15 NSRA.org
Now invites people buying a soft drink at a vending machine to send a drink to a friend – and Pepsi does it by sending the friend an email that says “Your friend is buying you a drink. Show this message when you go to a Pepsi dealer to get it.”
Harley Davidson
Harley Davidson saw a significant downturn in business because nobody really “needs” a $50000 motorcycle. Those who want one – white middle-aged males who can afford it – have them. So Harley began classes that teach women to ride bikes – and the classes are taught by women. New bike sizes were added to the line smaller and easily maneuverable by women. With the classes come apparel/fashion shows plus snacks.
McDonald’s Advice to Retailers
- If your customers are bilingual or speak English as a second language hire bi- or multi-lingual associates.
- Don’t rush or pressure women consumers. They value expansive choices seeing all options.
- Male consumers tend to prefer simplified choices and the magic number is three. Electronics stores have learned this so when they have specials they often have three price categories.
- Tout the company’s core values when marketing to Millennials. They want to select brands that are doing something to improve society.
- Demonstrate cultural sensitivity. With Asian consumers use both hands to present a business card – it signifies respect. When two customers come in together talk to both of them not just one.
- Hispanic consumers value a relationship not a business transaction. With them great service tends to trump any mistakes.
- African American consumers want to see people of color in your ads on your website and in your marketing materials. And diversity of skin tone is important. So is sticking to the topic at hand and avoiding trying to connect on a superficial level.
- Women of all ethnic backgrounds trust what other women say.
They conduct research online.
They ask for opinions and listen to them.
> Pay attention to trends. “Social” is everything – the desire for social connectivity.
“Use contemporary …ry” she urges. “Show your target market in your ads. Be fearless. Be the good guys who demonstrate and market social consciousness – efforts to ‘be green’ be involved with your community plant trees pick up trash.
Solicit testimonials from happy women customers and post them on your sites. Hold candid conversations with sales associates about what they hear from customers and prospects.
Identify at least two pilot fish and begin an ongoing dialogue with them – and remember that some pilot fish might be vendors. Make sure your social media platforms are up to date and active. Educate and help. Promote your community consciously and tell people what you support.” She adds “You can’t control the market the local economy or the costs of doing business. But control what you can.”
Kelly McDonald
Kelly McDonald is a marketing and advertising expert considered among the nation’s top in multicultural marketing and consumer trends. Her most recent book is Crafting the Customer Experience for People Not Like You available from Amazon Barnes & Noble and Books a Million. For more information go to www.mcdonaldmarketing.com
Enhance the Interaction Every Time
Ritchie Sayner
Have you ever gone to a rock concert only to leave feeling the band had simply run through its repertoire of top hits in an effort to get off stage as quickly as possible collect their fee and get out of town?
Anyone who has been to a Bruce Springsteen concert will concede that what you get is well more than your money’s worth. It’s not unusual for Springsteen to play shows that are four hours long. The E Street Band always gives 100% and the set list is always different. Bruce Springsteen is an example of
An Entertainer Who Clearly Exceeds Customer Expectations
In today’s rapidly changing retail landscape it is crucial that retailers do everything possible to enhance the consumer experience every time they have a customer interaction be it in a store or online. As we all know too well the biggest assortment and the lowest price for anything you want to buy is only a mouse click away. So it’s imperative for shoe retailers to um… put their best foot forward so to speak.
Attracting New Customers
Attracting new customers is critical to any retailer. However given that it is “six to seven times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep a current one” it is important that we nurture our existing customer relationships. It is also true that news of bad customer service reaches more than twice as many ears as praise for good service. In fact “it takes twelve positive experiences to make up for one unresolved negative one.”
Here’s proof. Recently my wife and I were at dinner with a married couple who are friends of ours. The wife had returned that very afternoon from shopping and couldn’t wait to unload in detail her futile attempt to return an item with tags.
