The title for this post comes from an article at Knowledge@Wharton entitled Getting to ‘Wow’: Consumers Describe What Makes a Great Shopping Experience. The focus of the article is a new study by The Verde Group, Retail Council of Canada and Wharton that addresses …well, great shopping experiences.
The findings?
- Over one-third of shoppers have had a great shopping experience within the last six months. Nearly another one-fifth have had a great shopping experience at some point in their shopping history.
- For those shoppers who have experienced great, less than 10% say it is due to a single element. Nearly 70% said their shopping experience was great due to six or more elements occurring during the shopping trip in question.
- The top two most frequently occurring great shopping elements are “Were very polite or courteous to you” and “Were very familiar with the products the store carried”.
No surprise – a ‘wow’ experience drives loyalty and evangelism.
And here are the 5 major areas that contribute to a ‘wow’ experience – something that your organization might want to focus on in order to fine-tune existing operations!
- Engagement. Being polite, genuinely caring and demonstrating sincere interest in helping, acknowledging and listening.
- Executional Excellence. Patient explanation and advice, checking stock, helping find products, having product knowledge and providing unexpected product quality.
- Brand Experience. Exciting store design, consistently great product quality, making customers feel they’re special and that they always “get a deal.”
- Expediting. Being sensitive to customers’ time and long check-out lines, and being proactive in helping speed up the shopping process.
- Problem Recovery. Helping resolve and compensate for problems, upgrading quality and ensuring complete shopper satisfaction.
Interestingly, only “Brand Experience” and “Engagement” have a meaningful impact on shopper loyalty and of these two, “Brand Experience” is the more important factor by nearly 40%.
An interesting read – pick up the executive summary here.
