Thursday, January 5, 2017

Hold Off on Hand-Holding the Experienced

Shoppers who’ve familiarity or even expertise with what you’re selling bring different expectations than do dilettante shoppers. Sometimes the difference is between delivery time and delivery quality, and that’s true with both merchandise and services.
     University of Valencia researchers analyzed 334 cruise passenger reviews of Spanish ports guided tours, some of the reviews by Europeans and the rest by North Americans. The content analysis showed how the Europeans prized the tour guide’s efficiency over the degree to which the tour guide personalized the tour to the group. For the North Americans, personalization was more important than efficiency.
     The researchers attributed the difference to culture. The argument is that Europeans put efficiency first and Americans put personalization first. But considering other studies of the cultures, an explanation for the findings that makes more sense to me: On the whole, the Europeans probably were more familiar than the Americans with ports of call in Spain. For them, the value was gauged by how much new information the guide shared in the limited duration of the tour. The Americans, by contrast, wanted more hand-holding while they were being exposed to novel experiences which they wanted to make their own.
     The same principle applies when it comes to the amount of hand-holding of those touring your store. You know that when a shopper asks where an item’s located, it’s better to walk the shopper there than to extend your finger and say, “That way.” As you walk with the shopper, you should talk about the items you’re passing by. You’ve heard what item the shopper is looking for, and you can see what items the shopper’s already selected. What else might this shopper also benefit from having, but perhaps overlook? The motivated shopper suffers from tunnel vision. Still, if this is a repeat customer who knows your store quite well, they’re likely to be more interested in efficiency than personalization, so do move the tour along.
     Experts often buy without prolonged thought. They don’t need the features lists novices want because the experts already know—or think they know—what the items can do for them. Experts are interested in technical specifications largely because they’ll use those specifications to justify to themselves and others that they’ve made the right choices. They are famously complacent about using technical information provided by a salesperson before choosing what they’ll purchase.

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

Click below for more: 
Escort Shoppers on In-Store Travel
Give Experts Novel Product Categories
Explain Delivery Time As Quality/Talent
Enable Shoppers to Revisit the Already Done

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