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 USING 2D BAR CODES |
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 UNEXPECTED PARTNERSHIPS: ENHANCING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE AT RETAIL. |
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On my way to work a few days ago I stopped to fill up with gas at a convenience store near the bottom of my “Steve-approved” gas station list. As I pulled up next to a pump a young, uniformed man walked up to the front of my truck with a squeegee in hand and says, “We’re having a customer appreciation day and offering a free windshield cleaning and inspection. Is it OK to clean your windshield?” Puzzled about his inquiry I quickly scanned the surroundings for signs of his legitimacy. At the front of the store were two other uniformed workers at a table by the store’s entrance.
“Go ahead,” I responded. The young man cleaned my windshield and proceeded around my truck to where I was pumping gas. “I noticed three small cracks in your windshield, “ he said. “I can go ahead and fix those for you now if you like. Is this covered on your insurance?” After a moment’s hesitation I responded, “Yes, go ahead.”
The guy walked over to the table, grabbed his glass repair kit and returned with a woman from his team. He began working on my windshield as she asked me questions about the vehicle and my insurance. Within a few minutes she’s on the phone with my insurance provider, getting approval and having me speak with my insurance rep, and the deal is done. The guy fixing my windshield completed his tasks and went over a few details with me. I signed the paperwork, put the gas nozzle back, shut the fuel door, climbed in and drove away.
In just a few minutes more than it would have taken to just fill my tank I got a service completed that I had been putting off for too long. With the addition of one simple yet unexpected service, this convenience store moved from the bottom of my “Steve-approved” list to near the top.
Now this story may seem a long way from specialty retail, but the lesson is good. The convenience store had partnered with a glass company to provide a useful and complementary service. What kinds of services could you be offering your customers in a specialty retail environment that will make them feel like you care about their shopping experience or have respect for their patronage? |
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by Steve Ward, August 10, 2010 at 11:25 AM | Add a Comment | Read Comments (2) |
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 THE NAME'S BOND. JAMES BOND. |
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I love spy movies. There is just something about the thrill of watching a story about a secret agent that never grows old. The excitement of the chase, the intrigue, the constant misdirection just gets my heart pumping. But there is another type of “agent” we at Callahan Creek love to watch: the shopper agent. Both of these agents operate within their own unique systems, and I’m going to briefly describe how understanding these systems directly impacts the viewer’s expected outcome.
Generally we think of the spies in movies as outsiders, separate from society and independent of the rules and social norms most of us follow. Not a part of our “system.” If you look closely though, all these agents do live within a unique system, an environment bound by a common set of rules and expectations. The agent navigates this environ using these rules and expectations, at times cooperating with other elements and at times competing with them. In a movie, the viewer is only shown one view, usually closely associated with a central character. The element of surprise is preserved by not revealing critical knowledge or relationships, allowing the storyteller to deliver a big reveal at the end. If you actually knew of all of the interactions that were taking place, you’d probably find the story to be rather predictable and boring. In this case, not understanding the system results in the greatest payoff for the viewer.
This same line of thinking applies to the “agent” in the world of shopping, the shopper. This agent, using the anthropological term, is any entity within a shopping ecosystem who is capable of action and interaction. My good friend and noted anthropologist, Gavin Johnson, describes it in this way: “The shopper, the retail environment, even a guy standing on the corner are all a part of that system. They are constantly acting and reacting to what the other agents are doing...The overall behavior of the system is the result of a huge number of decisions made every moment by many individual agents as they respond to each other and the underlying contexts to which they are reacting - even as they are creating them.” In this world, understanding leads to the greatest payoff for the “viewer” (an analyst or strategist) - precisely the opposite of the situation above.
Uncovering and codifying these shopper systems is difficult. You can’t understand complex or subtle interactions by conducting a survey, reading a report or holding focus groups (although these tools can be helpful clarifiers). The only way to truly uncover and understand the nature of these relationships is good old-fashioned fieldwork. You have to be there to see the subtle nuances people don’t think or know to describe. In an upcoming entry, I’ll describe some of the field tools you can use to assess these systems and the importance of the analyses you undertake.
In a spy movie, I love the suspense because of the “Aha!” at the end. When studying shopper marketing, though, I’m looking for the opposite. I want to reduce the uncertainty, and I achieve that by understanding different elements of a shopping system and how the different agents interact. When the project ends, the adrenaline rush doesn’t come from an unexpected ending, but rather from having exceeded our goals. I’ll take that ending any day.
