Get Acceptance if Breakdowns Common

When you live and work in Taiwan, retailing service failures are common and consecutive. That’s the conclusion from a research team who should know. They’re based at China University of Science and Technology in Taiwan and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.
     The researchers found that, in their situation, the strength of negative emotions after a second service failure were less than those after the first. This seems to conflict with other research which says that resolving a customer complaint after a first failure can strengthen store loyalty, but if there’s a second failure, often the bond is sharply broken.
     In my opinion, the explanation is that the consumers of Taiwan accommodate themselves to service failures. Successive failures acquaint them with the reality that tolerating breakdowns is the only game in town.
     The story, dating from the early 1900s, credited with originating the term “the only game in town” sticks any recipient of that designation with negative associations: A traveler asks the hotel desk clerk to recommend a place to play some high stakes poker. The desk clerk says, “The bar next door has high stakes poker going all the time. But I’ll tell you that the dealer there cheats people blind.”
     “My goodness, why do people from around here play poker there?,” the traveler asks.
     The clerk replies, “Well, it’s the only game in town.”
     Still, it’s not all negative. The hotel desk clerk’s answer to the traveler was incomplete. People played poker at that bar because it was the only game around going on whenever you wanted to play, and people were willing to accept losing their money in order to have fun playing cards, drinking, and socializing. The customers kept coming back because they received value, even though, with being cheated blind, they probably wouldn’t describe themselves as high in customer satisfaction.
     Researchers at Southern Methodist University, University of California-Riverside, and Boston College found that under certain circumstances, customer satisfaction has little effect on repurchase behavior. This happens with products and services you provide and products you carry which are essential commodities—like automobile repair services and groceries. It was less true when the objects of acquisition were luxury, pleasure-centered products—such as high fashion.
     If you’re selling commodities to consumers and failures are nearly inevitable, get acceptance from your customers by empathizing with the inconvenience and then preparing the customers to deal with breakdowns.

Click below for more: 
Get Second Chance for Good Impression 
Switch Thinking About Switching Costs 
Become the Only Game in Town

Untangle Customers from Your Personal Battles

In the language of the transactional analysis (TA) school of psychology, “Let’s You and Him Fight” (LYAHF) refers to somebody pulling others into personal grievances.
     LYAHF came to mind during my visit inside a branch of my bank where I happened to be. As I entered, I heard a female voice gently yell “Good morning!” toward me from behind a desk. I didn’t recall having seen the woman before. How nice to be greeted so cheerfully, I was thinking.
     When I reached her desk, I explained I’d like the bank to get some of my money to Turkey’s Boğaziçi Jazz Choir. One of my colleagues, the multitalented Nur Diker, is in this year’s choir, the choir won first place in the Folklore Category at last year’s INTERKULTUR World Choir Games, the choir is competing in the 2012 games in Cincinnati this week, and I wanted to contribute a little to show my support.
     As I explained all this, the expression changed on the face of the woman behind the desk. What was a smile became a look of irritation. She said, “I’m going to have trouble helping you with that. I’m Armenian.”
     Now I was thinking, “What an error she’s making!” Like her, I looked irritated, but for a different reason. She was making reference to what’s been called the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1918, when, most researchers conclude, two million Armenians living in Turkey were deported or killed. The Turkish government has steadfastly denied responsibility. The woman behind the desk at my bank seemed irritated that I was asking her to facilitate a transaction with an organization in Turkey.
     My irritation was because I was being tangled into a grievance that, at the point I wanted to do business with my bank, was not relevant to me.
     I thought of replying, “I know that Armenians have suffered greatly. A man of Armenian ancestry named Pete Karian, a hard-working, highly successful owner/operator of a dry cleaning store, who married into my family, would talk occasionally of the horrors his grandparents endured.”
     Instead of saying that, though, I repeated my transaction request, feeling uncomfortable. What I would have said to her was genuine. But she should not have called upon me to have thought about it.
     Coach yourself and your staff to keep customers out of personal grievances unless the customers ask to be involved. Entangling them can strangle your profitability.

