Reward the Customer in Front of An Entourage

Treat your customers as Very Important Persons. This means rewarding them. And, say researchers at University of Michigan and University of Alberta, part of the reward for a VIP can be receiving preferential treatment in front of companions to whom the VIP wants to show off. The researchers call it the “entourage effect.”
     Other studies find:

• When delivered in front of the entourage, the nature of the reward can produce equal customer gratitude even if otherwise less impressive—such as a lower-cost gift. 
• On the other hand, if the reward is large enough for the customer to share it with the entourage, that is an even more positive experience for the customer. 
• The entourage can consist of friends, family, or a combination of the two. It is the shopper’s desire to impress those others which characterizes an entourage. 
• A desire to impress also affects what the shopper will choose to purchase in the presence of the entourage.  

     This last finding means a shopper whose preferences you think you know well can make quite different choices when coming in with a different group of people. For instance, when shopping with family members along, a consumer is more likely to take financial risks in purchases than when shopping with a group of friends. But the shopper with family is less likely to select highly unusual products or services.
     It can be frustrating for the conscientious salesperson. Here you and your staff are priding yourselves on knowing what each customer likes as soon as he or she walks through the door, and here you find that your assumption was wrong this time. The way to get back on track with your mindreading is to start pairing the shopper’s preferences with the characteristics of the entourage.
     Sell to the entourage members, too. When people shop together in groups of friends or as a group of family members, the total of their purchases tends to be greater than when they shop as individuals. At the same time, especially because the entourage effect puts the focus on the VIP, the others’ memory for what you tell them as a salesperson tends to be inferior. They forget what they are told more than do shoppers you address as individuals.
     Repeat the information when selling to a group. To avoid offending, give the information in different ways and remember to regularly give eye contact to the VIP.

Click below for more: 
Make Your Shoppers Feel Special 
Pair Preferences with the Shopper’s Entourage 
Accept Shopper Concerns About Acceptance 
Repeat Information When Selling to a Group