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by Kent Stones, August 5, 2010 at 2:51 PM | Add a Comment |
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 YOU HAD ME, THEN YOU LOST ME |
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These days, it seems like most brands/retailers, big and small, are participating in social media or at least thinking about it. If you choose to participate, you must make a total commitment. When you are a specialty brand, you can never forget that your customers are likely to be engaged and passionate. They care about their interaction with you and pay attention to the little things. This can work for you, but can also work against you.
A local Italian restaurant that I just LOVE hosts a “Girls’ Night Out” once a month. I’ve always wanted to go, but have never been able to because they always fall on Wednesdays, the same night I play in a volleyball league. I decided to see if I could do something about that and wrote on the restaurant’s Facebook page, asking if they ever planned to have the event on a different night of the week. They responded and said they’d try to move the following month’s Girls’ Night to an alternate night.
Yay! Not only was I excited that I might actually be able to go to Girls’ Night, but I was also excited that the restaurant listened to me and was going to try to meet my needs.
Or so I thought.
I eagerly awaited the announcement for the following month. When it finally came out, my excitement quickly died. Yes, the event was scheduled for a Monday this time, but instead of Girls’ Night, it was GUYS’ Night!
I must say, I was not only disappointed, but also a little peeved. It felt like they changed the night for me, but then uninvited me by making it Guys’ Night. Frankly, I would rather have been ignored from the start. That way, I wouldn’t have taken it so personally.
They had me, then they lost me.
For better or worse, social media is a way to make a personal connection with your customers. A simple “thank you” to someone who professes their love of your brand/store on your Facebook wall can go a long way. But the slightest misstep on your part can work just as equally against you. What simple, little things could this restaurant have done to prevent me from being disappointed and instead be an advocate? Here are a few ideas:
- Send me a quick message, letting me know they weren’t able to accommodate my request but I was welcome to participate in Guys’ Night.
- Do more than just announce the change of night – make it a story. Start a conversation about why the night is changing and use it as an opportunity to show that you are listening to your customers.
How do you think this restaurant should have handled this situation? What would your business have done?
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by Connie Williams, August 3, 2010 at 4:58 PM | Add a Comment |
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 SETTING APPROPRIATE EXPECTATIONS IS GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE |
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Making the online shopping experience enjoyable and satisfying is critical to a retailer’s success. Sometimes it only takes one small change to move from providing a frustrating experience to a great one.
I am the mother of a three-year-old boy and from the day he was born (which was also the day we found out he was, indeed, a boy) I have been searching for cute and affordable clothes for him. I tend to have champagne taste and a Coors Light budget, so I often seek out sales racks at my local children’s boutique and online closeouts. I was elated when I discovered that websites like kidSteals.com exist. The premise is the same as woot.com, but the focus is solely on clothing and accessories for young children. There is a daily ‘steal’ up for grabs at a greatly reduced price. I receive an email mid-morning every day and have to hurry to get the daily steal before it’s out of stock. What an awesome idea! Except…. KidSteals offers little girl items the majority of the time. At first I thought it was just my imagination that there were more girl’s items than boy’s items, but then I started to keep track, and lo and behold just in the last month, there were 5 more days of girl-exclusive items. In addition, when both girl’s and boy’s items are offered in one day, there are far more choices of styles and sizes for girls than boys.
Now, most parents that I’ve discussed this with agree that there are simply cuter clothes and more options out there for girls. I understand that, and I’m sure the good people at KidSteals.com don’t do this on purpose – they simply receive more girl’s merchandise than boy’s merchandise. It still bothers me, though, and I think to myself that they should rename themselves something like “MostlyGirlSteals.com.” It’s not that it takes me a lot of time to visit the site each day, it’s that I feel a letdown when the item isn’t even in my shopping category. The company could resolve my frustration very simply. They could break it up into BoySteals and GirlSteals. Even if I was only emailed half as often, I would be much happier with them. Is your specialty retail business missing a key component to good customer service? Are you (unknowingly) doing something to cause dissatisfaction with your brand? Or, do you know of a brand that could make a few small changes and greatly increase the customer experience?
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by Julie Martell, August 3, 2010 at 2:33 PM | Add a Comment |
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