Bricks & Clicks success, but at the cost of service excellence

John Lewis have credited their marketing efforts and e-commerce operation for decisive market share gain since Sept 2013...

But at what long-term cost to the brand?

They are celebrating their new Loyalty card but in my view they have a long way to go and alot to learn from other leaders in the highstreet Loyalty sector.

John Lewis has held the 'CROWN' for product knowledge and ciustomer service for many years. Even the Metropolitan Police took guidance from John Lewis when developing a stronger "community relationship" focus.

The same products and knowledge can be found instore and on-line but the sales conversion really comes into play with the all important face-to-face experience with John Lweis staff.

Great if you can find a John Lewis Ambaasador, But.... the staff numbers have reduced hugely in store, express-till staff are not product literate and the service desks have been reduced to 1-2 / floor. The queues for a face to face appoint defy any acceptable shopping journey.

The introduction of the "loyalty Card" pre Xmas was a hurried marketing gimmick" in an attempt to gain some market share during a high-spending period.

What they failed to recognise is that JL customers are already extremely loyal, but they also value the art of 'retail seduction' .

For example, an introduction to the loyalty card comprised a string of coupons for a cup of tea (not to be confused with a hot drink incidentally!!!). No prestige Platinum cards or introductory points for the 'Life time value " or high net worth customers existing.

Furthermore, the staff were not trained to request/ prompt the card at POS nor did they have the technical ability to post date your valuable points after the transaction when the customer remembers they have a new loyalty card.

JL should look to Boots and Tesco if they wish to execute a 'best in class' loyalty programme. Its not about coupons for tea or introspective data analysis. The customer experience should be the lead in a Reward scheme.

So John Lewis, you may well be feeling smug today regarding positive sale results and deliverying a very over-due Reward scheme, but please don't loose sight of the customer experience and your brand values which are the bed-rock of your brand essence. A latent reputation for Service excellence and the customers faith that you will 'do the right thing' is the real reason Bricks to clicks has been succesful to dtae.