Using social media for this purpose can have both pros and cons.

Pros of Using Social Media for Customer Experience Feedback

• Social media encourages individuals to be open and voice their opinions
• When one consumer voices an opinion in a public forum, others are apt to jump in
• Word of mouth created by consumers may cause businesses to share best practices
• Consumers can ask questions and reach out to consumers and get an assessment from real shoppers
• When negative experiences are shared, retailers have the opportunity to publicly resolve the issue

Cons of Using Social Media for Customer Experience Feedback

• There’s the risk that dirty laundry will be aired, and social media users may only see one side of the story
• Competitors might be aware of weaknesses

As a retailer, it’s up to you to determine where you draw that line. You may choose to air it all online to benefit from social media, or you may encourage customers to provide extensive feedback in a private venue.

What’s your opinion on this?

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When done right, Mystery Shopping is a tremendous asset for retailers. Results can be used right away to improve the customer experience and to motivate employees, optimize resources and improve operations in every way. Sound big? It is. Mystery shopping is observational research at the business level and like any research, you have to know what data needs to be gathered and how to best interpret and use it. Without these metrics in place and properly carried out, the value is questionable. And like most things, something done poorly is usually worse than not doing it at all.

Mystery Shopping Gets Answers to the Questions You Need to be Asking

How do you measure what happens in your stores? How do you know which factors influence your customer’s experiences and perceptions and affect your sales? It’s impossible to know without objective ‘feet on the ground’. Experienced providers employ mystery shoppers who are carefully trained and who make observations that when analyzed will give you a view of your stores you just can’t get in any other way.

Can Mystery Shopping Really Improve Your Business?

When you work with a seasoned provider, here’s what it looks like start to finish: Together you pinpoint exactly what you need to learn from your program. Define your goals in measurable terms and know what determines a valid statistical sample – how many stores, how many employees, what metrics you need to put in place for your situation. Create the questions, get them asked and answered. Interpret the data and translate it into the actionable steps that lead to improvement. It’s important that the provider understand the needs of the company across departments so you can work together to create a plan that provides a useful company-wide perspective, minimizing redundancy and eliminating the waste that comes from repeated effort.

Mystery Shopping Works Nationally

When a national cinema wanted to measure the effectiveness of their training and improve customer satisfaction, they needed to know how employees were performing at locations around the country. They required accurate data and they wanted it quickly. They were looking for a provider who could partner with them to assist with every part of the process. They had failed before and they knew they needed someone to help them establish goals, create a program and help them analyze the mystery shop and put the data to use. Choosing the right provider resulted in a mystery shopping program that improved customer experience.

Mystery Shopping Works Regionally

A regional chocolate retailer was experiencing rapid growth. They had a mystery shopping program in place, but they were so busy managing growth that they had no time to analyze data or make use of it. Their solution was finding a provider that worked with them throughout the entire process. They had help not just establishing and implementing the program, but assistance where they needed it most: analyzing data and determining what actions to take. The process worked smoothly and they were able to make improvements that kept customer satisfaction high, keep pace with their growth and improve their business (instead of imploding it).

Don’t Suffer from Being Information Rich and Execution Poor

Experienced providers work with you to understand your needs and customize a mystery shop that addresses the issues and concerns you have right in that moment. You get information that is real and relevant. Your business is a dynamic entity and what was critical to your company yesterday may not be what needs to be measured tomorrow. A good mystery shop will naturally suggest new issues to audit and improve.

Asking the Right Questions is Critical

Interpreting and using the information generated by the mystery shop is where the rubber meets the road. Too often, even when great data is mined from a mystery shopping program, the retailer is left with information they don’t take action on. That’s why experienced providers keep working after the shops are completed. They show you how to interpret the data and they deliver reports you can understand. They work with you to determine exactly what actions you need to take to make the improvements suggested by the mystery shopping program.

Learn to Love it

Understand the true value of the most objective retail tool available, work with a quality provider to get it right and you’ll learn to love and benefit from the tool that everyone else loves to hate. You’ll have more satisfied customers and a stronger bottom line as a result.

The Impulse department targets younger shoppers and prices will range from $50-300. “This customer loves to shop,” said Jeff Gennette, the chief merchandising officer of Macy’s. “She wants to be in our store all the time, and we’d better be interesting.”

