Guess what? It would seem that companies are starting to consider once again the idea that people like having a positive value experience when they go shopping – especially having the ability to ask questions of a member of staff when they’re shopping.
At the forefront of this value experience change is the giant company, Tesco. It appears that Tesco has had to reconsider its self-service checkout plan and bring back staff, as CEO Philip Clarke admitted that they may have cut back on employees too much.
At Futurecurve, we firmly believe that value is only recognized when the customer acknowledges it. This means that a company’s value propositions can only be developed with input from the customer. Interestingly, retail customers prefer a good shopping experience over being impressed by flashy ads or celebrity endorsements. Recent studies support this idea. Research from Wharton Business School found that every dollar spent on customer-facing staff generated between $4 and $28 in new sales. Another study from Starcom MediaVest revealed that shoppers who interact with a supermarket brand on social media are twice as likely to shop there. Additionally, research shows that as shoppers increasingly customize their choices online, they expect personalized treatment in-store as well; they are no longer swayed by traditional, static discounts and offers. Customers want to connect and engage with their favorite brands in various ways, which means businesses must understand their customers’ value motivations and when they are open to engaging with the brand.
In other words, it’s all about people and relationships, not just static promotional discounts and BOGOFs. Extraordinary, isn’t it? A positive customer value experience leads to increased spending and greater loyalty.
Understanding what the customer value experience truly is (and not just using buzz words like customer-centric), and marketing-with versus marketing-to customers, is shaking up the way we do business and the way we expect to do business. Having a value process is going to be critical to success from now on.