I can think of no other way to empathise with customer behaviour and interpret their concerns & needs other than stepping into their shoes. This primarily happens through my interactions at retail stores, coffee shops, or malls, and enables me to observe the standard of experience amongst various brands across the city.
I believe, the sales drive at a store level constitutes to be the most difficult segment for a brand when you consider its complicated customer experience. Sales executives have to constantly walk the tightrope in balancing between actually selling the product on one hand (purchase) and convincing the customer to buy the product on the other (pre-purchase / post-purchase). You may have noticed, in most cases, sales reps begin by courteously asking if you need any help today and go about their jobs promising you assistance when you want it, it’s reassuring for individuals who may not like to be hassled during the pre-purchase stage. But I also find going into some stores like jumping into a lake full of alligators without any respite from the constant nudging and tailgating although customer experiences need not be so painful.
First Experience
Let me narrate a store incident that went so well it defines how some customers might like to be serviced. I was at a MEC outlet recently and I was looking for a particular camera brand to strap to my body and shoot videos on a vacation. The idea behind this was to keep my hands free so I can enjoy the time with my family while it kept getting the shots. I found a lone sales executive who initially hadn’t heard about the camera brand but was enlightened after searching for the product through the internal portal, and soon after, I realized it was going way beyond my budget for a 4-day vacation. Sensing my disappointment; maybe the sales rep sized me up, she began narrating her personal experience to me. So it turns out, she was as an adventurer and an avid photographer who occasionally shoots videos using her Canon DSLR while bungee jumping! She not only impressed me with her knowledge for photography & adventure but convinced me that if I owned a DSLR it would serve the purpose of shooting high-quality videos at no cost. On that day, I may not have purchased that camera at MEC but the executive’s friendly advice and interaction left an impression on my mind enough to pay the store another visit in the near future.
I am respectful of how my relationship with the brand wasn’t just outlined on a professional level as a “customer” only. Letting customers like me into their personal space and treating them as guests by not persuading them to make a purchase, at the same time addressing their latent needs and concerns while being courteous makes the brand come across as more humane and leaves a lasting impression. It makes the customer’s visit memorable and they’re more likely to visit the store again with the intention to make a purchase. Personally, it’s the delight and the knowledge gained from the interaction that matters.
Second Experience
This was at a Nike store in an upscale Toronto mall. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, just visiting my favourite brand’s store. As usual, I was approached by a sales rep with whom I struck a conversation out of the blue — it started when I asked her curiously about the pins she was wearing and I was told that Nike gifts them exclusively to high-performers. So amidst all the talk about fitness and training, etc., I discover the sales rep I’d befriended a while ago was a CrossFit trainer and an athlete! During all my visits to Nike stores, what’re the odds of meeting an actual sports enthusiast, a real athlete? She also told me about her fitness regimen and how she manages time between coaching and store hours and so on. In fact, her dad was a marathon/triathlon athlete, and even her grandpa was into fitness training at some point. It’s worth noting here, that we’re simply having this conversation and she showed no signs of frustration or desperation to sell anything or push me into buying a product, she kept responding on her fitness and so on! I was ready to leave the Nike store after that enriching interaction but she got me interested in the apparel and I eventually ended up making a purchase.
One of the tenets of a ‘memorable experience’ is to have a fortuitous interaction that creates a personal appeal for the brand being represented. The interaction could revolve around things that define a product’s experience, for instance, not putting the focus solely on the purchase value itself. Perhaps, I was lucky to discover a fitness trainer within a Nike store but it was a fantastic and delightful buying experience, to say the least.
In a nutshell, empathy works both ways because our inborn tendency is to be drawn into personal experiences which are fueled by an insatiable thirst for curiosity and interest. Hence, skilful use of personal experiences during a sales cycle both offline and online (testimonials, persona stories) could create a vibrant and memorable customer experience by lending a human touch to something totally routine and lifeless. At the same time, one must be aware, that an individual who’s also a potential customer might judge these interactions from a different perspective. It’s important to keep up with that friendly approach in letting the customer decide on the valid time for making the purchase and to totally avoid coming across as negative and judgemental. Lastly, it’s not every time that customers are curiously looking to know your background during a sales journey, but it wouldn’t be a wasted effort to keep your cerebral antennae ready, just in case.
