The Customer Is Always…
A few weeks ago I walked into my local grocery store for a quick pickup, just an item or two…or three…or four. Long story short, I walked out of there with an armload more than I’d anticipated. Nothing new. But having recently read Paco Underhill’s Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, I picked up on the fact that the store had no hand baskets at the back so people like me could carry (and then buy) more than they’d planned–I had actively searched, and found none.
It wasn’t a big deal, but I like to help where I can (I happen to like this store), so I left a comment on the store’s feedback page letting them know they could be missing out on business because of their lack of conveniently-located handbaskets. I got a very nice response, effectively saying “Thank you for your patronage and concern, but we keep baskets at the back of all of our stores in three specific locations for just such a purpose, so this isn’t a problem at all.”
In the weeks since, I’ve gone back several times and REALLY looked for these phantom baskets. I found one stack–buried between a shelf and the end of the meat counter–the others are still at large. My point in all this is that this business had the best possible field information (derived straight from a customer) delivered to its doorstep, and they ignored it. Or they thought they’d properly addressed the problem. Which is worse?
It’s not just them (and I don’t just deliver)…earlier this week I got a call from someone who wanted to refer his friend to me, but couldn’t find my new number (he had to track me down through a mutual friend). I thought I was being thorough by updating my website and altering business cards to reflect my switch from a land line to wireless, but this guy had an old card. Did it matter that I updated the site? Should I have expected him to find it online? Not at all. I’m lucky he bothered to search as hard as he did!
The customer is always the best critic of customer experience–keep an open ear, and they’ll tell you (one way or another) what you need to do to make working with you a better experience for them. And that’s gold, reader . . . pure gold.
