Take Consumer Feedback for What It’s Worth

Articles in the latest Harvard Business Review gives pause to retailers who think it wise to structure their businesses around what customers say they want:

• A case study has as a central theme the impossibility of innovative businesses asking consumers to evaluate offerings they haven’t fully experienced yet. 
• Researchers at Cranfield University in the UK and Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands point out how quickly shoppers forget vital details about their store encounters. 
• Richard A. D’Aveni at Dartmouth College says that it’s dangerous to economies to do what’s best for consumers. He concludes with, “…the customer is not always right.” 

     And in an article titled, “Who Gave That Hotel Five Stars? The Concierge...,” professors at University of Southern California, Dartmouth College, and Yale University describe the ways in which online reviews of businesses are falsified. They used a database of 2,931 U.S. hotels.
     Fortunately, they also suggest research-based ways to filter for fraud. Here is my adaptation of the advice, using findings from their analyses and other research:

• When it comes to comparing ratings of your business to those of others, recognize that small, independently-owned places are more likely to have the owners or employees plant positive reviews and criticize competitors. The USC/Dartmouth/Yale researchers found less of this with larger hotels than with small-management properties. 
• Compared to faked reviews of hotels, the genuine ones use more concrete words, such as “bathroom” and “check-in,” and fewer context-setting phrases, like, “it was our vacation,” and “my husband asked why.” 
• The review sites that require people to register as customers are more likely to have accurate reviews. A related point is that, according to Stanford University researchers, a review is more effective when the reviewer identifies herself, qualifies herself as an expert and then presents the conclusions with a bit of uncertainty. One way for a reviewer to qualify herself as an expert is to give specific points of comparison of the product with alternatives which would fulfill an equivalent function. 
• With hotels, check the details against your records, such as to see if a party of the size mentioned in the review did stay with you. Other types of retailers will have different types of details to check. If the reviewer is identified, contact them to get details. If there’s no identification, and if the review site allows you to do so, leave a posting asking for details. 

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Make Your Product Reviews Credible 
Encourage Reviewers to Identify Themselves

Honor Your Brand’s Promises

Las Vegas got lots of mileage from their “What happens here, stays here” campaign. I’m referring now to the mileage that visitors have logged as they bring their money to leave in Sin City.
     “What happens here, stays here” was the Las Vegas brand’s promise, and it was blatantly violated with the sale and subsequent publication of photos of U.K. Prince Harry and a female partner close to the climax of their game of strip billiards. The balls, as well as the billiard cues, were not visible in the photos, but a naked prince and lady were.
     When a brand promise is violated, you’ll want to acknowledge this and declare corrective action. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority did it with an ad, in the format of a World War II propaganda poster, reading, “Keep Calm and Carry On Harry,” and a full-page ad in USA Today reading, “We are asking for a shun on these exploiters…. We will not play with them anymore.”
     Another integral part of the Las Vegas brand is to keep it fun, so the campaign adhered to the spirit. By contrast, a few years previously, the LVCVA launched a “What Happens in Blank” TV spot. It was delivered with a satirical edge, apparently aiming to point out how inserting your own town’s name into the slogan will only highlight how your own town falls far short of Las Vegas by comparison. The ad may have produced hearty chuckles in some viewers, but it left a bitter aftertaste for many. The ad was too heavy-handed.
     In your case, any apology for violating a guarantee and any announcement of corrective action might need to be somber instead of amusing. The Las Vegas tag line is unlikely to be interpreted by anyone as a guarantee. When you make a guarantee, recognize it as a serious multi-part promise:

• What you are promising you will do
• The rules for deciding if you’ve kept that promise
• The remedies available to the customer if you fail to keep your promise
• How you will answer the customer’s questions about each of those three parts of the promise. The guarantee is one tool for projecting your marketing identity to your target customers. Use your explanation of the guarantee to project clearly.

     Stay aware of what you’re promising and make updates as necessary. When it comes to a guarantee, your promises are the crown jewels.

