As we approach the Christmas shopping season – the busiest shopping season of the year – consumers will be out in hoards, shopping, buying and mentally logging their experiences. With the rise of gas prices, the mortgage crunch, the credit crunch, and a resulting lower discretionary income, manufacturers, retailers and their brands need to be cognizant of consumers’ perceptions. Consumers this year have less money to go around and will be more choosey as to where their money goes.
Marketers (and retailers) are very conscious of this shopping season. The deals are already ringing loud and clear. However, retailers are neglecting a key part of their integrated campaigns - what I call Customer Service Marketing.
While most consumers have exposure to your brands and products through carefully planned and executed advertising (which I’m happy to say keeps me employed), the real interaction for most brands happens in-store at the point when a consumer is making a purchase. Based on my experiences at stores lately, it seems that retail workers, those people who we turn to for help in the store and who check us out, are becoming increasingly miserable. While a retail worker’s attitude doesn’t reflect completely on the brands I’m purchasing, it does reflect on the overall shopping experience, which in turn reflects negatively on the retailer themselves. With more outlets for purchasing the products I need, retailers are going to have to make Customer Service Marketing a priority if they want to maintain the lion’s share of sales this (and future) Christmas season.
My challenge to retailers (and even marketers and brands) is this: concentrate on making the overall shopping experience a positive one. This includes everything up to
and including the in-store experience. We already know that baby boomers are experience seekers anyway, so why not use this insight and make the shopping experience an engaging one. You might even build some brand loyalty for your store in the process.
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