{"id":6269,"date":"2017-02-21T17:59:50","date_gmt":"2017-02-21T17:59:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=6269"},"modified":"2017-02-21T17:59:50","modified_gmt":"2017-02-21T17:59:50","slug":"retailrelevancy-expectations-engagement-and-customer-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/retailrelevancy-expectations-engagement-and-customer-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"#RETAILRELEVANCY\u2026 EXPECTATIONS, ENGAGEMENT, AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Retail Relevancy has never been more\u2026 relevant. In part one of my conversation with my friend and business partner John Andrews<\/a>, we touched on Alexa, Amazon, and the evolving way that consumers experience retail. In part two, we\u2019re continuing that conversation, and digging into how the modern retail experience (when it\u2019s done right) should empower both employees and customers to engage on a human level. Let\u2019s dive into some of the highlights:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Caffeine by Drone, Please: The Rising Expectations of Retail Consumers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ted<\/strong>: I\u2019m driving to my niece\u2019s wedding, stuck in terrible traffic, and all I\u2019m thinking about is Starbucks. Deliver me coffee in a drone! I\u2019ve got my skylight, I\u2019ve got it open, I want coffee. I don\u2019t want to pull off the road and lose my precious spot in the traffic.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m saying it as a joke, but I\u2019m telling you\u2026 a few people asked seriously, why not? And that\u2019s a huge challenge for the whole retail industry (where this is going).<\/p>\n

John<\/strong>: The industry\u2019s consolidating; more people are buying stuff online. I\u2019m an outdoor guy. I like to hike, and when I order gear, where do I go? I go to Google, and I look at gear. I just bought some hiking poles that way. Those hiking polls came from REI, ultimately, but Google was the \u201cshelf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Car Shopping is the Worst. Tesla Begs to Differ.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ted<\/strong>: Even Cadillac now has showrooms where you can experience their products without a sales rep hanging over your shoulder. I don\u2019t know about you, but I hate<\/em> buying a car. And now they\u2019re trying to change that experience.<\/p>\n

John<\/strong>: Tesla pre-sold over 400,000 of a model they\u2019re not even producing yet. Think about that. The largest selling car in America goes back and forth between the Toyota Camry or Honda Accord, and Tesla sold almost as many cars as those guys, pre-sale. People are putting down $1,000, and doing it without any dealerships.<\/p>\n

Ted<\/strong>: This is, to me, is where it\u2019s all going. Just like AirBnB, overcoming the regulations, and the people lobbying to keep new business models out will eventually fall away.<\/p>\n

The Importance of Engagement, and Empowering Employees<\/strong><\/p>\n

John<\/strong>: Now there\u2019s been a lot of talk about Jet, but I think the most important money Walmart spent this year was the $3 billion it spent on its own people. Because, look, if you\u2019re going to go to the store today, you\u2019d better <\/em>have a good experience.<\/p>\n

Ted<\/strong>: By the way, it\u2019s not just people in the store. It\u2019s people digitally; allowing employees to interact and engage with people. My buddy David was recently telling me about a terrible experience his wife had with brand of sneakers that she\u2019d purchased for a long time. She ordered a pair of sneakers that basically fell apart, reached out for help, and got a robotic response. They probably lost a customer for life.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s happening with these online tools \u2013 and it makes me crazy \u2013 is they\u2019re trying to automate everything and make it robotic. People don\u2019t want robotic! They want empathy. They want someone to just be a human. Half the time all they care about is somebody listening.<\/p>\n

John<\/strong>: Imagine the difference in what happens in that negative situation. David tells you about the incident, and now you\u2019ve told some people. David\u2019s wife tells some people, too. Now, what would have happened if they said, \u201cWe\u2019re sorry about the shoes, and we\u2019re happy to send you a new pair. Just drop the others in a box and send them back.\u201d Totally different outcome.<\/p>\n

Quality Customer Service Quiets Doubters and Converts the Skeptical<\/strong><\/p>\n

John<\/strong>: Now my wife is famously skeptical of the internet. If I order a product, can I return it? She wants to avoid buyer\u2019s remorse more than anything. So we\u2019re doing an outdoor project, and she orders a fan. When we finally got it installed, the fan didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s worried that because we ordered it from Amazon, we won\u2019t be able to return it. I said, \u201cWhy not trying emailing them?\u201d So we send an email, and they send a replacement. Problem solved! Now she has no trepidation about making that order.<\/p>\n

Ted<\/strong>: Amazon has billions of dollars to put these things into place, but even for small retailers, it\u2019s just the part about being human.<\/p>\n

John<\/strong>: And small retailers have an advantage. They know your name and face!<\/p>\n

Ted<\/strong>: What happens is there are so many rules: we don\u2019t do that, or that\u2019s not the way it\u2019s done. Or there\u2019s an efficiency expert, saying \u201cThey can answer this many queries this fast, if they only say what\u2019s been pre-written.\u201d You\u2019re losing the people, because all they really want to know is that you actually care.<\/p>\n

I see it happen every day. At e.l.f. Cosmetics, we used to send people a replacement order if anything in their shipment was damaged. I mentioned it on social way back in 2009, and ownership started going crazy, thinking everyone\u2019s going to start telling us that their orders came damaged.<\/p>\n

Our complaints about damaged orders went up .001 percent, and we got a ton of positive social feedback and sales.<\/p>\n

How Retail Has Come Full Circle<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ted: <\/strong>It really is about connecting with people, and I like to say that commerce has come full circle. We used to go to our neighborhood vendor, and they knew us.<\/p>\n

John<\/strong>: You go to the butcher, and the butcher knows your mom, knows to save the ham bone for her stew, right?<\/p>\n

Ted<\/strong>: Those people knew you. They recommended things to you. They knew if you didn\u2019t like something, or made good recommendations. Then everything got anonymous.<\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s okay. Customers are willing to give information if it makes their life easier. And they want good recommendations of stuff they\u2019ll actually like (and to be able to take it back if they don\u2019t like it).<\/p>\n

Better Relevancy in Ads (Finally)<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ted<\/strong>: I feel like Facebook does the best job of anyone online of targeting me with relevant ads. I\u2019m going hiking, and all of a sudden, ads for hiking boots start to show up in my feed. I\u2019ll actually click on those ads. They do those ads because it\u2019s relevant, contextual, and makes sense to me. It\u2019s not just something randomly sent to my feed.<\/p>\n

Just.Be.Human.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve followed John and I, you know we\u2019re big on building relationships. The same level of consideration, respect, and courtesy that makes you a good friend or colleague will also do wonders when engaging retail customers. Too often, retail employees are so restricted in what they\u2019re allowed<\/em> to say, that they don\u2019t wind up saying anything at all. Empower your employees to engage on a personal level, and never assume that automation can take the place of real, meaningful interaction. #RetailRelevancy<\/a> #PPath<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Previously posted at TedRubin.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Retail Relevancy has never been more\u2026 relevant. In part one of my conversation with my friend and business partner John Andrews, we touched on Alexa, Amazon, and the evolving way that consumers experience retail. In part two, we\u2019re continuing that conversation, and digging into how the modern retail experience (when it\u2019s done right) should empower … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1965],"class_list":["post-6269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tedrubin","tag-ronr-noletup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6270,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6269\/revisions\/6270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}