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

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Keep Up On Your Promises 
Avoid Satire in Comparatives 
Guarantee with Care 
Bet on Consumers Wanting Turnkey Experiences

Compare Notes on Body Language

Those providing tech support from the Genius Bars in Apple Retail Stores are reading your body language. The “Business Insider” blog says that there’s even a training manual with specifics, which helps the Apple Geniuses benchmark moves from “fist-like gestures” to “steepling the hands.”

• Frustration: Fist-like gestures, wringing hands, pointing the index finger, taking short breathes. 
• Evaluation: Hand-to-cheek gestures, head tilted, stroking the chin, pacing. 
• Confidence: Steepling the hands, joining hands behind the back. 

     Some restaurants also use a list of specifics to facilitate decoding:

• At Blue Smoke restaurants in New York City, the customer who makes strong eye contact with the server is assumed to want deferential treatment, while the shy customer is assumed to desire reassurance. 
• At Cheesecake Factory, servers look for people who are pushing food around on the plate, which is taken to be a red flag that this diner could be displeased with the meal. That’s the signal to go ask. 

     Psychologists have identified nonverbal indicators a customer is lying: Eyeball the eyes. Liars shift their gaze rapidly, or in an effort to control this sign, the liars gaze at something aside from your face. If you say, “May I show you the item once again before you leave?,” they’ll resist looking directly at it.
     The real value in having a manual or a code list is in reminding retail staff body language does make a difference, getting staff to notice, and bringing to conscious awareness what most of us have already been able to sense from birth. We’re genetically equipped to decode posture and gestures.
     This value extends to retail staff noticing what their own body language projects. Your shoppers love being served by experts. In fact, they judge the salesperson’s expertise even before the two start talking. The salesperson’s body language says a lot as the prospective customer asks, “How much does this salesperson look like somebody I’d like to be?”
     The same value can be achieved by having a few mirrors in the shopping area and encouraging staff to compare notes on their experiences in reading body language. Actually, that’s even more valuable than a simple list because valid interpretations of body language require noticing patterns rather than isolated indicators. Fist-like gestures could mean fatigue or anger instead of frustration.
     It is in the combination of musical notes and harmonies rather than in a single sound that we recognize the melody.

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

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Extrapolate to Discern Shopper Intentions 
Lie in Wait for Lying Shoppers 
Have Staff Who Show and Share Expertise

Post the Lesson from Parcel Post’s Beginnings

I realize this isn’t the most obvious time for me to hold out to you the U.S. Postal Service as part of a lesson for retailers on how to manage your businesses. The Postal Service announced a $5.2 billion loss for the last fiscal quarter and is right on target to declare a loss of $15 billion for the fiscal year. They recently announced they wasted $1.2 million in printing costs because they were so far off in predicting demand—in this case, dearth of demand—for stamps commemorating the twentieth anniversary of “The Simpsons” TV show.
     But let’s take it back exactly 100 years. The U.S. Congress had just authorized the post office to deliver packages. This was the beginning of parcel post, which kicked off January 1, 1913.
     Marc Levinson writes in a Bloomberg.com posting that the impact on local retailers parallels what e-tailing is doing currently: Booksellers, hardware stores, and all sorts of other retailers faced the reality that, even with the shipping costs, merchandise from Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Ward would cost less. Prior to parcel post, the railway express shipping charges for large items were prohibitive, and delivery would be made only to central locations rather than to the house.
     With parcel post, the local retailers who wanted to survive had to:

• Sell items that couldn’t be obtained via parcel post. This was difficult when competing with the comprehensiveness of a catalog, but it could be done, such as by selling locally-produced distinctive merchandise. 
• Provide additional value to justify the additional cost on items which could be obtained via parcel post. Advice, training, and other services would add such value. 

     Mail order and parcel post are still around, although Montgomery Ward isn’t and Sears gave up on the catalog a long time ago. And plenty of small to midsize retail businesses survived and thrived. In fact, they used parcel post to grow their businesses, just as smart store retailers embrace an internet presence now.
     The lesson is for smart retailing communities to avoid turf battles they’re unlikely to win. Prior to 1910, the railroads, express companies, National Association of Retail Grocers, and National Retail Hardware Association had all lobbied against the implementation of parcel post. But the best that could be hoped for was a holding action. Consumers want value, and loyalty flees promptly. Devote your resources to providing distinctive offerings and unparalleled value.

