JOANNA CAREW

As a service-led, not price-led customer, my experience is THE differentiator informing my choices between brands, companies, and providers.

For example, I HATE Louis Vuitton and now won’t shop there due to poor service. I’ve visited Louis Vuitton stores all over Europe, testing to check my opinion wasn’t formed on a couple of isolated experiences. It wasn’t, universally I have experienced rude and aloof assistants in their stores. In fact, I fell in love with an item in one store but left without purchasing because of the attitude of the server.

Contrast this with my favourite clothing brand, Falconeri. I love their product as it focuses on natural fibres, but it’s also the in-store experience that sets them apart. The stores are small and welcoming, the staff interact with each other as friends, and welcome customers into the vibe. They’re attentive and responsive to your needs, making suggestions but not pushy. I have found the assistants to hold a passion for the products and a zest for customer service. In Rome, the staff even pooled their knowledge of the best bars and wrote me a list of recommendations.

Customer service again came to the fore with my hairdressers this week. As a brunette that went grey at 28, I am a very regular customer for getting my roots done! So, it made sense that my 4-weekly appointments should move to Norwich as I’d have more flexibility. However, despite careful research, I haven’t faired well in this quest and have experienced both poor service and awful colouring! 

So, I called up my northern salon; Hooker and Young in Ponteland. The receptionist recognised my voice, then told me she knows I travel a long way so they’d do whatever they could to make the appointments fit with my schedule. She worked with me to organise dates for the next 6 months, and even when my colourist was fully booked she offered to come in 2 hours early to fit me in! For cuts I see one of the owners and he gave me his mobile number so that I could arrange appointments directly with him if I needed a cut on a day he doesn’t normally work at Ponteland.

Over the years I’ve found that Hooker and Young NAIL customer experience on every level, from booking right through the whole appointment. It’s all there, the ambience, attentiveness, even getting my vibe on days I don’t want to chat, or offering a glass of wine when I am in a jovial mood.

Passion for customer service also pervades the Carew Dental brand – creating an extraordinary patient journey is vital to all of us. Sure we have technically brilliant clinicians, but so do many practices. Actually, the market for private dental practices is somewhat saturated, and instead of competing on price, our focus is entirely customer experience. Like Falconeri and Hooker and Young, I want to vibe with our patients, to go above and beyond and to engage with them to maximise their experience.

I never want Carew Dental to replicate the experiences I had in Louis Vuitton, sure they have a decent product, but the vibe is flat and the experience leaves you deflated. Whether you’re investing in a new handbag, or a brand new smile the principal is the same, it should be a magical time where you’re transported into a cocoon of happiness and made to feel on top of the world!