Las Vegas SonyStyle Goes Above And Beyond

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I love SonyStyle, but I don’t go there too often to avoid temptations. It’s kinda cool running a site like this and visiting Sony’s retail store and seeing several products that you know Sony Insider announced first. I feel like the ultimate secret shopper. SonyStyle is a truly premium retail store and I’ve never had an unfavorable interaction there, but it seems like that good experiences consumers have had there aren’t really in the forefront. I recently found a blog post via Twitter that I’d love to share; a fellow named Michael Lewis and his wife were in Las Vegas for Valentines Day earlier this year and encountered a problem we’ve all probably encountered – a dead camera battery. What happens next is absolutely incredible, and probably ensures Sony has a customer for life:

“For Valentines Day my wife and I spent a long weekend in Vegas. Like anyone visiting Sin City we spent time gambling, going to some great restaurants and seeing spectacular shows. On Saturday morning we got up early and spent time walking from Casino to Casino. We ended up in Caesars Palace around dinnertime and as I went to take picture with my CyberShot I realized the battery was nearly dead. I forgot the charger back in the room and didn’t have a spare battery. We had dinner reservations and would have just enough time to make it to Cirque du Soleil for the show. We had no time to make it back to the room.

The good news is we were happy to find out there was a Sony Style store in the mall at Caesars. When we got to the store a representative greeted us and directed me to the batteries I needed for the camera. As I grabbed the battery the salesperson told me the bad news: the new battery would still need to be charged. Here is where service goes from good… to great. Instead of selling me a new battery, the salesperson took my current battery from the camera and charged it for me. The best part is, because it took about an hour to fully charge, she hand delivered it to us in the restaurant once it was ready to use. (Note: I did buy the extra battery to make sure this situation didn’t happen again)

How cool is that? Talk about going above and beyond for a customer. An important thing to note is the sales person had no idea I was loyal towards the Sony brand or that Sony is a client. All she new is I had a Cybershot and needed help with the battery. I’m not sure if this type of service is exclusive to the Sony Store in Las Vegas but it left a lasting impression for me.”

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27
Apr 2009
POSTED BY Christopher MacManus
POSTED IN

Corporate

DISCUSSION 14 Comments
  • Shanie

    Aw, shame they didn’t come into my Sony Style, I give that service all the time, I’ve charged peoples batteries up when they go to buy a new one, I’ve even fixed old Cyber-Shot’s saving them buying a new one…Only I don’t personally know if this good for Sony or not – it’s good customer service but I’m really loosing them potential income? lol

    But It’s good to hear this coming from lots of the stores. We get lots of mystery shoppers come in to test the knowledge in-store and see what the over-all passion and customer service is. Sony is trying to insure that the Sony Style and Sony Centres stores here (UK) have good customer service and product knowledge and even passion in the brand; shame that this isn’t of them are up to these standards, but they’re getting much better. After all, the reason you go into these official Sony retail stores is for just for good product knowledge and customer service, and that’s what we try and give. :)

  • Shanie

    Aw, shame they didn’t come into my Sony Style, I give that service all the time, I’ve charged peoples batteries up when they go to buy a new one, I’ve even fixed old Cyber-Shot’s saving them buying a new one…Only I don’t personally know if this good for Sony or not – it’s good customer service but I’m really loosing them potential income? lol

    But It’s good to hear this coming from lots of the stores. We get lots of mystery shoppers come in to test the knowledge in-store and see what the over-all passion and customer service is. Sony is trying to insure that the Sony Style and Sony Centres stores here (UK) have good customer service and product knowledge and even passion in the brand; shame that this isn’t of them are up to these standards, but they’re getting much better. After all, the reason you go into these official Sony retail stores is for just for good product knowledge and customer service, and that’s what we try and give. :)

  • Stan M

    Good points Shanie! I have yet to meet a passionate and devoted to the brand SonyStyle employee. I have interacted with a number of the sale associates a number of times and have not met many that truly care and proud for working at a Sony store. Like Chris mentioned in his post, I also enjoy this sorta Sony secret shopper experience. I am off to FL in a couple of days and will be visiting some SonyStyle stores there as well. Looking forward to my experiences….hehe…….

  • Stan M

    Good points Shanie! I have yet to meet a passionate and devoted to the brand SonyStyle employee. I have interacted with a number of the sale associates a number of times and have not met many that truly care and proud for working at a Sony store. Like Chris mentioned in his post, I also enjoy this sorta Sony secret shopper experience. I am off to FL in a couple of days and will be visiting some SonyStyle stores there as well. Looking forward to my experiences….hehe…….

  • http://www.sony.nl wilco

    greetings from the netherlands. i’m also a sony fan. visit always at my hollidays the sony stores at the big cities.
    problem last year in portugal lisboa was, i asked for info and no-one helped me. those old guys just talked about cookies to eat. so i left.
    (6 months later the store shut down his doors.)…makes sence.!
    also in the bog malls are sony stores, this time there was a nice friendly sales person. i asked about why prices are higher then other countries. he told me about the import taxes. also what i noticed was old products.
    pity for me was i couldn’t see any new gadgets, so didnt spend money either.

    last month i bought online a strda5400es+bdps5000es+scdxa5400es. owned last 8 years a 9000es series. so yes i am a sony fan. just hope any sony CEO reads and scratch his head.

    there is more to complain about forms and sony-online website but dont want to bother you anymore.

