Selling Luxury: Connect with Affluent Customers, Create Unique Experiences Through Impeccable Service, and Close the Sale

Chapter 11. Discretion and confidentiality

A customer who has established a person-to-person contact with a Sales Ambassador wants conversations and purchases to be kept confidential. The longer a Sales Ambassador knows a customer, the more the customer will share with him. This information, sometimes very personal, is given because trust has been established between both parties.

We mentioned earlier how fragile trust is. Discretion on the part of the Sales Ambassador is essential in maintaining the relationship. Along with personal information, purchases should also be kept confidential. Beyond the obvious security issue, in particular with high-priced creations, the question of who the purchase was made for could be very sensitive. A Sales Ambassador might be told one thing, whereas something else happens.

Customers dislike finding out that there were conversations about them behind their backs. They begin to doubt and wonder what was actually said. So when the opportunity to divulge something about Mr. X's purchase last week and how much his wife is going to like it comes up, the Sales Ambassador simply makes it perfectly clear that discretion is one of the rules of the house.

What else is the Sales Ambassador saying when she does not gossip about another customer? She is telling those doing the asking that she will also be discreet about them. Customers know that if there is talk and gossip about others, then they will be talked about as well.

Building long-term relationships requires ...