Bergdorf Goodman
The people are the magic
Christmas Eve, late 1970's. Trunks of fur coats making their way across Central Park to be hand-delivered to the Dakota. For John Lennon, it was the ideal way to shop for just the right piece for Yoko Ono — or the right eighty, as the couple couldn’t decide on just one. For Bergdorf Goodman, it was just another day of delivering unparalleled service.
Bergdorf Goodman has set the standard for American luxury retail since its founding in 1899. Jackie Kennedy brought her own sketches to Bergdorf and left with her Inaugural gown. The illustrious careers of Donna Karan, Tom Ford, Bobbi Brown and Michael Kors were launched by the talented leaders of this retailer.
For over 120 years, the doors at its landmark Fifth Avenue destination had never closed. But its reopening in 2021 following the COVID-19 lockdown created an opportunity to invite people back into the store and remind them that the shopping experience at Bergdorf is truly exceptional.
This flagship store experience seemed inimitable – but the most crucial institutional knowledge around it had never been codified. Bergdorf needed to connect with clients with greater consistency and elevated standards to maintain its reputation for excellence.
We worked to articulate what makes the experience distinctive; equipping employees to keep building on the “expect everything” legacy with guests into the future.
Industry
Retail
What We Did
Culture Strategy & EVP
After initial visits to the store and conversations with the Bergdorf Goodman team, we quickly realized that the unique spirit of the brand lives in the people who bring it to life and truly deliver on that for customers. So, the job was to capture that spirit of luxury service in a way that could be embedded into the customer experience and tangibly felt.
We designed a program that connected the dots between Bergdorf Goodman’s service and customer experience, targeting in-person interactions between employees and customers as an immediate, high-impact opportunity. We worked closely with the Chief Retail Officer and the Director of Learning and Development, convening cross-functional leads representing ‘both front and back-of-house’ (from restaurants and personal shopping to logistics and facilities) to be sure we understood personal and operational dynamics at play.
“The magic comes from both the people and this building…there’s something really residential about this place. And the people are like family. It’s like walking down the street of a neighbourhood where you know everybody.”
DIRECTOR
The history and the architecture of the Fifth Avenue building as a Vanderbilt home led us to take inspiration from luxury hospitality – where customers are “guests” and invited to feel taken care of, fostering trust and lifelong relationships.
For a brand where details are everything, we worked to get the concepts and tonality precisely right. We conducted workshops to better define Bergdorf Goodman’s distinctive experience and to identify barriers to making it happen as well as motivators that could spark it every day.
“I’ve never seen this energy and such enthusiastic collaboration between the back and front-of-house teams. Everyone was participating, laughing, and coming up with great ideas.”
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT
“This just feels so right– like the perfect language and articulation of what we’re already doing. I can’t wait to share this with my team.”
GROUP MANAGER
The result was a Customer Experience framework that would help the brand continue to set the standard in luxury amidst a fast-changing landscape.
We crystallised a new service foundation that captured what each Bergdorf experience must live up to. We then defined the Culture underpinnings that were needed to make that experience real: universal principles, department-specific behaviours and an implementation roadmap.
A comprehensive set of training materials including brand values, behaviours, and a signature moments map were compiled into a Customer Experience Guide that was rolled out to every single employee and built into new hire onboarding. To unveil this element internally, we developed a messaging strategy and film script for showcasing at GoodTalks, a Bergdorf Goodman company-wide meeting.
Over 1,000 employees (current and new) have participated in training sessions where the new Bergdorf Goodman Customer Experience guide has been deployed. And the organisation is already seeing immediate results with customers: since launch, the brand saw an increase of 30% in NPS scores in just six months. Employee retention is up and industry leading with tenure and experience a celebrated characteristic.
In building the ultimate employee resource in partnership with the visionary Bergdorf Goodman leadership, we helped them launch a philosophy to rally around; making day-to-day work easier, more inspiring, more motivating, and ultimately more rewarding for associates and customers alike.
“What I love about [the Customer Experience Guide] is that it both creates a sense of pride— because it captures the things we have been doing for years—but it also inspires us to be better, to learn and grow.”
SENIOR DIRECTOR