The first designer featured will be Kinder Aggugini, well know on the London runways, but virtually unknown in the US. The New York Times reported that Mr. Aggugini was enticed by the notion of creating something affordable that still felt like a runway collection — draped dresses in washed silk paired with a tailored military or leather jacket, for example — especially for shoppers who may have never heard of him. “How cool,” he said. “Something that sells on the strength of what it is, rather than who I am.”

Among many other, it works for Martha Stewart at Home Depot and Isaac Mizrahi at Target, why not at Macy’s?

Ann Taylor reported a second-quarter profit and rising sales that even bested their lower-priced namesake Loft chain, which used to be a superstar during the recession. MarketWatch quotes the company saying gross-margin comps “dramatically outpaced” sales performance because of “the strength of the full-priced offering.”

It’s an encouraging report for women retailers. Often, women retailers feel the effects of a recession harder than other companies. When women oversee the household finances, they tend to cut back their own spending first. Plus, Ann Taylor, a retailer known for supplying professional clothing, found itself in a tricky situation trying to sell business clothes amidst job layoffs and potential job layoffs.

While the economy still isn’t in great shape, it’s nice to hear that retailers can do well in the present situation.

According to a recent study done by the Pew Research Center, consumer needs aren’t the same as they once were. According to the study, just 42 percent of Americans say they consider a television set a necessity, down from 52 percent just last year and 64 percent in 2006. The landline telephone also saw a dip in numbers. Of those polled, 62 percent still consider the landline phone a necessity, down from 68 percent in 2009.

“It’s true that in the digital era, consumers know they can watch a lot of television programming on their computers or smartphones,” Pew said. They also can make calls from their cell phones, a belief young people especially share. Fewer than half of those in the 18-29 age range consider a landline phone a necessity, but almost 60 percent think a cell phone is a must have item.

The report also shows people consider cars, clothes dryers, microwaves, home air conditioners and home PCs as less of a necessity than years prior.

“This suggests that the psyche of the American consumer is in a much different place now than it had been in the heady days before the recession.”

Still, just because more people categorize certain goods as a luxury over a necessity doesn’t mean the products aren’t selling. Retailers can take this information and apply what they know to their future marketing strategies.

Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst with the NPD Group, told msnbc.com, “The consumer is not in any rush.”

An earnings call from Walmart indicated more shoppers are making their school supply purchases closer to their schools’ start dates. The National Retail Federation also predicted a quarter of school shoppers won’t begin their back-to-school shopping until one or two weeks before school begins. In some cases, families may even put the shopping off until later in the fall after seeing what’s in style and what students really need.

Still, the National Retail Federation predicts American families will eventually spend more on back-to-school supplies and clothes than last year. Back-to-college spending should remain about the same.

Meanwhile, retailers are offering deals for the customers now. Abercrombie & Fitch’s jeans are currently 40 percent off, Target is offering free shipping on $50 online purchases and Amazon.com has bargains on coffee makers, printers, microwaves and textbooks for college students.

Corporate leaders dramatically overestimate how much the customer wants to talk to a customer service representative. They believe customers value live service twice as much as self-service. HBR’s data shows customers are significantly indifferent to that claim, and they value self-service just as much as they value using the phone. More interestingly, that indifference doesn’t change across their demographic, issue type or urgency.

It’s an interesting predicament: what should your company do to improve its customer service when the customer prefers self-service? And what’s compelling the customer to repel real-life interaction? It could be argued that with the rise in social networks, people don’t like to engage in as many face-to-face conversations with others. Maybe fascination with technology has won out and the lure of fancy, powerful machines are more attractive than the sales associates. Or, now, everyone considers themselves a control freak and dislikes relying on other people to get something done.

Or maybe, customers haven’t wanted the relationships companies have been pushing all along and this rise in self-service finally gives them the easy way out. That’s not a comforting thought for retailers who build their company on the promises of quality customer service. So, what should those retailers do?

It’s a simple task in the world of automated customer service recordings, information computer stations and high tech self-service cash registers: have customer service reps be real people. Too often, customers blow off the sales associates because they sound like robots reading from a script. If customer service practices create authentic experiences by individualizing how each customer gets served, it’s a good bet that customers will again appreciate that friendly face that greets them right when they walk through the door.

The study reports that only four percent of U.S. online adults use location-based mobile apps such as Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt. Only one percent update these services more than once a week. Even more, a good majority of respondents””84 percent””claimed they were unfamiliar with the apps, a number to surely make companies rethink how necessary it is to start a marketing campaign using LBSNs.

