What kind of VIP support can brands offer top-tier customers?
Every customer is valuable, though some are undeniably more valuable than others.
Most loyalty programs enable brands to track and identify those who consistently spend more. Among these, a select elite, typically between 5% and 10%, may be chosen to benefit from VIP membership, perhaps once they have crossed a certain spending limit, with their status designated by precious stones or metals — gold, platinum, or diamond. While these customers are appreciative of the usual free gifts or points or discounts that come as benefits of loyalty programs, to feel they are truly receiving VIP treatment requires that the retailer go that extra mile by providing something unique that adds value to both the customers retail experience and their exclusive relationship with the retailer.
For brands to effectively cater to the needs of these big-spenders requires an understanding of their psychology. Strengthening this relationship often entails making the customer feel valued by developing a more personalised approach that validates their unique status and bolstering their self-esteem.
How Huawei created an opportunity from a problem
With an array of new products available today that featured only in science-fiction just a few decades ago, there is still a certain generational lag when it comes to technology. Mobile phone manufacturer Huawei has recognised and exploited this gap by providing customers with a VIP service that offers face-to-face interaction based around an unboxing of the newly purchased product.
During this process there is the possibility to transfer data from previous devices and install new or favourite apps. For digital natives such services might seem … unnecessary, to put it charitably, but there are older or less tech-savvy users who are prepared to pay more for this kind of personalised VIP service. Huawei have successfully turned what was previously a problem for some of its potential customers into a unique solution that adds value for retailer and customer alike, increasing the likelihood of brand fidelity when it comes to future purchases.
Pandemic poses problems — and opportunities
In our unusual times face-to-face retail is in difficult straits. Much of the retail customer’s experience has become a more faceless interaction, in traditional retail due to obligatory masks, but more specifically in the shift to online shopping where an increasing number of customer-centric interactions are electronically mediated, both via websites and increasingly by app.
These faceless interactions can nonetheless be personalised, perhaps by doing something as simple as using the customer’s name, or ‘remembering’ details of previous purchases or visits. In this case-scenario technology can come to the retailer or service provider’s aid.
Burberry leverages technology to provide unique VIP service
Burberry is a well-known luxury brand that has long been at the forefront of integrating technology and customer relations into its business model. It has developed a synergistic working partnership with tech-giant Apple over a number of years. Burberry were also early adopters of the use of in-store iPads to replace clunky cash registers in order to provide its customers with a smoother retail experience. Based on sharing a similar ethos of creativity and design, both companies have striven to increase the overlap between their seemingly disparate businesses, with Burberry being one of the earliest retailers to integrate and implement the use of Apple Pay.
More recently, seeking to further nurture the luxury-tech relationship with its VIP clients, Burberry has partnered with Apple once again, this time to create a bespoke invitation-only in-app messaging system called ‘R message’.
R message — Burberry’s bespoke app capabilities for VIP customers
Essentially R message allows customers to chat in real time with customer service agents while staying within the Burberry app, enabling the sales agent to act as a real time guide, walking the customer through the shopping process in a way analogous to the attentive guidance Burberry provides to its in-store customers. While the customer-facing end of R message is app-based, behind the scenes it interfaces directly with Burberry’s internal systems, giving customer service agents access to any details already in their customer database, such as preferences or previous purchases. This allows for a deeply personalised service and experience, while also being more reassuring for less tech-savvy users.
While R message is intended for customer use in a mobile online shopping setting, in-store sales agents now have access to a standalone app called R World. This provides employees with up-to-date information on prices, promotions, inventory, and other details, enabling them to accurately respond to any customer query without having to ask the shopper to wait while they check if a particular item is in stock, or consult with a supervisor about specifics they might not immediately have on hand.
Unlike the exclusive R message feature, all in-store customers benefit from the smoother process enabled by the employee’s use of the in-house R World app.
But not every business or retailer has the possibility, or even the desire, to make exclusive deals with Apple in order to provide a more personalised service to its VIP customers. Yet similar, and even more enhanced features can still be integrated into a business’s preexisting app.
SnapCall — an opportunity to customise in-app VIP interactions
Paris-based SnapCall provides in-app chat, allowing any business to provide a similar kind and quality of service as Burberry aims to give its VIP customers. But while R message is precisely that, a messaging app, SnapCall takes things a step further. In the case where a customer is chatting to a company’s representative through the app, the latter can suggest that the chat can become a voice conversation instead.
Some customers will prefer a text-based exchange. As with the Huawei unboxing service mentioned above, there are often generational factors at play when it comes to technology. It has frequently been noted that younger people are disinclined to use voice calls. But it’s worth bearing in mind that high-value customers are often drawn from older generations, who may be more inclined to appreciate the possibility to speak to another human being who can answer their queries directly.
From the business end, SnapCall can be integrated with in-house systems, giving the retail representative real-time access to relevant customer data, such as the customer’s name and location, an assigned customer value, previous purchases, and even the current contents of their shopping cart.
SnapCall also makes it possible to have features only available during certain times, for example during office hours, or only when there are enough customer service agents available to handle the volume of calls. This allows businesses the flexibility to choose the volume of calls or queries in function of the ability to respond. There also is a VPN feature, so customers can’t tell where customer service agents are based, which allows businesses, and even employees, more flexibility, opening up for example, a more generalised possibility of working from home, a trend the pandemic has seen accelerate.
Flying High — Aviation’s long history of VIP service
Few businesses have as long-established policies and programmes to benefit their VIP customers than airlines. Designated VIP check-in desks are standard with many legacy airlines, either cutting down or entirely eliminating waiting time for valued customers. Similarly, airlines often offer exclusive lounges within airports with amenities, refreshments, entertainment and comfortable seating all provided in a space that creates a clear physical separation from the majority of other airline passengers. This obviously extends to within the aircraft itself, with a separate space, and sometimes even a separate entry for exclusive passengers.
Flying Blue — KLM and Air France join to offer multi-tiered incentives
KLM also runs a multi-tiered loyalty program called Flying Blue
The higher the category, the more Miles customers earn per euro spent. These miles can be used for online shopping (read our post mentioning how supermarket chain AH integrates Air Miles into its loyalty program here) upgrades to Business Class, à la carte meals aboard, or even donated to charity.
KLM and tech
KLM air stewards have access to passenger details via interactive tablets and can confidently direct themselves to a given seat and greet the passenger by name. KLM’s extensive embrace of tech, and its use in providing a whole new level of customer service, is worthy of a post all of its own. The airline is at the forefront of testing facial recognition check-ins, it has integrated AR (Augmented Reality) into its mobile app, and its now possible to interact with KLM’s Google Home AI, which will even give passengers advice on the type of clothing they should pack for the weather at their destination.
In conclusion, the bar just keeps getting higher. Aiming to satisfy the top-end of the market is a moving target. Just as the first-class carriages of yore might have been nowhere near as comfortable as modern-day air-conditioned second-class, or a five-star hotel of just a few decades ago might today only rank at three stars, features that once were, or even now might seem, exclusive or inaccessible may soon become mainstream.
Use Spaaza’s incentive tools to achieve specific goals, or combined to create powerful loyalty programs for customers, employees, and influencers.
