Yet another visit to my favorite multi-brand mall Lifestyle prompted me to write about their success in creating superior customer experinces ..not once, but over & over again.
Being the second day of an annual sale, the place was jam packed within the first 2 hrs of opening on a public holiday. The sales staff were struggling to answer the product & discount related queries raining from the customers eager to grab a bargain ahead of others. How were the sales staff coping?

• There were a big augmentation of permanent staff to take care of rush
• Inspite of the maddening rush, most of the sales staff were calm & trying to respond to as manyu queries as humanly possible. These guys were mentally prepared to handle the rush.
• The staff were also apologizing to customers whenever they were being pulled between customers. They were not just blaming the crowd for a lack of requisite service.
• The huge work load not withstanding, one of the sales staff actually volunteered to stand in the long check out queue on my behalf (seeing that I was struggling to cope with huge shopping bags & an overactive toddler). He even offered a chair to me & called me 20 mins later when the invoice was ready.

Note that the above was characteristic of all the sales staff in Lifestyle today. And I suspect there were quite a few temporary employees there to handle the sale rush.

I wouldn’t have written about the store if such behaviors were isolated to one day / person. The truth is they consistently deliver such experinces over and over again. Thus creating an edge for themselves.