Click below for more: 
Prefer Obligation to Shame

Fan Them with the Opera

Want to transform passersby into fans of your store? Have a flash mob serenade them. If they like opera, use opera to blow them away—and toward your shelves and racks.
     A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and sometimes seemingly pointless act for a brief time then disperse. Song performances in food courts and mass dancing in train stations are flash mob events many have seen on internet videos.
     When flash mobbing began, the objective was to surprise the merchants and shoppers. These days, some centers plan them. There are two reasons for this. First, retailers recognize that the performance can bring excitement to the shopping experience and publicity on the internet afterwards. Second, retailers want to avoid the evil form of the flash mob in which unwary staff go mentally numb and close down their sensory channels while the flash mob steals merchandise. Breaking into song shouldn’t lead to breaking into the store.
     Researchers at Simon Fraser University examined the effects on consumers in a public market of having a flash mob surprise shoppers by singing opera. The study compared what happened with the music presented live, the music presented from a recording, and no music.
     As expected, the live music produced more consumer arousal and more positive feelings about the shopping experience than did the other two conditions. Both these increase the potential for purchases.
     Beyond this, the flash mobs resulted in more feelings of connectedness to the shopping environment and more consumer-to-consumer interaction. The music led to passersby forming groups temporarily because of enjoyment of the music and the experience. This phenomenon, too, can increase shopping basket dollar averages.
     When people purchase in groups, each shopper’s cart tends to ring up a higher total than if those same people had shopped alone. They are more likely to make what we think of as impulse purchases. A major reason this happens is that consumers in groups become more willing to take on risks, and it is the fear of risks behind much of any resistances to buying.
     Participants in the Simon Fraser study responded positively to the opera music, overall. Clearly, plenty of other people would prefer other styles of music. The magic of the flash mob is in the surprise and the live presence. These can come with a wide range of serenade motifs.

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

Click below for more: 
Flash Mob Scenarios Before Staff Eyes 
Show Impulse Purchase Items for Groups

Grant Employees Task Identity

As the shop owner looked out the front window of her store, she saw a man digging a hole in the median strip of the wide street. Then the man moved about thirty feet beyond the pile of dirt and dug another hole. When done with that one, he again moved on about thirty feet from the second dirt pile and dug a third hole.
     An hour later, she looked out the window again, only to see another man shoveling the pile of dirt back into the hole. Sure enough, after filling in the first hole, he moved on to the second hole, filled in that one, and then on to the third hole.
     The shopkeeper couldn’t contain her curiosity about what appeared to be some monumental waste of city workers’ time. She crossed the street to the median, walked up to the man filling in the third hole, and asked him to explain.
     “Oh,” he began, with a nod which indicated he’d heard the questions before. “We have a system here. My buddy digs out the dirt from the hole, my other buddy puts a tree in the hole, and then I come along and fill in the hole with the dirt.”
     “There’s no tree there!,” the woman exclaimed.
     “Yea, that guy’s out sick today. But the other two of us still have our jobs to get done.”
     Indeed, the shopkeeper had been correct in her assumption. This was a monumental waste of time.
     In your store, you’d spot such an error. But the whole hole story might serve to remind you of the risks in dividing up a task and the advantages in giving one employee what’s called “task identity.” One of your staff is responsible for planting the tree.

• Encourage each staff member to serve the customer throughout the purchase process. By identifying with the complete task, the retail worker enhances identification with the shopper as a complete person rather than as a list of impersonal steps. 
• When you schedule a special event at your store, assign one person the responsibility for execution. They own that event. 
• Have a “Product of the Week” you assign to an employee who has shown interest in the product. The employee sets up the display, keeps an eye on the shelves to see the item is properly stocked, and gets a special bonus that week for sales of the product. 

