Experience It!!

It has been a long time.  I have been working with a start up company and really enjoying working with the great people at this firm.  BUT.  Time to get back to the blog.  There has  been a lot written about Apple and the experience they provide for their customers.  The launch of the new I Phone proved again they are the leaders in tech but it is amazing how their stores are doing.  If you don’t believe me, check out their sales per square foot numbers.  Over $6,000 per square.  Try getting that in your box.  Why is the question?  We always try to model best practices or at least that is a minimum we should do as leaders of our companies.  Innovation and creating for the future is also critical.  Check out the HBR blog on the three boxes for a CEO.  What we need to focus on now is what the experience the customer has when they are in our location.  Questions, questions.  How is the curb appeal?  What do they see when they first walk in?  Are they greeted?  What is the appearance of the sales assistant?  Does the assistant have the product knowledge they need?  Do they up-sell without being obnoxious?  Does your team have the value added or servant leadership mission statement ingrained in their heads?  And most of all, is it a happy store?  I spend so much time harping on this I need to write a whole blog about it.  Happy stores create happy employees and happy customers.  If your store doesn’t meet these criteria you have some work to do.  Once we get past the basics then we can tune the customers’ experience.  What are customers looking for now.  If we look at Apple, they have hands on experience with items that make life “cooler”.  Many of the items are not exclusive but customers prefer Apple’s solution.  Why?  Because it is cooler.  But why is it cooler?  Because for the most part it looks cooler and the people that use them or explain them are “cool people”.   People feel cool when they leave and the emotion continues when they use the product.  The emotion is anchored to the product.  The only problem Apple has is that is not a consumable product.  That is why they have to keep coming out with new products and new applications to keep revenues growing.  Back to your store.  How can you improve customer experience and increase sales and profits?  One of my suggestions is to open up your store.  Many retailers believe in the pile it high and watch it fly merchandising philosophy.  If you are in bulk business or close outs that may work fine but in standard retail or the new retail, it is a killer.  No one wants to walk into a location and feel suffocated.  It amazes me how many retailers crowd their counter with crap.  Many counters have so much stuff on them that you can’t even see the cashier.  Clear it out!  Next, consider having someone on the floor that greets and assists customers.  Your customers will freak out at first because they are not used to being taken care of.  We have become so used to a self serve economy that human contact scares us.  That does not mean we still do not need it, even crave it.  Remember Alvin Toffler and Third Wave and Future Shock?  His words still ring true and we actually see it happening now.  People may embrace technology and the isolation it creates but still seek and need the “soft touch” in their lives.  As our stores become more complex with food service and other services that we provide, many customers are intimidated.  Do you have a coffee program that offers 10 different core coffees and 100 condiments?  Nice.  How much is used?  At NACS Coca Cola was demonstrating their 125 fountain.  125 options?  A little overkill in my opinion.  I did a survey after I tried it and I told Coke that I was not impressed.  I felt that such a machine would create a bottleneck at the fountain and I would not be able to serve customers.  Only one customer at a time?  Big problems.  Look at ATM or Redbox to see the lines they create.  We are in the convenience business and customers do not find lines convenient.  Look at fast food drive through.  How many businesses are going to remote kiosk or offering I Pads to customers so they can process their orders more efficiently?  All are our attempts to provide the customer more options but nothing is more helpful than a well trained employee.  I watched a webinar recently and it reminded me that the primary responsibility of a employee in a retail setting is to SELL.  Technology can help with passive options for the customer but we need to embrace the best of both.  Have a well trained employee that has technology to process the order quickly.  I believe that is where we need to go and with clean, open stores that are happy stores, we will go far.  Take care and be well.