Wal-Mart continues to heavily dominate the list with an 11.7% increase from 2005 to $348.65 billion in 2006. Home Depot and Kroger are 2nd and 3rd and, although both companies saw good increases, both are surrounded by talks of changes or takeovers of late. Costco and Target hang on to spots #4 and #5, with both giants sweating it out to reinvent themselves to ensure future appeal. Bringing up the rear are Sears, Walgreens and CVS, Loew’s and Safeway at number ten.
SAP America, who sponsored STORES Top 100 List, recognizes the importance of growth and innovation to retail. Senior VP and General Manager Jim Mattecheck stated, ““Successful companies continuously find ways to offer a differentiated shopping experience that inspires customers to shop with that retailer again and again. SAP has a proven track record of helping retailers achieve their goals. In fact, more than 4,300 retailers worldwide are SAP customers.”

This year’s list included restaurants for the first time, including McDonald’s (at #16), Yum! Brands (at #35), Starbucks (at #42), Darden Restaurants (at #53), Brinker International (at #73), and Outback Steakhouse (at #80). STORES’ Reda commented that while “consumers may have changed, their needs have not. Americans still have to put dinner on the table every night, but now they are looking to restaurants to fill a larger portion of that need rather than relying exclusively on traditional supermarkets. Successful restaurants understand how to cater to today’s consumers, and there are some ideas they’re trying that traditional retailers may want to borrow.”

With women responsible for more than 46% of all cars purchase, translating into $80 billion of business, you think car dealers would wake up and smell the pleather. But the truth is, this scenario can be applied to any business, anywhere. Word of mouth can make or break your success and the public’s image of your brand. In this example, it was only 3 people talking in the group. But what happens when those 3 people tell three others, and so forth? The damage could be irreparable. And yet, so many companies continue to avoid the strategies that could boost their image simply because of cost.
At the end of the day, isn’t it much less costly to do the things necessary to foster excellent customer experiences, from training to customer feedback and mystery shopping, (just to name a few), rather than risk the tarnished image of bad word of mouth?

So pleasant in fact, even Jon Basalone, senior VP of Trader Joe’s is intrigued, telling The Times, “It’s very impressive.”
Paco Underhill, author of Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, explained that consumers rate time management as extremely important. Therefore, it’s critical for retailers to help customers get out of the store as quickly as possible. People typically will describe their wait periods as being much longer than they actually are, simply due to the frustration of waiting.
“We have good clocks in our heads for roughly three minutes,” said Mr. Underhill. “Once we get beyond that, time expands wildly.”
Whole Foods’ success has been so great that slower lines at competitors are driving increased business to Whole Foods. People simply do not have the time or inclination to wait in long lines, especially when an alternative is presented.
How does your customer experience measure up when it comes to the Frustration Factor? Are you making use of every available strategy to make it easy for your customers to buy and keep moving?

By contrast, many shoppers feel that Circuit City’s stores are not well-organized, it’s difficult to find help from a store associate, and product displays are poor.
According to Stephen Baker, analyst at market researcher NPD Group, “Circuit City has spent a lot of time catching up, and right now, they’re not catching up fast enough.”

While some consumers decide where to shop based on location or specific weekly advertisements, the article continues points out that most consumers spend their money where they feel comfortable. Although Best Buy and Circuit City both offer good discounts, Best Buy is winning the race with friendly greeters stationed at the doors, available and knowledgeable sales staff in every department, product displays that allows consumers to test-drive various models, and plentiful stock. Isn’t this exactly what we all want when we go shopping?

Mystery shopping is one component of your overall Customer Experience Management Program. Best Buy has figured out, through much trial and error, what the customer really wants. And they’re giving it to them. But they did not figure it out in a week or even a year. Best Buy saw the big picture, and realized it would take an investment of time and money to be #1 in their industry. They involved their entire corporation, chain-wide, in an ongoing mystery shopping program that championed their strengths and highlighted areas that needed improvement.

Was it expensive to take on such a comprehensive program? Purely from a dollars and sense viewpoint, some might say it was. However, Best Buy was able to weight the expense of the program vs. the investment value of their dollars. They could see down the line that such a program could pay them back ten times over. They realized that what would be truly ‘expensive’ would be to do nothing. Unfortunately for Circuit City, Best Buy’s visionary leadership made an excellent investment decision.

Best Buy embedded the total customer experience into their corporate culture to assure their brand was driven, and they’re reaping the results ten-fold of sticking with the program.