The rise of internet commerce is matched by the amount of predictions about the physical economy. Would-be oracles display rhetoric verging on the science fiction of Orwell or Phillip K Dick when they assert that the retail economy will eventually become a way of the past. As examples they point to mp3s taking over CDs, Hulu taking over movie rental, the Amazon Kindle – instances that seem mark the death knoll of mom & pop industries. On the flip side, people are just as vocal in defending the analog. They will cite the virtues of the “offline” world: the smell & feel of actual books, attention to detail in small-scale production, the pressing of the flesh in a retail transaction.
Rather than take sides or make bold predictions, I’d like to mention what needs to happen for physical goods & services to remain healthy. Retailers must focus on customer experience.
Online has stepped its game up. To make its customers comfortable, stores have made ordering as painless as possible: they offer free returns & shipping, customer feedback, fast checkouts, stored logins. Above and beyond these expected features, companies set themselves apart through their dedication to personalized service. People shopping at these sites feel like their patronage is taken seriously by actual humans and not by automated timedown scripts and stockroom robots — Gilt I’m looking at you! Zappos has gotten attention for their buzzing company culture, which emerges in pleasant service calls as well as the fun copywriting on their website.
Personal touches are everywhere in the online retail sector. Sound equipment retailer sweetwater.com assigned me a Professional Sales Engineer just to ensure my 20-dollar purchase of headphone pads went smoothly. In another example, last week I complained to endless.com when a pair of shoes didn’t arrive when expected.
[excerpt from my email]
Why did you request a return to sender? Why Endless? Why Amazon? Why FedEx? My feet were looking forward to being swathed in luxurous leather loafers today… I’m very sad & disappointed[excerpt from their response]
We pride ourselves in convenience and efficiency at Endless.com, but I can see we didn’t meet that standard here. I hope you’ll give us another chance to make this right, and that we can prove the quality of our service with your next order.To help make up for this, I’d like to give you a $30.00 promotional certificate for use toward your next endless.com order.
Notice the emotional tone of my complaint and their similarly worded email; their reaction was appropriate and was written in a heartfelt tone. I appreciate that online retailers are trying to be more personable, and that they realize that these small interactions are important for the success of a company. Corporations evaluate their success based on a figure called the net promoter score based on the answer to the question “would you recommend our service or product to a friend or colleague?” By using a service tactic, they turned a potential negative NPS score to a positive one.
Brick and Mortar retailers must raise their bar to compete with the online world’s service orientation. They must go back to their roots & make the customer experience the most significant aspect of a sale. The salesperson serves the pivotal role. Hospitality, knowledge and courtesy ensure the customer leaves satisfied and with a smile on their face. When executed smoothly, these people leave a memorable good impression of the company and the clothing as a whole.
Retail stores are rising to the challenge. In my recent trips to the Gap & Banana Republic (both owned by Gap corp) downtown, I have been greeted at the dressing room by an attendant who asked my name, offered theirs and made suggestions on items in my selection.
Both times part of our conversation involved going online to shop a larger selection on their web catalog (for a missing style or fit), an interesting addition to the retail experience. The fact that I received a similar customer experience in both stores clued me to the fact that a service orientation is becoming a top-down mandate from the execs at the organization. They realize that positive and memorable attitudes of sales clerks are market differentiators.
Domain expertise is another important factor to the survival Brick and Mortar shops. Product recommendations from an online sales team or from fellow consumers cannot match the wisdom or passion of an expert craftsmen.
I recently purchased a new pair of spectacles in a boutique optics store in San Francisco. They provided me the expertise & honest attention that I needed to make a significant purchase. Each time I’ve been there looking for frames, I was treated with respect and individualized attention. I was never rushed to make a purchase & were completely patient with me although I had been in there three times (last Thursday was my third and final visit, before I finally decided to buy a pair). They explained subtle differences between frames, drawing from a wisdom only gained by years of experience to help me make a purchasing decision. Call it flattery, but they showed me how the frames I chose complemented my facial shape and features. I wouldn’t be able to get this in Walmart, Target or big chain optics.
Admittedly, I’m as big an online shopper as most. In fact, sometimes I prefer shopping online. It’s pressure free and you can poll “peers” about the item. But as long as I get a novel & refreshing customer service experience, I’ll continue to return to B&M stores to balance out my online shopping.