Instagram and have posted over 2.2k images yet.
6. They did not answer their telephone. Store seemed a bit understaffed.
7. They have four mobile applications – LV NYC VVV, Louis Vuitton Pass, Louis Vuitton City guide and 100 legendary trunks
8. The head office takes keen interest and daily report are sent to them for performance analysis.
9. There is no place to sit for people who accompany the shoppers.
10. Feedback was taken from us upon shopping. They have a register maintained for compliments and criticisms.
11. Cleaning person is always working even when customers are around. This can be disturbing for customers.
12. Four billing counters are there which makes the billing process speedy.

1. The staff was very friendly. They offered us beverages and even when we did not buy anything, they thanked us for visiting
2. They have a return and exchange policy of 90 days on all products except perfumes and fragrances
3. Adequately staffed store
4. They had one person dedicated to answering telephone calls
5. No Chatbots on their website.
6. Social media presence is general and not exclusively for any country. The Chanel Hong Kong page has just 1.1k followers.
7. Email IDs were taken so they could keep in touch with us via email and send us relevant information on discounts and offers.
8. They have sufficient seating arrangement for customers.
9. Billing process is lengthy as there are only 2 counters.
10. Men who visited the store were also given the option of simple buying cash cards and gift cards which are easy to redeem.
11. The store manager had ensure the store was very clean.

Customer service and the return policy at LV and Chanel

They did not answer their phone when we called. The store is understaffed and hence the phone often goes unanswered.

Their website provides a detail of their products. Customers can make their account and see their purchase history upon login. There are no chat bots as customer service representatives online.

Social media is increasingly becoming the most efficient tool to communicate with brands as they reply almost immediately to safeguard their brand value (Armstrong, 2015). However they have a general Louis Vuitton handle on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The staff is polite, friendly and helpful. They speak in English and are trained in local language. They are patient and deal with customers with utmost care. LV often sends mystery shoppers that makes the staff cautious and they are always on their toes.

They have one person dedicated to answering only phones. The telephone representative is friendly, polite and patient. She is extremely soft spoken and thanks the customers for calling before keeping the phone.

Their websites do not have any Chatbots for customer service. They have the option of sending an Email to which they reply within a 7 working days. For a customer, this can be a very long waiting time. The website otherwise is very clear and crisp and provides significant details about all their products.

Unfortunately they are no very active on social media which is the most efficient tool to reach out to target customers (Agnihotri, 2016). They have over 19 million followers on Instagram but have posted on over 800 pictures. Their Facebook page for Hong Kong has just 1.1k followers while their twitter has over 13.4 million followers. Unlike other brands they rarely reply to customer tweets (Twitter, 2017).

The staff is very friendly. They are all well behaved and soft spoken people. Even upon not buying they thank people for visiting. They are discreet about sharing excessive information about the company. They took our email IDs and offered to send us discount vouchers. They even offered us beverages and comfortable seating.

1. Hire a dedicated person to answer phone calls: LV store seemed largely understaffed. Telephonic communication with clients is the first direct one to one communication and the brand must ensure that they work upon improving this form of communication (Timm, 2013). One person should be hired who dedicatedly answers phone queries and resolves them efficiently.
2. Extend exchange policy: Their products can only be returned for full refund within 14 days of purchase which is a small amount of time for customer. More often LV products are bought to gift friends and family members. And it would be difficult for them to file return within 14 days. LV also specializes in bags and shoes. A customer might start using the bag after 14 days and find it faulty. In such cases, it is wiser for the brand to extend the period for return and exchange.
3. Website Chatbots. Website Chatbots are a latest technology and most leading brands are using them in order to ensure high levels of customer service (Setia, 2013). Website Chatbots provide customers with an option to get help online upon visiting the website. The representative on the other hand is well versed with the company policies. This leads to quick resolution of queries and is extremely crucial especially in the fast paced world that we live in.
4. Seating arrangements could be improved: Louis Vuitton has positioned itself as an expensive luxury lifestyle store. Therefore it is imperative that the services provided at the store live up to the positioning by the global brand. Providing seating arrangements to customers is a small yet important step at ensuring efficient customer service.

1. Website Chatbots: Website Chatbots are a leading technology used by firms across the globe in order to improve upon their customer service (Kane, 2016). They provide a platform to resolve queries and address grievances of customers when they visit the website (Verhagen, 2014). It is a speedy and convenient process and enables customers to get their problems resolved in a single click. This therefore further improves upon customer service provided by the brand. At present, customers have an option of sending an email to the brand’s customer service team and they get back to the customer within 7 working days. This is often a long period of wait for customers specifically those who need to impulse buy. They can lose out on a large market share by not catering to such customers.

2. Social media marketing: Social media is the leading form of marketing in the current globalized times that we live in. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even Whatsapp is being used by various leading firms to market their products and enhance customer communication (Tuten, 2014). Chanel is not too active on either of the platforms and can hence lose out on a lot of brand image and value. Their direct competitors can increase and enhance reach to consumers by addressing them on social media.
   Chanel has just 800 posts on their Instagram page which is truly inefficient to communicate with their almost 25 million followers. Chanel uses twitter as a platform to spread awareness about the brand but hardly retweets or replies to customers.
3. Loyalty cards: Chanel is an expensive brand and hence the customer loyalty is much lower. Most people shop from the brand for a onetime special occasion purchase. Chanel can start loyalty cards where members can earn points every time they shop from the brand and can redeem them upon their future purchases. This would increase brand loyalty and encourage customers to shop more often (Donnelly, 2015).

Conclusion

Louis Vuitton and Chanel both are significant and leading brands in the industry of lifestyle goods. The brands have clearly worked hard upon their customer service and customer retention. Customer relationship management and efficient customer service is an important criteria leading to customer loyalty and customer satisfaction (Jahanshani, 2014). Many firms invest largely upon their customer service attributes. Both the brands lived up to our expectations on most criteria however a few changes could be made to improvise upon their customer service.

Both the brands could work upon their social media marketing skills to reach out to a larger customer base. LV could improvise its telephonic service while Chanel could pay more attention to creating loyalty cards for more frequent purchases. Both the brands must start website Chatbots for quicker resolution of customer queries and immediate addressing of their grievances if any.

References

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