Employee brand behaviour in retailing: our surprising experience with Louis Vuitton

Luxury is now structured as a concept far beyond the most exclusive products and services money can buy. Brands bring full experiences to their target audience that wishes for an exceptional customer-oriented encounter in the shop.
This is what happened during our recent visit to the Louis Vuitton store in Lausanne. 

Louis Vuitton store in Lausanne, 30 Rue de Bourg 

Our journey in the store started when being welcomed by a couple of employees that instantly made us feel special and opened the floor for our personalized assistance experience. Specifically, one store assistant showed profound interest in helping us to satisfy our request and it was clear that she was not just trying to sell us a bag, while still acting according to role prescriptions and never going out of it. This is why we consider this employee as a mixture between “fan” and “officer”.

Our assistant was displaying impeccable behaviour both from a selling and emotional standpoint. We could describe such an endeavour as extra-role when she was excited in seeing our reactions and understanding who the product was for and hohw this could influence the purchase.  At the same time, she was also displaying an intra-role behaviour, since she was still following a clear code of conduct and never lost focus on the specificities we were asking for in our item. She was listening, asking questions and showing us as many options as possible, until we found what we were looking for. You could tell that she was strongly supporting the brand while strengthening its image all together when she was adding a more “personal” and “emotional” touch to our visit.

             

      

To offer a unique shopping experience, luxury brands need to fulfil two conditions: creating positive emotions and memories to target customers; and, at the same time, delivering target brand values. Our Louis Vuitton visit made no exception.

Even though we had many different demands, our SA was extremely kind and showed us several bags until we finally made a decision. The feeling we got from her behaviour allowed us to improve our perception of the LV brand, compared to how it was before, especially considering that we were mainly expecting an officer-kind of behaviour, and probably, we were not expecting the best of it either. Our experience let us see first-hand that LV truly cares about all of its customers, new and current, and makes their happiness and satisfaction a primary aim, which also made us even prouder of having shopped in such a store and brought us to perceive the products offered as unique and worth-to-have.

Considering that our SA was already displaying an extra-role behaviour, we truly believe in the importance of being able to maintain it in the long term, which is something that needs to be supported by the supervisor’s behaviour. We think her supervisor, and luxury SA supervisors, in general, should allow assistants to keep creating “emotional” relationships with their customers and providing them with a financial reward that is not based on sales only, but on positive customers’ feedback as well. Granting a motivational promotions’ scheme can incentivize employees to maintain their current behaviour and even improve it.

After our shopping experience, if we had to put ourselves in the shoes of our shop assistant, we would value feeling important for the brand and knowing that our job is having a real impact, both on the sales and numbers of new customers that become regulars.

The feeling of being a real brand ambassador, and not just a seller, is key. When shop assistants wear the watchmaker’s pieces or the designer clothes, they can show personally how they like it and be more committed to the sale, wanting to share something about an object they also have and love. Hence, allowing the assistants to experience the brand themselves to a relevant extent, is something we consider fundamental to perfectly transmit the brand’s values and culture.