Those numbers may seem like LBSNs aren’t a great investment at this time, but the report calls for another look. Among location-based service users, almost 80 percent of them are male and about 70 percent of them have a college degree and are between the ages of 19 and 35. Even more importantly, Forrester discovered these users are highly influential. They are far more likely to research products and read customer reviews and frequently have family and friends coming to them for advice before purchasing a product. In this sense, companies in the gaming, electronics and sportswear industry that target their marketing plan to men may want to include an early adoption of LBSNs.

Still, plenty of companies have launched marketing plans with location-based apps that aren’t just for the guys, including PepsiCo and Starbucks. When deciding whether LBSNs are right for you brand, consider your demographic and marketing plan’s goals. Weigh whether you want to establish yourself early in the location-based marketing playing field or whether you’d rather sit in the bullpen and wait until the user numbers grow to give it a try. Like every other marketing plan for a retailer, whether it be holding a sweepstakes, advertising or social networking, location-based mobile apps can be just another tool in a well-stocked toolbox.

Forbes Insights published a study that surveyed leading U.S. retailers’ use of mobile applications in enhancing consumer’s shopping experiences. Researchers discovered many retailers–almost fifty percent–are hoping to capture first-mover advantage as their customers go mobile. The levels of sophistication in mobile design and application vary depending on the retailer and its goals. For many, the mobile features are a scaled-back version of their website. Others have ventured into offering transaction-based and customer-oriented applications that use powerful GPS technology to pinpoint an individual customer’s needs.

Whether you want to try to increase e-commerce sales, give out coupons or suggest products to your customer, mobile applications must be molded to fit your store’s demographic and mission in order to be effective. American Eagle Outfitters, a specialty retailer that caters to 15-25 year olds, was one of the earliest adopters of mobile technology when they launched their mobile website in August 2008. They recognized their customer base was highly engaged in mobile technology and made sure to capitalize on that activity by going to where there customers spent their time: on their mobile phones. Since the experiment began, the store has seen several hundred thousand customers opt in and contribute to sales through the mobile site. Vice President Michael Dupuis cites their success to consistency across all channels. Customers can access all the same information on their mobile phone that is on American Eagle’s website. Similarly, The North Face built applications that use GPS technology to determine the location of skiers, bikers, rock climbers, runners, and more. The mobile phone users can then access information about terrain they soon will face and read suggestions for how to tackle the trails. The possibilities for what kind of mobile application a retailer develops are endless, and it’s important to figure out what your customers want in their hands.

Retailers should know that mobile technology is not a passing fad. Soon, customers will expect stores to have mobile applications. Like a website, mobile technology will be just another part of the shopping experience.

PSFK advised retailers to think of all store locations as flagship stores and treat customer visits as opportunities to tell the story of the brand. Disney stores executed this idea by remodeling their stores to become a family entertainment hub where kids can interact and play with the merchandise. The New England grocery chain Stew Leonard’s organized their stores by stocking merchandise needed for certain occasions together, such as a barbecue or birthday party. Customers then buy items for an experience and possibly pick up a few things they didn’t think they needed, like birthday hats or corn on the cob holders. Stew Leonard’s stores also have animatronic farm animals kids can play with, flat screens that show feeds of their own daily cows and bountiful offerings of free samples.

The important thing to remember is that the store is an extension of the brand and thus offers a unique opportunity to create an immersive brand experience for the consumer. Apple stores capitalize on this opportunity by keeping their design aesthetic relevant to their brand and by offering product testing stations and optional education classes for customers. Lance Armstrong’s bike shop in Austin, Tex., is meant to be a hub for the diverse biking community, whether people are beginners or almost pros. Mellow Johnny’s even has a coffee shop, showers and bike storage systems to encourage more people to join the cycling community. By creating a community and not just a software store or cycling shop, Apple and Mellow Johnny’s make a visit to their stores not just another stop on an errand run but a place to spend an afternoon browsing and talking with others.

It’s also important to note that the stories retailers tell require scene changes. In order to keep up with shopping and cultural trends, retailers need to continually reinvent the shopping experience, all the while still keeping the brand’s core message and story in mind. Product displays and merchandise need to be rearranged and transformed to give the customer a reason to return.

PSFK highlighted some great ideas of how retailers can leverage technology and drive consumers to their stores. For certain retailers, it may be helpful for the customer if they post wait times, store maps and inventory lists on their website. Google has launched an initiative to begin posting pictures of the insides of places on Google maps. Retailers can set up an appointment with Google photographers to get their interior shot and added to the Google places site. In the meantime, stores can post updated interior photos themselves and even set up a web cam so customers can watch a live stream of the store’s activity any time they want. This way, customers can time their visits based on whether they think the photos and videos show it’s a good time for them to shop.