Click below for more: 
Burn Out Resignation of Skilled Staff 
Give One Staff Member Responsibility

Adjust Assortment by Use Attractiveness

When should you offer shoppers a great many choices, and when should you narrow down the choices?
     For decades, consumer behavior researchers have advised that a large variety of offerings attracts shoppers, but as shoppers get closer to wanting to make a purchase, they welcome a pruning down of variety. They prefer a smaller assortment to assess.
     Researchers at University of Maryland found this advice worked well with consumers who were toiling toward a goal over time, such as in a fitness program.
     Some study participants were given evidence they were close to reaching their individual fitness goal, while others were led to believe they were far from the goal. All the participants were then shown a set of six protein items. In some cases, the items were all protein bars differing only in flavor. This was a low-variety set. The other participants—some who felt close to their goal and some who felt far from it—were presented a high-variety set that included a protein bar, a protein shake, and four other forms of protein supplement.
     Among consumers who felt far from the goal, motivation was higher when the consumer was asked to choose among the high-variety set. On the other hand, among consumers who felt close to the goal, motivation to achieve the goal was higher when the consumer was asked to choose among the low-variety set. Similar results were found with items to be used in a diabetes maintenance program and a physical rehabilitation program.
     Based on findings like these, the researchers suggested you offer a goal-seeker a broad variety of assistance items at the start and then, as the customer feels closer to achieving the goal, offer a more limited selection.
     Now research findings from Washington University in St. Louis indicate that there’s an important exception to this advice: When a purchased item will be highly attractive to use, give a limited number of choices for decisions to be made in the future and a broader variety for choices to be made soon.
     Here, the researchers considered choices among items like chocolates to eat, ice cream assortments, vacation destination packages, and labor-saving home appliances.
     Take into account the attractiveness the consumer will find when using a purchased item and the psychological distance from the selection process. This affects whether you move from presenting a larger to presenting a smaller assortment, or the other way around.

Click below for more: 
Limit Variety as Shoppers Approach Goals

Prepare for Natural Disasters

Not that long ago, millions of homes in America were without electrical power because of a severe heat wave. This followed a series of thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds which downed power lines across a broad swath of the U.S.
     Whatever the season and the location, disasters can cut communities down. That includes the retailing communities in the area. It was not only homes which were without power, but also the shops. Yet, talking about a prior tornado which significantly damaged almost every small to midsize retail business in Joplin, Missouri, Lori Rivera, Senior Outreach Manager for the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), told a National Retail Federation conference, “Without retail, there was going to be no recovery.”
     Prepare for natural disasters:

• Rehearse your store’s crisis management program. Recognize that consumers whose homes are destroyed or family members injured can suffer grief which leads to desperate actions. Along with gearing up to sell to your community members as much of what they desire with as few restrictions as possible, you’ll be needing to protect against hoarding and looting. 
• While it’s fair weather times, develop good working relationships with the people you’ll depend on for information, supplies, and enforcement during a disaster. Recognize that the information will flow both ways. During 2011 North Carolina hurricanes, FEMA used what they called a “Waffle House Index” to judge the damage from the storm and the progress of recovery. The WHI measured whether the restaurant in the area was open and, if open, whether a partial or full menu was being served. Waffle House restaurants planned the limited menus in advance and set rounded prices to include tax so that change for cash purchases could be made more easily. 
• Know in advance what shoppers will want during and just after a natural disaster, and then be ready to put it front and center. It should be easy to predict most of the list of products and services. But there can be some surprises. Some years back, Wal-Mart found that in anticipation of violent weather, sales of Strawberry Pop-Tarts grew more than did sales of batteries, and the best-selling product of all was beer. Researchers at University of Pennsylvania found that the anxiety accompanying natural disasters leads consumers to prefer postcards with thick borders around the edges to similar postcards without a thick border. They also preferred orderly shelves, uncluttered aisles, and unambiguous instructions. 

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

Click below for more: 
Adjust Merchandising to News Events 
Flash Mob Scenarios Before Staff Eyes 
Fence In Consumer Anxiety