With the High Cost of Bringing Customers In, Make Sure They Leave Happy!

With as much money as you spend on getting
customers through the door and salespeople to get them to buy something, it
just doesn’t make sense to have the last customer touch point sully the entire
experience.

Last Friday I went to purchase Tan Towels at a
high end beauty supply retail store, which will rename nameless (you’re
welcome). This is the only place that sold this product that I like and I was
very impressed by how knowledgeable and numerous the sales associates were on
the floor. Everything was going great until I hit the checkout.

The single employee at the cash register was incredibly
slow, unmotivated and gave the people in front of me attitude including snarky questions
about their coupons. Not the best customer service, considering there were
plenty of people on the sales floor, But nobody jumped in to help with the long
checkout line.  

After a long wait, it was finally my turn. Having had
the same checkout experience happen to me at three other store locations, I
went from brand cheerleader to thinking that I might want to shop at their
competitor’s store – all because the ball was continuously dropped at the
checkout. Retailers concerned with the bottom line can’t afford to lose the
customer at the very end when they seal the deal.

I am a marketer by trade, which means that I spend a lot of time trying to
figure out how to get customers through the retailer’s door. I send emails,
coupons and direct mail. We create commercials, place ads on websites and on
customers’ Facebook pages. So, I know what it takes to bring people into your
store. And I hate to see possible long term brand loyalists turned into bad
word of mouth because of the final experience.

Marketing is a process that continues from the
time the customer first interacts with your brand to the time they walk out of
your store and beyond. Each event in the process is a touch point which
represents the extension of your brand, including the in-store execution. As a
customer, even if I like your concept and product but receive poor customer
service at the cash register, I’ll refuse to sign up for any point programs or
give you my email. Don’t get me wrong, I love getting shopping points on my
card and receiving free lipstick, but if the experience at checkout turns me
away, none of that is going to lure me back.

Nothing turns away a customer more than a bad experience. As a retailer, take
time each month to observe the executional portion of your store to make sure
that everything is running smoothly. Improving customer experience is part of
good marketing and done right, it will give people an experience they’ll
remember and talk about. Of course, bad experiences are ones they’ll remember
and talk about too. So, make sure your brand is getting the positive word of mouth
it deserves.

Buffy O'Connor, disappointed both personally and professionally

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