High-Income Shoppers Talk Openly About Luxury Salespeople; Relationships With Wealthy Customers Blossom When Staff Shows Knowledge, Professionalism and Courtesy

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Oct 17, 2012) - Wealthy shoppers with minimum annual income of $150,000 rank attributes they find important among people selling them high-end goods and services in the new Experiences With Luxury Salespeople WealthSurvey from the independent and objective New York-based Luxury Institute. 

The most important attribute is knowledge, cited by 72% of respondents. Being professional (68%), and polite and courteous (65%), are also of high importance, followed by being honest (57%), helpful (56%), trustworthy (52%) and experienced (52%).

Relationships with individual salespersons are common, with 40% of shoppers reporting a primary point of contact for at least one luxury provider. Relationships are most prevalent in personal finance (11%) and jewelry (10%). Perhaps surprisingly, individual relationships are just as common in fashion (8%), as they are in autos, travel and beauty.

Respondents provided ratings of specific brands in ten categories with exceptional levels of sales service. Some of the standout performers are Lexus, Mercedes and BMW in automobiles, Marriott, Hilton and Ritz-Carlton in hospitality, Coach in handbags, Nordstrom in fashion apparel and Rolex in watches. Categories in which the highest proportions of wealthy customers cite exceptional service are jewelry and watches (31%), leisure travel (24%), and fashion apparel (24%). 

"A strong Customer Culture has a halo effect on companies," says Luxury Institute CEO Milton Pedraza. "More than 75% of high-end shoppers recommend brands to family and friends based on outstanding experiences that they've had with a salesperson."

Respondents reported average income of $310,000 and average net worth of $3.6 million.

About the Luxury Institute (www.LuxuryInstitute.com)
The Luxury Institute is the objective and independent global voice of the high net-worth consumer. The Institute conducts extensive and actionable research with wealthy consumers about their behaviors and attitudes on customer experience best practices. In addition, we work closely with top-tier luxury brands to successfully transform their organizational cultures into more profitable customer-centric enterprises. Our Luxury CRM Culture consulting process leverages our fact-based research and enables luxury brands to dramatically Outbehave as well as Outperform their competition. The Luxury Institute also operates LuxuryBoard.com, a membership-based online research portal, and the Luxury CRM Association, a membership organization dedicated to building customer-centric luxury enterprises.