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Learn From the History of Giant Retailers

Try Being a Tribe Without Reservations

When a group of your customers share not only an allegiance to your store, but also a passion for shopping with you, and when those customers share their passion with each other, you’ve what researchers call a “consumer tribe.”
     The phenomenon of consumer tribes has been studied for decades, and retailers have been advised to welcome consumer tribes as a way to build business at their stores. Holding special events just for favored customers and encouraging group shopping were among the methods for nourishing consumer tribes.
     Research findings from University of Arizona and Canada’s Queens University indicate that the nature of consumer tribes has changed over the years. Based on the findings, here’s my shopper psychology advice to you:

• Historically, consumer tribes have been more exclusive than inclusive. A source of the members’ emotional devotion was a conviction that they were distinctive. But consumer tribes are now showing interest in expanding their membership. The Arizona/Queens researchers analyzed trends in the community of long-distance runners. Thirty years ago, this community was male-dominated and maintained challenging physical stamina standards for admission. These days, mentoring and leadership diversity are valued. This is helpful to you. The larger and more wide-ranging the membership, the greater the cumulative influence of passionate recruiters for shopping with you. My advice: Put more emphasis on encouraging fans to invite others in than on you creating a sense of entitlement for tribe members. 
• A downside of consumer tribes has been that they resist changes in your business which are useful for full profitability. In many cases, the tribe members structure significant parts of their lifestyle around the store’s characteristics, so when the retailer executes changes, the effects on the tribe are more than trivial. In my experience, the valuing of diversity has resulted in more tolerance for changes. However, I still advise that you give plenty advance notice to the consumer tribe, invite their ideas without yielding your prerogatives, and unroll changes rather than impose changes all at once. 
• Historically, a substantial part of the consumer tribe’s social interactions would be conducted outside your presence at their own gatherings. This limited your influence with the tribe somewhat. Now social networking is frequently a medium for exchange among the tribe members. This lets you tune in. Use the opportunity. This isn’t a replacement for special events in which you express your gratitude to your tribe. 

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

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Keep Creating Advocates for Your Business

Guide through Rituals with Ceremonial Language

Talk with your shoppers.
     That straightforward valuable advice really deserves to be made more complicated, according to consumer researchers at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Purdue University North Central, and University of Missouri-Kansas City. The researchers tell us we should stay aware of the three different categories of language retailers can use with consumers:

• Conventional language. The hairdresser or barber making conversation about the latest reality show episode or local sports team’s performance is developing rapport with the customer and making the time of the service or product delivery pass more pleasantly. 
• Commercial language. We’d like our verbal transactions with shoppers to end in commercial transactions with customers. We’ll want to remember to ask for the sale. 
• Ceremonial language. Culture dictates what we say to the consumer if we want to create store loyalty. With certain people, it might be “Hello, sir,” while others expect, “What’s up?” The “Have a nice day” will fit fine with some shoppers, but strike others as smarmy. 

     Ceremonial language serves the important function of guiding shoppers through the rituals they prefer. Have you noticed how some shoppers will complain and complain about a product or service that seems ideally suited to the shopper's needs and desires, and then after all the complaining and what seems to be arguing with the salesperson, the shopper will go right ahead and buy the offering?
     Other shoppers come into your store asking for a specific product and brand, but before buying it, as they'll end up doing, they want to hear about at least a few alternatives, as if to convince themselves they're making the right decision.
     And then there are those customers who refuse to buy a product until they can take it out of the packaging and run their hands over it. This last group, not surprisingly, resist making purchases over the internet, although, according to researchers at University of Kentucky and University of Wisconsin, rituals of the grasp-and-caress crowd can be satisfied with written or spoken descriptions of all the different textures the product has.
     The complaining, arguing, searching, and caressing are shopping rituals. Most shopping rituals are quite deep-seated in the personality because they were introduced early in life as the child watched others shop and was coached by parents.
     Researchers at New York University have verified how uncomfortable consumers become when retailers’ service scripts don’t take account of the individual’s shopping rituals.

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

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Branch Out Scripts to Allow for Rituals