Continued on page 16
Ritchie Sayner
Angel Martinez Says Relationships Are Key
Nancy Hultquist
Angel Martinez
Angel Martinez currently CEO and president of Deckers Outdoor Corporation has witnessed firsthand many changes in the footwear industry – which has conditioned him to believe that more change is on the way. His company has been pursuing an omnichannel strategy for half a decade and as he says “When you see the train coming at you you get out of the way.”
Martinez recalls starting in the footwear business at a time when Adidas was huge athletic footwear was beginning to be hot and nobody believed women would want athletic shoes – unless they were pink. Sneakers sold in outdoor stores among the guns and fishing rods.
Changing Business Dynamics
“It used to be in our business if you needed to generate cash you’d have a big sale” he says. “That’s no longer the case. The rules for consumers have changed. The lowest price is a click away – 30% off is a click away. My daughter bought a pair of boots last winter at 70% off. They were on sale for 30% off then she found a coupon then the person on the sales floor told her about a special deal. Nobody made any money.”
That he maintains has to change – and this change will come from retailers who understand that consumers want to have a relationship with their retailers. “Advertising the way we’ve always looked at it doesn’t work any more” Martinez says. “People don’t want to be advertised to. The current generation grew up absorbing advertising the way we absorbed ultraviolet rays – and they want something else: a relationship.”
Building Consumer Connections
Relationships with consumers he believes are no different than relationships among family members. “Consumers want first a connection” he says acknowledging that his company spent “millions of dollars” to research and understand how customers have changed. “How do you make a connection? It’s like a first date. The connection if it works leads naturally to a great experience. From that experience you start the relationship. Connection leads to experience leads to relationship.”
The Role of Social Media
Calling social media “the predominant way to communicate with the mass market” Martinez notes that he is on Facebook where his connections are “not really my friends but we have a connection.” Again harking back to his early days he recalls footwear employees then being “shoe experts or shoe designers. Our connections now are a tactic – and you can’t replicate them. Each one has to be real.”
Importance of Store Employees
That leads directly to the people in the store. The quality of employees according to Martinez and the culture in which they operate reflects on them and on the chance they have
Reflections of the Company
Selling something works both ways: employees are reflections of the company and the company is reflected in its employees. That gives stores an excellent opportunity to create an experience.
Creating Connections
“We have a physical environment in which we have people to make connections. The experience is always overlooked. From the lighting to the cleanliness to the displays you want an atmosphere that encourages people to ‘be there for a while.’ It’s hard to do especially if you have multiple locations. The music in one will be different than the music in another and it’s hard to know what will work in each one.”
Exceeding Customer Expectations: Yes You Can!
MAY-JUN 15
Angel Martinez
Editor’s Note: Shoe Retailing Today asked several national figures to discuss customer experience and how retailers can improve it. Following is advice from four experts. Additional suggestions will appear in the next issue.
Published in the May/June 2015 issue of Shoe Retailing Today Copyright © 2015 National Shoe Retailers Association Tucson AZ www.nsra.org. All rights reserved.
Customer Experience Gone Wrong
Receipt in hand and the item still in stock at full price. Since she was admittedly outside the store’s return policy our friend didn’t expect a refund but had hoped for a store credit. Instead she was told by the “assistant manager” that she was “stuck with it” (she assured us those were the exact words). Access to the store owner to appeal the decision was not possible; consequently our friend left the store mad and embarrassed vowing not only never to return but to post the experience on every social media outlet she could find.
Clearer heads finally prevailed and disaster was averted but this is the worst possible scenario. This store would have been much better off to grant the store credit which is what the…
Customer wanted in the first place. This was all over $58. Is it worth it to lose a customer and experience all of the potential negative press? Not that this was going to happen but just imagine how different our dinner conversation might have been if the store employee had graciously asked what she could do to make the customer happy? What if she even included an additional $5 on the store credit just for having to make the extra trip? Today retailing is all about exceeding the customer’s expectations.
Customer Service Stories
At the beginning of this year I asked a few of my clients if they had any stories they could share about good customer service. Here are just a few of the many responses that I received:
- A store owner received a call on Christmas Eve from a customer who was leaving on a ski trip the next morning but who had forgotten to pick up the skis he had purchased. The owner met him at the store found the skis and even went so far as to tell the customer that he could pay the existing balance when they returned from vacation.
