Today’s post features an article from Forbes.com. Written by Knowlege@Wharton, the article discusses the elements of a great shopping experience.  The article focuses on Paula Courteny, CEO of the The Verde Group, a retail research and consulting firm in Toronto!

That WOW factor that delights and surprises the customer—both in booming and challenging times—will always keep that customer coming back. Better yet, YOU have the opportunity to encourage your customers to share their experiences with the world. How are you going provide a WOW experience for your customers?

Best Nicole

Paula Courtney found “wow” when she took her daughter to the employee washroom at her local grocery store. A sign by the door instructed workers to remain physically by the side of any customer experiencing a problem until that problem was resolved. Later, when Courtney was in the checkout line, the cashier noticed Courtney’s blueberries were squishy. The cashier insisted on walking back to the produce section to find a fresh box.

For Courtney, chief executive of The Verde Group, a Toronto retail research and consulting firm, that was a “wow” shopping experience.

New Wharton research finds that 35% of shoppers have had an extraordinary retail experience in the past six months. But in order to hit that mark, retailers must deliver on as many as 10 different elements of the shopping experience simultaneously. Retailers are rewarded when shoppers tell others about their experience. “Peoples’ expectations are pretty high. It’s easy to [fall short of those expectations], and hard to eclipse [bad experiences, even] with something that’s over-the-top,” says Wharton marketing professor Stephen Hoch. “Bitching and moaning is more common than praise.”

Wharton’s Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative teamed with Verde and the Retail Council of Canada to discover how retailers can create an extraordinary experience for shoppers. In an online survey, 1,006 shoppers in the United States and Canada were asked: “Can you think of a shopping experience that you had in the past six months or so that was especially great, in that the experience created delight and surprise for you in any way?”

A report based on the research, titled “Discovering ‘WOW’–A Study of Great Retail Shopping Experiences in North America,”points to five major areas that contribute to a great shopping experience:

–Engagement: being polite, genuinely caring and interested in helping, acknowledging and listening.

–Executional excellence: patiently explaining and advising, checking stock, helping to find products, having product knowledge and providing unexpected product quality.

–Brand Experience: exciting store design and atmosphere, consistently great product quality, making customers feel they’re special and that they always get a deal.

–Expediting: being sensitive to customers’ time on long check-out lines, being proactive in helping speed the shopping process.

–Problem Recovery: helping resolve and compensate for problems, upgrading quality and ensuring complete satisfaction.

In all, respondents mentioned 28 elements of a great experience, such as salespeople who “immediately acknowledged you” or “could easily explain a product to you” or “seemed genuine.”

Pulling It All Together
Courtney says the typical wow experience has 10 of those elements at the same time. Further complicating the mission for retailers is the fact that the most important elements vary among individuals. “It’s like a perfect storm,” she says.

Retailers can focus on creating a “bedrock,” or platform, based on the five major pillars of retail satisfaction to increase the probability of creating a wow experience. According to the research, four in five shoppers will tell an average of three other people about a wow experience.

Brand experience and engagement are the strongest drivers of loyalty, according to the survey. The top response was related to engagement, with 63% of those reporting that during their great shopping experience, store employees were “very polite and courteous.” Salespeople who were knowledgeable about the product in the store got the second-highest response at 55%. As for execution, about half of those experiencing a wow shopping trip stressed store employees’ familiarity with products, their advice and the level of interest in the customers’ needs as essential to a great shopping experience. Slightly fewer–two in five–pointed to surprisingly great product quality and store representatives who go out of their way to check stock as crucial elements of exceptional shopping.

Brand experience includes store design and atmosphere, consistently great product quality, making customers feel they’re special and the sense that customers always get a deal. Hoch says this element is somewhat “fuzzy” because chain stores, which account for the majority of shopper visits, often provide trendy merchandise and stylish store environments, but also run the risk of projecting sameness. Earlier research by the Baker Center and Verde found that shoppers reported “mall malaise”–boredom with the similarity of specialty chain stores. “Most chains are cookie-cutter,” says Hoch. “Even if the stores themselves are different from each other, the same store is in every mall. It’s probably a lot easier for a small merchant to provide this brand experience. Unfortunately, if people see the same look over and over again, they find it mundane.”

Speeding the shopping process is another important trait of a great retailer, according to the survey. Three of four aspects of the expediting pillar–helping customers complete their shopping quickly, and being sensitive to time and check-out lines–are rated as “very important” by half of those who encountered each during the shopping experience they cited as “great.” Hoch says many people, especially women, no longer approach shopping as a pleasant task. “Shopping used to be a happy, social event–and it can still be–but more often now it’s part of a larger trip, and you are trying to get a lot accomplished in a certain period of time.”

