J.D. Associates Retail POS Solutions Blog

Welcome To My Chaos: Not a Successful Retailer

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A couple of phrases that are being widely bandied about in today’s retail circles are:

•        The Customer Experience
•        Customer Loyalty

When implemented successfully, these catch phrases imply that customers enjoy shopping in your store and will probably return more frequently.  Although creating a positive customer experience sounds relatively easy, it can be extremely difficult to achieve and maintain. 

Successful retailers need to constantly take the pulse of their customers to ensure that they are in touch with their customers’ ever-changing needs.  First and foremost, retailers need to listen to what their customers are saying.  A recent stellar example of a retailer failing to provide their customers with an outstanding experience took place at my local supermarket.

For the past couple of months my supermarket, which is part of a very large chain, decided it was time to change the store layout.  Curtains went up to hide the construction and displays were moved to anywhere there was room, often several times a week.  While the construction phase made it difficult to find things, change can be good so I anticipated that any inconvenience would be temporary.  Well, the change was completed and the result remains a nightmare.

Prior to the change, the entry way to the store was open and inviting.  Displays and coolers were clearly visible and access to those displays was easy and inviting.  When you entered the store you could eyeball the entire produce department and deli counter and know exactly where to find what you were looking for.  You felt comfortable in the space and didn’t feel the need to escape.   But why make it easy?  A design team of consultants decided that they knew best and decided to create anxiety immediately upon entry.

Here's what happened:

1. They moved the displays and concentrated them at the store entry.  This change gave little or no line of visibility to the merchandise.  You were on top of it the minute you entered the store!
   
2. To further complicate matters, the new aisles created at the entry way, created a log jam of shopping carts and impatient customers trying to get past you while you were trying to shop.
   
3. Inevitably you were forced to move your cart to the middle of the store, park it and go back to the congestion to look for the merchandise you were forced to pass by when you entered the store.
   
4. Realizing that they may have created a problem, the store assigned a clerk just to help customers find merchandise.  That was not the problem.  After listening to all the negative and angry feedback the clerk was given, he probably needed more than a couple of aspirin after his shift.

Change can be good but not when it places the consumer in a frustrating and anxiety-producing situation at the very beginning of the shopping experience.  What should management have done? Survey their customers as to how they liked or disliked the old layout and what changes they would like to see in the future would have probably been a far better way to go. 

The ill-informed changes certainly did not enhance my customer experience and, with so many choices to shop, will not improve my customer loyalty to that store in the future.