Comment: What does service mean at Christmas?

Christmas may be a time for retailers to shift stock, but service should be at the heart of this time of year.

There’s a coffee roasting and grinding emporium in Camden, unsurprisingly called Camden Coffee Shop, that’s been there for years. It is unexceptional looking, is run by a one man and the front of shop is filled with hessian sacks overflowing with raw coffee beans from a variety of sources.

And yet there is a near-constant stream of shoppers heading through the door of this scruffy emporium, all in search of the perfect blend that they can then enjoy in the privacy of their own homes. The question is why do so many head for this one instead of making a coffee purchase part of the routine at one of the nearby supermarkets, of which there are a couple?

The answer is simple. This may be an unprepossessing set of premises, but it is the lone figure behind the counter who makes the difference. Every customer who walks through the door probably has a vaguely different set of requirements as far as what coffee drinking is concerned. And every coffee shopper is treated to personal care and attention from the owner…no matter how long this takes and how much of a seeming inconvenience it might be for those in the queue behind the customer that is being served. Nobody minds.

Now head south of the Thames to the Streatham/Norbury border and there is a bike shop called de Ver. This is also a small store and it is run and owned by an former British champion cyclist called Maurice Burton. Visit this one on a Saturday and there are a lot of cyclists waiting to be attended to by Maurice and his staff. And like the Camden Coffee Shop, they are perfectly prepared to do so, because they realise that that the attention that they receive makes it worth the wait.

Both shops are a world away from the normal, run of the mill element that goes under the name of service in most stores. This really is service rather than a sign that says that a particular shop is “passionate about service”, which, generally, will not be the case.

This is, of course, not to say that things couldn’t be improved in both shops – they could be and the store environments could be better, but shoppers will put up with both, because they perceive that there is a sense of difference. Happy Christmas and perhaps you’ll be lucky enough to visit stores like Camden Coffee Shop or de Ver before December 25 arrives in a few days time.