  • http://www.sony.nl wilco

    greetings from the netherlands. i’m also a sony fan. visit always at my hollidays the sony stores at the big cities.
    problem last year in portugal lisboa was, i asked for info and no-one helped me. those old guys just talked about cookies to eat. so i left.
    (6 months later the store shut down his doors.)…makes sence.!
    also in the bog malls are sony stores, this time there was a nice friendly sales person. i asked about why prices are higher then other countries. he told me about the import taxes. also what i noticed was old products.
    pity for me was i couldn’t see any new gadgets, so didnt spend money either.

    last month i bought online a strda5400es+bdps5000es+scdxa5400es. owned last 8 years a 9000es series. so yes i am a sony fan. just hope any sony CEO reads and scratch his head.

    there is more to complain about forms and sony-online website but dont want to bother you anymore.

  • Mike

    I had the displeasure of going in the Philadelphia Flagship Comcast/Sony Style store. The workers know very little about the products and seem to be standing around waiting for a paycheck to arrive. It’s like talking to Holiday help at Radio Shack. I give the Philadelphia store 4 months tops.

    I asked a question to the gentleman running the MP3 section about the SENSE-ME functions and he had to take a minute to read the back of the MP3 player packaging. WORST STORE EVER! I work across the street and have to walk by this travesty to get to the subway home. Everyone walks by now because the customer service is so bad at the Philly store.

  • Mike

    I had the displeasure of going in the Philadelphia Flagship Comcast/Sony Style store. The workers know very little about the products and seem to be standing around waiting for a paycheck to arrive. It’s like talking to Holiday help at Radio Shack. I give the Philadelphia store 4 months tops.

    I asked a question to the gentleman running the MP3 section about the SENSE-ME functions and he had to take a minute to read the back of the MP3 player packaging. WORST STORE EVER! I work across the street and have to walk by this travesty to get to the subway home. Everyone walks by now because the customer service is so bad at the Philly store.

  • Anna

    I wish I had a sonystyle store around where I live. Bummer @ mike’s experience though!

  • Anna

    I wish I had a sonystyle store around where I live. Bummer @ mike’s experience though!

  • http://www.sonycentres.co.uk impossiblevoices

    Hi!

    I work in a Sony Centre in the UK. We regularly offer this kind of service for people who come in to our store.
    Quite often, they are tourists who see the Sony sign outside and just come in on the off chance that we can help.

    Service is what it is all about – lets face it, people can buy batteries and Cybershots anywhere these days – but you
    wouldn’t get service like that in any of the large electrical retailers…

  • http://www.sonycentres.co.uk impossiblevoices

    Hi!

    I work in a Sony Centre in the UK. We regularly offer this kind of service for people who come in to our store.
    Quite often, they are tourists who see the Sony sign outside and just come in on the off chance that we can help.

    Service is what it is all about – lets face it, people can buy batteries and Cybershots anywhere these days – but you
    wouldn’t get service like that in any of the large electrical retailers…

  • Shanie

    Mike – You will often find that new stores will have people working in them who don’t really know much about the products, even if Sony put them trough training before-hand, it’s up to the person to have a bit of passion for the brand to listen and take it all in, otherwise they will go to the store seeing it as like another retail store not caring so much about customer service related to Sony and it’s products.
    Usually after time, when either they have found the right employees who are interested, or the people who where there from the start learn more about the products, the store will pick up. It seems to be hard to find the right people to do the job when new store opens, so they have to get anyone they can or the store won’t open on time.

    I’m sure that new Comcast Sony Style is great to look at the products though, seems that Sony have spent a lot of money on that store, I wouldn’t mind to visit it one day.

    impossiblevoices – Your exactly right, if you get to read this, just asking, what store do you currently work in? lol I work at Heathrow T5 Sony Style.

  • Shanie

    Mike – You will often find that new stores will have people working in them who don’t really know much about the products, even if Sony put them trough training before-hand, it’s up to the person to have a bit of passion for the brand to listen and take it all in, otherwise they will go to the store seeing it as like another retail store not caring so much about customer service related to Sony and it’s products.
    Usually after time, when either they have found the right employees who are interested, or the people who where there from the start learn more about the products, the store will pick up. It seems to be hard to find the right people to do the job when new store opens, so they have to get anyone they can or the store won’t open on time.

    I’m sure that new Comcast Sony Style is great to look at the products though, seems that Sony have spent a lot of money on that store, I wouldn’t mind to visit it one day.

    impossiblevoices – Your exactly right, if you get to read this, just asking, what store do you currently work in? lol I work at Heathrow T5 Sony Style.