Dazzle Your Customers

In an opinion piece, The Economist argued that many retailers do quite fine and are highly profitable even though they are not seen as mollycoddling customers. The article gave as an example Ryanair, known for low-cost, admittedly uncomfortable air travel. Ryanair holds the distinction of being the first European airline to carry more than seven million passengers during a single month.
     A common motto for retailing is “Exceed the customer’s expectations.” Although fine-sounding, this motto doesn’t work in practice. Each time you exceed expectations, it nudges the expectations up for the next time the customer visits. At some point, it’s no longer profitable to keep raising the bar for yourself.
     Actually, the customer might not even notice if you do manage to exceed their expectations unless the excess is dramatic. When shoppers’ expectations are exceeded, the shoppers often take it for granted and don't give lots of credit. It’s when expectations are not met that there’s more likely to be an impact on the customer’s evaluation.
     So to maintain a satisfactory level of satisfaction, all it might require is to consistently keep your promises. Do you promise the lowest prices in the area? The broadest selection? The latest distinctive merchandise? The quickest checkouts? Whatever it is, provide it.
     Rather than aiming to always exceed customer expectations, regularly dazzle your customers. Unanticipated special prices and combination deals are some of the ways to dazzle customers. But keep the deals modest if you prefer not to get on the escalator of continually increasing expectations.
     At first glance, it might seem to be really bad business to offer customers especially low prices on items they had already intended to buy. After all, they’d probably buy the items at the price they had expected, so why give up any of the profit? Because consumer behavior researchers at University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and University of Pennsylvania found that just such a practice builds profits.
     Grateful customers buy more, and nothing brings out gratitude in a customer better than finding a surprisingly low price on an item they already intended to buy. It’s the same sort of joy they had when finding an Easter egg as a kid.

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

Click below for more: 
Provide Group Support with Customer Discomfort 
Keep Your Promises 
Dazzle Customers with Surprise Gifts