The ability of a retailer to resolve a problem once it crops up is another key factor in determining whether a shopper will have a great experience. One in four respondents mention that a store representative stayed with them until their problem was resolved. Fewer than one in 10 said they were compensated for a store error, or that a store representative broke company policy to resolve a problem or automatically offered a product upgrade.

Courtney stresses it is important for retailers to have a clear, simple problem resolution process. “The biggest issue is problem ownership,” she says. “If all you can do is train everybody on one thing related to problem-solving it would be getting people to own the problem and not pass it off.” Hoch says that while problem resolution was not as great a factor as some of the other five elements, one common thread emerged from the research: “A person stepped up to the plate and figured out how to solve the problem.” Having that experience changed the consumer’s state of mind from helplessness to, “‘Boy, somebody came up and helped me.’ We all like a hero, but it doesn’t happen very often,” Hoch notes.

The research also indicates that the components of a great retail experience vary somewhat by the age, gender and nationality of shoppers. Younger consumers, aged 18 to 30, were most likely to recall having a great shopping experience. Those over age 50 were more likely to mention store representatives who seemed genuine and caring. They also liked being acknowledged and treated courteously. Hoch notes that younger shoppers’ retail experiences are colored by greater comfort with multitasking and familiarity with the Internet, making them more transaction-oriented than relationship-oriented and less tied to brick-and-mortar stores.

Canadian shoppers cite “getting a deal” as a more important part of the brand experience than do shoppers in the U.S. The Canadians also put more emphasis on an exciting store atmosphere or design. Courtney argues that understanding differences across national lines is critical for global retailers. “It shows the need to recognize the customer who shops in your retail footprint. Creating a ‘one-size fits all’ doesn’t work,” she says. “There are some significant differences between Canadians and Americans. More important, there are age and gender differences that are relevant to every customer you serve and are easy to identify.”

The best way to lay the foundation for customers to have great retail experiences is for store owners to hire and train staff who are able to take basic information about shopper preferences and convert that knowledge to customized service. “If you are a mass merchandiser with no training program, the likelihood of creating wow is slim to none,” says Courtney. “Hiring policy is core to a business that creates ‘wow.’”

In the current recessionary climate, price is important to consumers, but only one factor in the overall wow shopping experience. The researchers found that of those experiencing a wow shopping trip, 43% said having consistently excellent products was a factor in their recent great retail experiences. That was the top response in regard to brand experience, followed by “getting a deal,” which was cited by 31% of respondents. “We have created a value-based consumer,” says Courtney.

While the Great Depression led to an era of penny pinching, today’s economic crisis is leading consumers to focus more on value than price, she adds. “With credit cards and retail and telecom, we are seeing value-based buying. … People are being more scrupulous about where they buy and what they buy. More educated consumers are looking for a better value in everything.”

Still, even in a challenging economic environment, she says, retailers are able to deliver a wow experience if they plan to provide the basic elements of a great shopping experience. “Despite shortages of resources and store closings, it is still possible to delight and surprise,” she contends. “The possibility exists when retailers have everything in place.”

Canadian Garden Center and Nursey write about some great tips in a new book called “Cracking the Code of What Women Want and How they Buy”, written by Mary Lou Quinlan and published by John Wiley and Sons [ISBN 0-471-36920-9]. What makes this information valuable is that it looks at today’s consumer from a women’s perspective. Men still dominate the business world from a decision making perspective as well as product offering and brand direction in many cases. The facts are clear that we are different genders and understanding each other benefits us all. Having a woman clearly outline what her needs are from a sales perspective, can be helpful to all of us.

Thanks Pam Dangelmaier for forwarding this to our attention. Botanus is 2 for 2!

This is definitely a book worth looking into.

Best Nicole

Written by John Stanley

I can’t stress enough the value that is waiting  for all of you who are hesitant to dive in. Connecting and engaging with your customer is only going to enhance your relationship—which in turn will turn into increased sales, repeat sales and additional sales to your customer’s friends. Are you  ready to gain the sales you have lost and build upon that to get more sales in this new economy? Let us know. We want to hear from you.

