With stores finally reopening, now is the chance for physical retailers to really shine and give their customers a compelling reason to not only buy that day but want to come back. This is where the amazing power of wow comes in. To me, wow is as simple as doing something the customer wasn’t expecting.
This is assuming the customer receives the basics when they come into the store, acknowledgement, a greeting, and a smile behind the mask! Follow this up with attentive service, great questions and provide the right solution. Just doing this gets retailers into the game, to win they have to do this consistently and add a bit of wow.
One clear example of wow I heard a while ago was an electrical company, with 50 or so electricians, created a 20-point checklist that each technician had to follow every time and one item was to find something in the customer’s house to fix for free. Now that is a wow moment.
Another simple example is dropping your car off for a repair and they vacuum the carpets. Something that we may or may not have expected but when done gives us a good feeling.
In retail, this doesn’t have to be huge and cost money. It’s the act of doing something additional, ideally that the customer didn’t expect that will make the difference. Some of the basics I know of are offering to gift wrap, offering to take the products to their car, at cafes, when we could, adding a small biscuit to a drink.
Every retailer would have something they could add that will make a difference and hit that wow factor. I’d suggest retailers ask their team what they could do to add a bit of wow to their service and deliver this consistently. This could be the difference to a customer coming in once or coming back every time.
Roger Simpson – CEO, The Retail Solution and Author of “The Ultimate Retail Sales Experience” With over 35 years’ industry experience, Roger Simpson is recognized as Australia’s #1 Authority on customer ROI in the retail industry and as a global expert on staff coaching, customer service, and selling skills.
