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| Carol Daus - Editor |
As consumers, we’re all bombarded with choices. Just shopping for toothpaste can be a taxing experience. Is it more important to protect your teeth from cavities or tartar? Is cool mint or fresh mint a better choice? What are the differences among a gel, a liquid gel, and a paste? The average US supermarket stocks more than 30,000 different products—three times as many as 30 years ago.
Customers shopping for outdoor furniture, grills, and fireplaces might not have as many choices as they do for groceries, but it can still be an overwhelming experience to find the right products for their homes.
ccording to marketing experts, with such an overabundance of purchase choices, some shoppers worry so much about buying the wrong product that they end up buying nothing at all.
I had this experience recently when I needed to make some improvements to a guest bathroom. I went to a couple of different stores to shop for tile, fixtures, and wallpaper, and I walked away confused and discouraged. There were simply too many choices. After letting a few months pass, I ended up calling an interior decorator.
Fortunately, she was able to narrow down my choices, and I was able to move forward with the project. It dawned on me, though, that if the stores had actually displayed fewer products, or had employees trained in interior design to offer assistance, I might have been able to make selections without the decorator’s help.
In addition to being weighed down by choices, many consumers simply don’t have the time to research their options when making purchases. Growing pressures, brought on by the weak economy, have made many consumers less tolerant of businesses that waste their time, whether it’s because of bad service or being kept on hold too long. In a world of fast-food restaurants, ATMs, and online purchasing, it’s clear that time is of the essence for consumers.
As customers grapple with too many choices and too little time, specialty retailers and manufacturers can gain a competitive advantage by offering top-notch customer service that streamlines the purchasing process. Woodard (page 41) is using this strategy to make the entire process of creating an outdoor room easier for consumers. The company focuses on providing just the right number of fabrics and finishes so that customers can customize their purchases without finding the design process too complicated.
Travis Industries (page 24) respects its dealers’ time by limiting phone automation, providing one-on-one customer service, and putting only experts on the phone. As a retailer, Offenbacher’s (page 30) pays particular attention to hiring knowledgeable and experienced employees who understand customers’ needs and are able to help them feel good about the purchases that they made.
Parrish & Company (page 22) has run a successful business for 37 years by developing strong relationships with builders who recognize that they don’t have to waste time working with lots of different suppliers because they get the best products and service available from this single retailer.
In today’s economy, premium customer service should be viewed as a necessity—not just a perk. If people are willing to take time from their busy lives to shop, even if they’re preoccupied with potential layoffs and battered 401(k)s, it only makes sense for businesses to treat them with kid gloves.
Carol Daus
Editor
carol@peninsula-media.com
PHPR November/December 2009
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