customer service
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Setting the bar
Success in today’s tumultuous retail environment requires an adaptable toolset. We meet three flexible leaders who are setting global examples.
Expo 92: What’s in store?
Tokyo’s Isetan department store finds success by treating customers like royalty and turning shopping into an experience. Monocle hands over its credit card to a kimono-clad sales associate.
At your service: Finnair Flight Academy
Countries are investing in tourism beyond just hotels and restaurants. Meet the next generation of maître d’s, waiters and flight attendants learning the fine art of hospitality at the world’s best schools.
Observation
Editor in chief Tyler Brûlé on the importance of receiving guests the right way.
Fashion police
Japanese retailer Beams has an ‘internal affairs’ styling department to help shop staff find their personal look. It also believes in practising the perfect bow. This is hospitality Tokyo-style, designed to inspire customers.
Observation
Tyler Brûlé hopes 2014 heralds a return to the days of connected air travel run by people who respond to their customers’ needs
School of thought
Inspired touches of service separate good from great and make bricks-and-mortar retail sing. From suit presses to gift wrapping, Monocle attends to the best in retail hospitality and finds lessons in courtesy.
Expo 64: Taxi!
Hail a cab from a Tokyo taxi firm whose white-gloved drivers are drilled in what to say, how to clean their cars and how to take real pride in their job.
Observation
Countries use cuisine and culture for soft power but often forget their most important asset. Tyler Brûlé asks why nations aren’t building their brands around the simple concept of excellent service.
Talking shop
From tailor-made coffee to a well-known British supermarket, these examples of good retail and service go further than the average store, thanks to bold ambition, quality and a passion for pleasing customers.
