245 Section 11.1 In-Store Customer Service • Personal shopper. Some high-end retailers offer personal shoppers. A personal shopper, or store consultant, helps select products for individual customers based on the customer’s preferences. The customer and the personal shopper meet to review the personal shopper’s choices and make a purchase selection. • Corporate gift services. Like a personal shopper, a corporate gift service connects a store consultant with a corporate representative to make gift selections. The store consultant helps the representative decide on gifts for clients, for retirements and promotions, and other corporate gift-giving occasions. Market research can help the retailer decide which customer services are appropriate for the store. Retailers collect primary data to see what their existing customers want. They also use data to learn what the competition is doing. Employees’ opinions can also be an important source of information. Credit Credit is often considered to be a customer service strategy. Credit is an agreement or contract to receive goods or services before actually paying for them. Consumer credit is credit given to individual consumers by a retail business. One form of consumer credit issued by businesses is a proprietary credit card. A proprietary credit card is a credit card that may only be used at the stores that issued them. Examples are Macy’s and Dillard’s department store credit cards. In-store alterations is an example of a special service offered by some higher-priced retailers. bikeriderlondon/Shutterstock.com