Ain't it rich? The new competitive differentiation for luxe retailers will be about behaviors and solutions that are customer--not product--centric.(Customer Centricity)

THERE'S A GROWING DISTASTE among shoppers at luxury brand stores. Some recent press reports cite customers' complaints about inattentive staff ignoring their needs and about indifferent treatment. Even well-known customers have suffered indignities at some high-end shops: Two years ago Oprah Winfrey arrived at Hermes's Paris store--which, granted, had closed 15 minutes earlier for a private event--wanting to make a quick purchase, she had explained, only to be turned away first by a clerk and then by a store manager. Leave it to others to hash out how racist the incident was (although you can't name a more customer-unfriendly behavior than hatred, can you?). The point is, the problem of …