Once a customer gets to the store, employees can use technology to create a more personalized shopping experience. Sales staff can use handheld devices and iPhone and iPad attachments to make transactions on the floor, freeing them from the desks and increasing interaction with customers. iPads stationed in store can run applications that help customers find what they’re looking for or get more information about a product when they don’t want to talk to a sales person.

Stores can also encourage its customers to share their experience on social networking sites by building a station where they can upload a picture or message in store. Diesel in Spain equipped their stores with a kiosk and camera so customers can upload photos to their social networking sties and ask for friends’ opinions as they try on outfits. This summer, JC Penney embraced user-generated content and had kids create YouTube back-to-school haul videos, showing friends what they bought when they shopped at JC Penney. The department store hopes the viral videos featuring ordinary teens will influence followers and friends to make similar purchases.

Technology will continue to be a welcome addition to the physical store environment. It’s a valuable asset in helping retailers create a destination shopping experience through storytelling and product education.

That doesn’t mean retailers shouldn’t welcome changes to their stores. Around the same time of the release of that report came another study that revealed people are happier if they spend their money on experiences and not material goods. So what’s a store that makes and sells material goods to do? Create an experience around shopping, like B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore suggested in their 1999 book The Experience Economy. In short, Pine and Gilmore state companies must create memorable events for their customers so the memory becomes the product instead of the tangible good they purchase. It’s why you see more roller coasters springing up in shopping malls and more cafés attached to bookstores and even home goods stores.

Online shopping contributes to retail sales, but offline shopping offers an opportunity to create a lasting memory that turns a consumer into a loyal customer for your brand. How do you transform your store into an experience? PSFK, a trends research and innovation company, proposes that successful stores are the ones that leverage technology and push the boundaries of storytelling, product testing and education, two ideas that will be explored in upcoming posts.

The retailer that boasted more than $400 billion in store revenues in 2009 launched a store remodeling initiative named Project Impact in an effort to boost efficiency and sales. The project started in 2008 and is on track to have reached about 32 percent of its stores by the end of 2010. Forbes reports that the remaining stores should be remodeled by 2014.

Project Impact was put in place to declutter stores and highlight popular merchandise while discontinuing unpopular items. Reduced inventory and improved inventory turnover supports Wal-Mart™s goal to be the low price leader and helps attract customers and increase sales. Many believe the remodeling strategy was a way to appeal to consumers who frequent the retail stores Target and Costco.

Project Impact is reportedly yielding positive results. New customer data shows that Wal-Mart is attracting more upscale customers with higher household incomes and has driven a sales boost of between 1.2 percent and 1.5 percent. Even after bringing back several product categories that were initially cut, Wal-Mart still decreased its inventory volume by 6 to 8 percent, improving its working capital position.

In this volatile economy and fast-paced digital age, retailers can’t afford to be static fixtures. Wal-Mart’s™ renewed attention to customer service, consumer experience and store management has proved to be a winning combination for the retailer, reinforcing the idea that not all change is bad.

TheStreet points out that the survey echoes a 2006 Journal of Marketing study regarding the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). That study revealed the top 20 percent of companies in the ACSI combined outperformed the Dow by 93 percent, doubled the S&P 500 and nearly tripled the Nasdaq.

This year, Nordstrom saw increases in its ACSI as well as its net earnings, and it currently leads all department store retailers. It boasts an ACSI score of 83 out of 100, up 6 points from 2009, and saw a 44 percent boost in net earnings, a 17 percent jump in net sales and a 12 percent increase in same-store sales in the first quarter that ended May 1.

Jim Bush, American Express Executive Vice President for World Service, thinks some companies should rethink how they view customer service. “It’s important to see [it] as an investment, not a cost.”

It’s an investment with an infinite payoff. According to the survey, 75 percent of consumers claim good customer service will make them spread the word about a company that treated them well. Today’s digital age makes that easy for them to do. Reward your customers, and they will reward your company.

In an interview and a book excerpt posted on NPR, Underhill reveals that five years ago, young women under the age of thirty over took men in earning power for the first time in history. Underhill writes, “In the United States, the chances of being twenty-five years old and gainfully employed are higher if you’re a female than a male. These odds go up even further if we don’t consider immigrant, African-American, and Latino populations. Economic hard times favor females, too. During the recent recession, 82 percent of job losses befell men, who tend to be disproportionately represented in industries like construction and manufacturing. Historically, women are apt to work in fields such as education and health care, which are more resistant to economic swings.”

