Telescope Time for Satisfied Shoppers

Why is it that somewhere between 65% and 85% of customers who start shopping elsewhere for their items say they were satisfied with the prior retailer?
     Researchers from Tilburg University in the Netherlands and University of Valencia in Spain say that a major reason is simply because consumers seek variety, but that there’s also a deeper explanation. It has to do with regret. More importantly for us, these research findings, along with others, suggest ways to surface and reduce the problem so that you keep your customers.
     One set of methods has to do with increasing the variety:

• Change the merchandise mix and the merchandise arrangement in your store regularly so that you’re offering your repeat customers endless new stimulation. People will go back to see a movie they really enjoyed, but not more than once or twice again.
• Announce changes in your store. If you’ve a fair amount of walk-in traffic, it’s particularly important to make the modifications in display windows and areas shoppers will see as they stroll by. In ads, show images of the areas you’ve changed.
• Point out the changes to customers while they are shopping.
• In conversations with your shoppers about what’s in your store, telescope the past: Remind them of the variety of experiences they’ve had when shopping in your store. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, University of Minnesota, and New York University say the reason this works is that we often forget all of the variety we’ve actually had in our lives and instead focus on how repetitive our experiences have been. By reminding the customer of prior buying trips—or asking the customer if there have been prior buying trips—we generate a sense of variety.

     Another set of methods addresses the regret which drives satisfied customers to seek alternatives to your store. The regret, according to the Tilburg/Valencia researchers has to do with giving up options. Your customer thinks, “I’m sorry that I’ve kept coming to the same store repeatedly, since I now don’t know what I might have missed.”

• In querying your customers about their purchase intentions, telescope the future: Talk about what your store will be offering months from now. This plants in the customer’s mind the notion that it’s okay to explore other alternatives, after which the consumer returns to your store.
• Stay in touch with past customers who haven’t been in for a while.

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

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