Here at SHINE we constantly monitor how businesses are adapting to the change and if recession is making any difference. It seems that a lot of retailers are running extended sales, but is that backed up by exceptional user experience? Recently we had a pleasure of visiting London’s Jermyn Street menswear retailer Hawes & Curtis six stores in search of a perfect shirt. What we found did not impress us at all. Are Hawes & Curtis watching their image? We certainly didn’t think so.

We want to help retailers to identify and fix their mistakes in order to increase customer satisfaction and profits.

Friendly Customer Orientation

The staff needs to be friendly and helpful whilst being professional and well presented. I think most of these things are absent from the H&C stores. People working there seem to be either indifferent or not very helpful.

As face of the company the staff needs to be trained in order to provide exceptional customer experience. It pays off to smile and be friendly, as this is what people remember and when making their next decision they will not avoid the store, but gladly will go in to spend some money.

Embracing the Technology

As a customer I would like to know if it’s worth walking to another 5 stores to get what I want. So one would expect to have an integrated stock check. Unfortunately that’s not available in the H&C stores. This can only transfer into the loss of business, as there won’t be a lot of people who would spend their time hunting for that specific product around the city.

Another valid point is – how easy is it to find information about your brand online. We were looking for a decent picture to support this article, but unfortunately couldn’t find one. Even the logo wasn’t available in high resolution anywhere.

It’s not a secret that Internet plays major life in decision making – reviews are posted online, people share and comment thus creating particular online reputation. Is H&C following these? I bet it will take them a while to discover this post, unless they get pointed to it (Update: A representative from H&C has contacted us and we will share our experience with them shortly. We will report on that in a separate article.).

Catching up with Fashion

Classical cuts are fine and sell very well, but more and more modern men are looking for that special slim fit. One of the greatest products that Hawes & Curtis had is the super slim fit shirts. They are now gone and apparently the staff thinks that they are discontinued. “Apparently” – is not the answer I am looking for as a customer. I want to have the exact answer as to whether they are coming back or not. I understand that Hawes & Curtis might believe that this mystery would trigger people to return to the store to check on the availability of their favourite cut. But I would rather prefer to be informed on the spot and not waste my time again.

I hope every retailer can learn from this and work hard to create a better user experience and provide quality of service leading to increased customer retention, satisfaction and subsequently profit.

Updated 25/08/09: Text has been updated to fix minor mistakes and reflect the fact that the company got in touch with us.