More money means more power, independence and wealth to spread. Retailers better take notice, and Underhill points out that some of them already have.

Using examples from the hospitality industry, Underhill explains how hotels have tweaked their shower curtains to appeal to a woman’s higher standards in personal hygiene and modified their check-in process to increase a woman’s feelings of security.

When trying to increase a female customer base, retailers should not only concentrate on what products and services they sell, they should also place importance on how they’re doing the selling.

It has been widely reported that retailers and manufacturers have been effectively using sweet deals to attract consumers to follow their company presence on various social media outlets. The hope is that shoppers will continue to follow and build brand loyalty. Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, presents itself as a great jumping off point to disseminate information and gain followers. Hundreds of special offers are being leaked to vigilant consumers.

Brand marketers get additional penetration from special deal sites such as dealnews.com who also track and list Black Friday offers. Many e-commerce deals extend to the Monday after Thanksgiving, now known as Cyber Monday, because of consumers’ propensity to shop from their computers that day.

In short, Diamond spent 30 minutes running an errand that he had done many times before. But this time he left without the goods and was called a liar and a thief. The fact that this was not a good customer experience or good customer service is obvious. Instead, it serves as a cautionary tale.

The lookout, according to Diamond, is creating a corporate culture in which the rules are more important than the customer. Is the customer always right? They are, in fact, many times wrong. However, a corporate culture that puts policies, rules and computers ahead of people starts to operate under the assumption that the customer is always wrong.

Diamond says, “Successful retailers operate under a variety of different models, but all of them — regardless of how large they grow — demonstrate a fundamental respect for, and trust in, their customers.”

So there it is. The customer is not always right because they are always right. They are always right because right or wrong, they decide if you succeed or fail. Maintaining a trust and respect for your customer base when designing the consumer experience is a way to ensure that policy, computers and a small handful of misguided employees don’t get in the way.

EZ-PIC technology has enabled brands to target consumer with coupon promotions at the point-of-sale based on shopping behavior. The technology has been a huge win for brands over the years. Unlike mass coupon distribution via mail, coupons are specifically designed from shoppers who are purchasing items within the brands market.

The new partnership will help streamline the redemption process since EZ-PIC is expecting millions of dollars in redemptions this year. Of course, with the recession, the increase in coupon promotions is expected as consumers look for bargains. Point-of-sale promotions may be one the best marketing tools for brands in 2009.

In MSNBC article, John Thompson, Executive Vice President for Unicous Marketing, Inc., stated “Teaming up with Inmar on Conexions, the digital promotions settlement platform, gives our application the credibility that’s expected for managing promotional dollars.

Kroger’s recently jumped on the mobile bandwagon by allowing consumers to download coupons via their smartphones. The mobile coupon clipping was implemented nationwide involving national brands such as General Mills.

Customers with a Kroger Plus card can register for a mobile coupon account at www.cellfire.com. Once registered, consumers can search for coupons on the go or at leisure, with the chosen coupons loaded into their Kroger card. The coupons are redeemed at checkout.

The wave of mobile marketing is moving fast. Making both the smartphone market more attractive and allowing retailers to reach consumers on a different platform. The trend for retailers to use mobile apps will continue to grow. In the future, we may see customer feedback apps or a mobile suggestion forum. There are endless possibilities for companies to reach consumers using smartphone applications.

At ICCDS we have found when retailers take time to understand their customer needs and shopping patterns, they are better positioned competitively. Quality retail research is necessary to achieve completive advantage. A retailer cannot operate on management assumptions and general ideas of what constitutes a great customer experience. You have to have insight.

A retailer can go through the branding questions of what does your customers want, what does you store offer, what is your target market, etc. True insight can only be found by taking the steps to study consumer trends. Not just general trends, but trends of YOUR shoppers.

Some of the metrics to measure include:
1. Time in Store
2. Effectiveness of promotions and event marketing
3. Cleanliness and atmosphere
4. Data analysis of top selling brands and overall shopping direction of consumers

If a retailer’s research is quality and management implements the findings with the customer’s needs in mind, positive results will occur. Consumers’ won’t backlash a retailer who seeks to create a better shopping experience. From door greeters to width of your isles, costumers will consistently support retailers who are in tune with their needs and shopping behavior. The foundation to start better creating customer experience is research insight.