Three Missing Elements in Luxury Etail Customer Experience

I want to talk about the EQ imperative in digital luxury brand experiences. Digital brands need to think about how to pull the tone and feel of luxury, the complete CX through every touch point.

Digital Luxury Has To Go Further To Deliver The Brand EQ; The Emotional Quotient

In the digital space, you have to go even further to add that emotional quotient. We help digital luxury brands do that from the point-of-purchase all the way through parcel-to-porch, unboxing-the-bounty, and then stoking-the-fire stages of that brand relationship, so that customer can be cultivated into a loyal customer, and client.

Case in point. Cartier. One of my favorite French luxury brands. When you go to a boutique, anywhere in the world, you have a sales consultant, and the language, the tonality, actually what they wear is part of the Cartier brand, and the way they guide you through the boutique and listen to what you’re looking for, and they add that element of brand language to the brand experience.

Missing Element No. 1: The Sales Consultant is Not There

In the digital space, that consultants not there, and that’s not happening.

Also, no matter what you buy, they always gift wrap your purchase. A friend of mine is a manager at one of the Cartier boutiques, and shared this story with me. A woman was shopping for a ring, and she went in, and they went through the discovery process, exploration process. She made her decision, and she bought the ring for herself. She wanted to walk out wearing it. And they said, “Of course, but first, let me just take that back and clean that for you.”

They took it back. As they always do, they clean the piece, and they always wrap it.

Missing Element No. 2: Caring For and Preparing the Piece

So, he brought it back out to her in the full Cartier wrap, which is a triple fold, special fold with wax seal. If you’ve never experienced that aspect of their signature brand packaging experience, you should go visit and have that experience.

So, he brought it back out to her, and he said, “Here. Open it up.” So that she didn’t miss that element, strategically of the Cartier experience.

Missing Element No. 3: Signature Unboxing Experience

So, she unwrapped it, and opened it up. She got to explore that unboxing the bounty stage of the Customer Experience, in the same way we design inside the digital DBCX™ consulting services that we co-create with our clients.

Define and Design These CX Defining Moments in your Brand CX

You want to look at how to do that for your customers, and define how you will pull off those elements in a meaningful way, and how to elevate that piece of the brand voice in the digital experience so that the digital experience, for a seasoned luxury client, is on par with exceptional luxury experience.

Kerri Konik is a seasoned brand strategist and leading expert in igniting emotional connection and optimizing customer experience to drive business growth. She is a consultant, advisor and speaker on catalyzing the emotional bonds between customers, brands, and leaders to increase value, progress, and accelerate the speed of change, growth and desired impact. An entrepreneur at heart, Kerri has launched five businesses, and is the CEO of InspireFire, a women-owned brand strategy and marketing consultancy based in Philadelphia.