- Another store owner hand-delivered presents to her customer on Christmas Eve because with the customer’s husband out of town until Christmas Day she was needed at home and couldn’t get to the store.
- An employee of another client called every husband in her social network making suggestions on hand-selected gift possibilities; she photographed items on her iPhone so the husbands could take a look then wrapped the selected gifts and personally delivered them.
- Another client in the Christmas tree business received 700 artificial trees after Thanksgiving (about a month too late according to my client and therefore not good). One of the owners personally delivered trees until 10:30 p.m. on a Saturday night in December because he had promised his customers they would get their trees as soon as they arrived.
One store owner told an interesting story involving an employee a
Certified Pedorthist
While on vacation delivered a special order to a diabetic customer who lived in a different state.
Exceptional Customer Service
One store actually refunded the purchase price of a pair of shoes that was never purchased at the store simply because the customer was so insistent that it was. Now that really goes above and beyond. Think of the goodwill created by this gesture – and the negative feelings averted had it been handled differently. The store had every right to decline this refund. Although the manager would have won the battle he would likely have lost the war.
Hiring the Right People
Another simple step that pays huge dividends is to make sure the people we hire are truly representative of the message we want our customers to receive. The people on the selling floor are the direct face of your business. Always look for people to hire who have friendly outgoing gregarious and warm personalities.
I walked into a nationally known home store the other day walked up to a salesperson who looked at me like I was interrupting didn’t smile and made the smallest effort possible to answer my question. I walked out empty-handed. Do you think I will return anytime soon? No they don’t value my business or me as a customer.
High Touch Service in a High Tech World
The good news here is that bricks-and-mortar retailing still allows us to provide high touch service in a high tech world. Use your next staff meeting to share examples of how your company has previously exceeded customer expectations and what more can be done in the future.
Ritchie Sayner is vice president of business development at RMSA Retail Solutions. To reach him email rsayner@rmsa.com. To follow him on Facebook go to www.facebook.com/RitchieSayner.
Sources:
– White House Office of Consumer Affairs
– “Understanding Customers” – Ruby Newell-Legner
Bolster the Experience with Ambient Scent
Roger Bensinger
Footwear retailers are paying more attention than ever to the look…
Feel of Their Stores
After all in this age of online competitors creating a best-in-class customer experience is a strategic imperative for brick-and-mortar operators. But the in-store experience is about more than colorful graphics or creative approaches to the footwear wall. Your customers have five senses. One of them – the sense of smell – is too often overlooked in retailing.
Scientific Insights
Yet for years now scientists exploring the effects of scent on human behavior have been reporting remarkable results.
Article Summary
The article explores various strategies and insights for enhancing customer experiences and adapting to changing consumer dynamics. It highlights innovative approaches by companies like Pepsi Harley Davidson and McDonald’s to engage customers and diversify their offerings. Additionally it emphasizes the importance of building genuine relationships with consumers leveraging multicultural marketing and creating memorable in-store experiences.
“Consumers want first a connection… Connection leads to experience leads to relationship.”
Real-World Examples of Innovative Marketing and Customer Engagement
Here are some real-world examples where companies have effectively applied innovative marketing strategies and customer engagement techniques to enhance their brand and customer relationships.
- Starbucks’ “Pay It Forward” Campaign: Starbucks encouraged customers to buy coffee for the person behind them in line creating a chain of goodwill and enhancing community spirit. This campaign leveraged social media to spread the initiative driving engagement and brand loyalty.
- Nike’s Women’s Training Club: To tap into the female market Nike launched the Women’s Training Club app offering workout routines and fitness advice tailored for women. This initiative helped Nike build a community around its brand and expand its market reach.
- Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke” Campaign: Coca-Cola replaced its iconic logo with popular names on bottles encouraging customers to share a Coke with friends and family. This personalization strategy increased customer interaction with the brand and boosted sales.
