SERVICE, PLEASE

Europa Star

SERVICE, PLEASE

After-sales: the best way through the crisis?

After-sales: the best way through the crisis?

INDUSTRY

At a time when the coronavirus has brought the watch industry to a standstill, shouldn’t we take advantage of the situation to pamper existing customers (...)

Wolf: a solution for quarantined retailers

Wolf: a solution for quarantined retailers

PROFESSIONAL WATCH COMMUNITY

Our friends at WOLF have crafted an innovative distribution concept in this “new normal” of social distancing and closed stores. We share here the letter (...)

SERVICE, PLEASE! - SOFTENING AFTER-SALES DELAYS WITH “COURTESY WATCHES”

SERVICE, PLEASE! - SOFTENING AFTER-SALES DELAYS WITH “COURTESY WATCHES”

The increasing demands on after-sales service have resulted in long delays for customers. In order to minimize the bad mood that accompanies this period, (...)

SERVICE, PLEASE! - Service experiences WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD at the retail level - part 2

SERVICE, PLEASE! - Service experiences WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD at the retail level - part 2

We continue our survey of the best and worst of customer services as experienced by the customer-facing retailers with the second part of the article that (...)

SERVICE, PLEASE! - Service experiences WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD at the retail level - part 1

SERVICE, PLEASE! - Service experiences WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD at the retail level - part 1

For some time, we at Europa Star have been following the service issue with our special section, “Service, Please!” We have profiled brands and their after (...)

SERVICE, PLEASE! - The customer's perspective - GHITA RAMDHIANSING

SERVICE, PLEASE! - The customer’s perspective - GHITA RAMDHIANSING

Ghita Ramdhiansing is a coach and trainer in Amsterdam, specialising in organisational and personal development. She started her love affair with watches (...)

SERVICE, PLEASE! - Analysing CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR

SERVICE, PLEASE! - Analysing CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR

Each year, the international watch marketing days, organised by Kalust Zorik, co-founder of Switzerland’s Watchmaking Marketing Institute, allocate a day of (...)

SERVICE, PLEASE! - CHOPARD – The care and servicing of jewellery watches

SERVICE, PLEASE! - CHOPARD – The care and servicing of jewellery watches

Watches are challenging to service for any company, with customers spread across the globe. Factor into that jewellery watches and jewellery and the (...)

SERVICE, PLEASE! - VACHERON CONSTANTIN's customer service in China

SERVICE, PLEASE! - VACHERON CONSTANTIN’s customer service in China

Since 2008, Vacheron Constantin has had a Swiss master watchmaker to repair its grand complication pieces in China. Europa Star met him at the “Twin Villa” (...)

SERVICE, PLEASE! Collaborative customer service at ICE-WATCH

SERVICE, PLEASE! Collaborative customer service at ICE-WATCH

There is a wonderful symmetry to the headline statistics that Ice-Watch presented at this year’s BaselWorld, with the huge figure of four million being a (...)

Service at the independent manufacturers

Service at the independent manufacturers

Independent watch companies certainly don’t have it easy, struggling to find distribution and customers around the world. Customer service, however, is (...)

Service, please! - Patek Philippe: patrimonial service

Service, please! - Patek Philippe: patrimonial service

In 2012, Patek Philippe launched a vast marketing campaign based not on any single new product, but rather on the notion of service itself. For the (...)

Service, please! - Stoll & Company, America's Watchmakers

Service, please! - Stoll & Company, America’s Watchmakers

In the last issue, we profiled the after sales service/customer service approach of Piaget. This issue, we take a look at another way of handling service (...)

Thierry Stern's opinion on customer service in China

Thierry Stern’s opinion on customer service in China

During the inauguration of the Maison Patek Philippe last November in Shanghai, Thierry Stern, the CEO of the prestigious Swiss brand, publicly expressed (...)

Letter from China – Customer care in China: Does anyone really care?

Letter from China – Customer care in China: Does anyone really care?

For the happy Chinese owner of a “Swiss Made” watch, the dream quickly turns to a nightmare when after-sales service is required. This is a scandal that the (...)

Letter from France – The Chinese salesgirls at the Galeries Lafayette

Letter from France – The Chinese salesgirls at the Galeries Lafayette

The Chinese watch salesgirl is a formidable commercial asset. All the more so in the legendary store on the Boulevard Haussmann in Paris, a store visited (...)

Reinventing customer service at Piaget

Reinventing customer service at Piaget

Some companies see after sales service as a grudging obligation, one they would rather not fulfil. Sure, they’ve sold the watches, but they don’t really want (...)

Service, please! – A new watch business section in Europa Star

Service, please! – A new watch business section in Europa Star

In the world of watchmaking there is a continent, somewhat obscure, on which the media projectors rarely cast their light—much too rarely. What we are (...)