Best Nicole

In a post at the Viral Garden blog, Mack Collier discusses why so many companies struggle to launch and maintain active online communities. To find success, you’ll need more than a message board and good intentions, he says. Here’s some of his advice:

• Communities grow and thrive when you offer members something of value. “[They] do not form around the idea of being monetized,” he says. “Want to make money off your community? Fine, but you can’t monetize something that doesn’t exist.”
• They don’t materialize out of thin air. “One of the biggest myths about online community building is ‘if you build it, they will come,’” says Collier. He suggests reaching out to your target audience and explaining why they’ll benefit from participation.
• They benefit from the enthusiastic support of key participants. Some members will take a natural lead—identify these evangelists and show your appreciation. “Empower them to promote your community to others,” he says. “Showcase their contributions. And above all else, say thank you.”

The Po!nt: Don’t take anything for granted, and have a clear purpose. “[B]efore you start your online community-building effort,” advises Collier, “think about where you are, and where you want to be. Is the goal to make money, or is the goal to create a group of happy people?”

Source: Viral Garden. Click here for the full post.

How will you find ways to create that neighbourhood feel—that person to person connection with your customers? That “I’m more than just a number” feeling that has been lost over the years as businesses have grown distant thanks to their focus on reaching the masses while ignoring the individual.

Best Nicole

A Recent History of Communication

Several hundred years ago, newspapers were born from broadsides and pamphlets, where information was aggregated and distributed, most specifically to a regional area. Stories were often personal, where many people knew the protagonists and antagonists of every piece. The learned people of a region stayed informed by paying attention to the distribution of various printed materials (as well as through private letters delivered through the postal system).

A hundred or so years ago, the telephone came into play. People used them to communicate. They were expensive at first, but then people figured out ways to cut costs, including the initiation of the party line (where people would all use the same service, but would use different ring types to indicate which house was receiving a call). Phones were very social.

Radio came, and it had a more broad reach. We learned about areas beyond us. Newspapers grew up. Television came. Nationalized content came. Syndication. International.

There’s obviously some good that comes from learning more about the world. I wouldn’t want to go back for anything. Having friends all over the world is really the best thing that ever happened to me. And yet, something happened with business communications.

Missing That Neighborhood Feel

With the ability to reach the masses came the disconnect between businesses needing to reach potential customers and any chance of personalization and localization. It’s hard to do both: reach millions of people and yet seem personal. Is that necessary?

We all want to feel important and unique. We want people to address us personally, to remember us. At least sometimes. I understand that we don’t need a relationship with our gas station (especially since they rarely have mechanics on staff any longer). I realize that we really don’t care to know our telephone company (until we have a problem).

Or do we? Do we like being treated personally? Is it too much to ask? Do we want these kinds of interactions? Which products or services do we want to be personal versus not?

Do we want that neighborhood feel back?

Well into his first full week as President of the United States, Barack Obama—with the backing of the US Congress—is signing into legislation equal pay for equal work! Woot as many say on twitter when someone loves something.

Change has finally arrived! Steve Hildebrand’s latest article discusses this new great moment in American history. What make’s the article I am going to share so wonderful is that it points out how this legislation is particularly important to women as well as minorities. In his article (posted fittingly enough in none other than the women owned news blog Huffington Post), Steve says:

“It’s a new day in Washington. After years of Congressional Republicans holding up the equal pay provision, Democrats in the House and Senate swiftly passed the bill. Tomorrow, the first bill that our new president will sign into law will be equal pay for equal work. How proud President Obama must be.

More importantly, what a great moment this will be for the millions of women and minorities in our country who have worked just as hard as their counterparts, but paid substantially less because of their gender or color of skin. This critical moment should be celebrated in every community and in work places across our great country.”

As we watch the current economy go through vast changes and as businesses assess how they are going to navigate the economic challenges, it is clear that all corporations must address how they are speaking to, engaging, and connecting with women consumers all across the spectrum and in various environments—including in the work place. Here are some great stats about women and business:

• • Women in the US spend more than 3.3 billion annually. (purchasing power)
• • Women business owners employ 35% more people than all the fortune 500 companies combined.
• • 95% of family financial decisions are made by women.
• • Women in business will invest in 44.5 billion in high tech products this year.

This is a target market that not only needs to be addressed from a marketing and communications perspective, but needs to be acknowledged for its contribution on a grand scale to the economy at large. And that’s why equal pay for equal work is now a mandate and a right step forward into the 21^st century. Bravo President Obama!

Click here to read the full Huffington Post article.

How are you planning to access the opportunity to market and engage this most important target market in this challenging 21st century economy?

Best Nicole