Footwear Insight

A FRIEND FROM MY HOMETOWN RECENTLY BOUGHT A FEW CAR WASHES. He says it's a good business. Cash, low labor costs and he loves that you can't buy a car wash over the Internet. It's also a service business and as we all know in a service business involving customers and employees, things go wrong. People get their feelings hurt, and, as the boss and the final word, it's up to him to make it right. He's actually very good at it. A customer recently had his license plate holder fall off on a recent run through the wash. Now logic would tell you it must have been pretty loose to fall off when sprayed by water jets. But my friend took the opposite approach. He took the customer's phone number and ordered him a replacement. When it came in, he called the guy, invited him over so he could install it and gave the guy a free car wash. Now even a complainer like me, excuse me… even a discerning customer service expert like myself would be blown away with a response like that. I'm sure he has built a customer for life and I hope that customer is spreading the word about this amazing car wash in New Jersey. When I hear stories like that, I realize customer service is not a lost art. It is however often a misplaced one. At Footwear Insight, we believe strongly that customer service is the silver bullet that brick and mortar stores can use to differentiate themselves from one another and compete and win against the Internet. That is why we created The Gold Medal Service Awards several years ago: to identify and recognize stores that excel at customer service. This issue features the 56 Gold Medal Award winners for 2017 and their scores. The awards were presented in Las Vegas late this summer, but we are thrilled to publish the entire list of winners and their respective scores, as well as share some of the thinking and passion that helps these stores deliver high quality service to a demanding customer base. We realize there are many stores that offer great service that did not make this list. We either did not evaluate your store or did so on a day when service was not quite up to Gold Medal standards. And that's one of the toughest parts of being in retail. You can deliver great service most of the time, but you tend to only hear about it when service is not at the level the customer demands. If your store's name is not on the list, send me an e-mail at msullivan@ formula4media.com. If we shopped your store, we're happy to share the results of our experience at no charge. And if we didn't shop your store, we'll make every effort to do so next year. Like you, we are in the service business. And like you we try and get better at it every day. O AT YOUR SERVICE TIMEOUT | MARK SULLIVAN People get their feelings hurt, and, as the boss and the final word, it's up to him to make it right. INTRODUCING A L B E R T The Revolutionary 3D Foot Scanner Aetrex is bringing consumers back into stores like never before with Albert, its revolutionary 3D foot scanner. Albert captures unmatched data and information about feet, enabling consumers to make more educated buying decisions when it comes to footwear and orthotic purchases. Albert offers the most sophisticated, interactive, in-store scanning experience to date. Te l : 8 0 0 - 5 2 6 - 2 7 3 9 | F a x : 8 0 0 - 5 2 6 - 0 0 7 3 w w w. a e t re x t e c h n o l o g y. c o m

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