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Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)
 

Five key enhancers of the customer experience

With economic conditions heightening consumer sensitivity around purchasing decisions, retailers that design differentiated 'experiences' around their products and services can drive growth, profitability and lasting consumer loyalty, while also maintaining a price premium over competitors, according to a report by PwC US.

The study, entitled 'Experience Radar 2011: Retail Insights', measured the experiences of more than 6,000 US consumers across 11 industries, and concluded that consumer loyalty is born from shopping experiences that create strong psychological connections, rather than from points or rewards programmes alone.

After examining five core consumer experience attributes - accessibility, support, quality, presentation and social belonging - the report suggested that retailers should focus on enhancing service through investing in knowledgeable staff and leveraging front-line employees.

"In today's economy, retailers must identify new ways to set themselves apart, and that begins with a clear focus on customer experience," said Susan McPartlin, PwC's US retail & consumer industry leader. "A single purchase experience can leave a lasting impact on how the consumer identifies with the retailer, so it's imperative that retailers enhance how they serve customers to minimize potential hurdles from beginning to end."

According to the study, product knowledge and recommendations accounted for almost one third of good experiences related to support, while only one percent of shoppers cited rewards programmes alone as influencing their purchase decisions. According to PwC, retailers should consider developing an experience action plan built upon their loyalty programme's customer knowledge that strives to achieve five key 'experience enhancers', as follows:

  1. Focus first and foremost on shopper experience
    Use front-line staff to create experiences that result in psychological connections with consumers. Invest in service by training knowledgeable staff to help affirm consumer purchase decisions and to prevent buyers' remorse.
  2. Make customers brand ambassadors
    Consumers who experience a positive shopping experience can be the best marketers for retailers, while a single, bad experience can cause widespread damage. Identify, incentivise and promote brand ambassadors.
  3. Help consumers avoid risk
    Attract new customers by helping them overcome psychological hurdles. Overcome shoppers' worries about losing money on shipping, and press the emotional hot-button of free things. Reduce consumer purchase anxiety with flexible return policies.
  4. Embrace the anytime, anywhere economy
    With consumers shopping both online and offline, understand their shopping preferences before the competition does. Develop a multi-channel strategy that makes it easy for consumers to shop online, offline, at home or in stores.
  5. When something bad happens, fix it
    Provide customers with feedback channels as it may not be obvious that they are unhappy until they leave. Make sure that they are happy with the results - an apology may be enough to create an evangelist.

"Customers are social beings, seeking connection and community," explained Lisa Feigen Dugal, PwC's US retail & consumer practice advisory leader. "When retailers move beyond solely relying on points and develop experiences based on what's most important to consumers, you not only drive loyalty, but you create ultimate brand ambassadors who spread the word on their positive experiences."


Sources: PwC /
The Marketing Factbook.
Copyright © 2011 - 2025 The Marketing Factbook.

    Categorised as:

  • Customer Experience
  • Customer Loyalty
  • Knowing The Customer
  • Marketing Know-How

Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

Learn the insider's tricks and techniques to turn every customers into a 'super spreader' for your brand. It's better than free advertising. Once you start this ball rolling, your brand can grow rapidly through word-of-mouth, advocacy, influencers, and customer loyalty. Super-charge your company's marketing strategy, build up your market share, and make more sales through repeat business and customer loyalty.

Find out what works - and what doesn't - and who's succeeded, and how they did it. See how the world's top brands keep their competitive edge against all odds.

The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook walks you step-by-step through the techniques, metrics, reporting, analysis, marketing models, technologies, tools and innovations for successful marketing strategies - both traditional and emerging - with expert guidance from thought leaders in every major market. Find out the best ways to gather, analyse, and act on customer data to increase profitability, build your brand, empower your customers, beat the competition, reduce churn, and increase customer profitability. This is a marketing book you simply can't afford to be without.

This book aims to hand you all the facts, figures and research data you need for the best decisions for a more profitable, more engaging marketing strategy. It also highlights all the facts, forecasts and trends identified by our experts from the global Marketing Factbook's vast database of market data, news, studies, research and articles, and presents you with an invaluable library of ideas and practical support you can call upon at will.

With The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook at your side, you'll have instant access to a true goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, research and market data, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid, profitable marketing strategy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)
 
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