Ace is the Place for Excellent Customer Service
"Ace is the place with the helpful hardware folks."
The Ace Hardware jingle is no joke. In fact, the company — the largest hardware cooperative in the U.S. with 4,600 locations and $13 billion in annual sales — is consistently praised for its great customer service. For example, it was cited as a customer service role model in Shep Hyken’s best-selling book, "Amaze Every Customer Every Time."
Ace Hardware was also named one of the top 10 customer service brands in the U.S. by Businessweek three years in a row, ranked the highest in customer service in its industry by JD Power for the last eight consecutive years, and just last month was named the nation’s favorite home improvement chain in a study conducted by Market Force.
Knowing all this, wouldn't it be great if you could get customer service lessons from Ace Hardware? Well, we thought so, which is why we booked John Surane, the executive vice president of merchandising, marketing and sales for Ace Hardware, to share the secrets to the retailer's customer service success with attendees to the Retail Marketing Virtual Conference & Expo (RMV) taking place on May 12.
This kind of information is paramount to survival in today's retail climate. As we know all to well, nothing is more memorable than good customer service – except, perhaps, poor customer service. In today’s competitive times, good customer service could be the key factor that turns a one-time customer into an all-the-time customer.
During his keynote session for RMV, Surane will offer best practices around how to motivate and empower your staff to make customers feel every bit as important as they are. He will also discuss the following:
- Ace Hardware’s customer service philosophy;
- how to develop an action plan to operationalize and improve customer service for your company;
- how to build a company culture around a customer-first mind-set;
- how to teach employees to amaze customers through stellar service;
- how to inspire employees at all levels to lead and realize the impact they have on the business;
- and so much more!
Register for RMV today to learn these vital customer service secrets. And while you're there, check out the other RMV sessions that will be focusing on hot-button retail topics such as mobile, international expansion, the rebirth of print catalogs and much more! I hope to see you there!
