Posted by: Today's Tip Contributor on August 31, 2011
People buy more jelly beans when they're offered an assortment of colors. This is true even if all the different-colored jelly beans taste exactly the same. After reviewing 50 experiments that involved more than 5,000 consumers, researchers at Switzerland's University of Basel, Germany's University of Mannheim, and Indiana University in the U.S. concluded that the more choices for the shopper, the better.
There are two sorts of product lines where you are especially likely to realize sales increases when you augment variety.
1. Product categories in which you're seeing a dramatic increase in sales. These increases are a sign that you could be a destination location for that sort of merchandise. If you're selling lots of soccer equipment, expand the merchandise assortment to draw even more soccer equipment buyers.
2. Product categories that are underperforming in sales, compared to what you'd expect. If you've got evidence that other retailers are selling more baked goods than you, per square foot of merchandise space, consider expanding the variety of baked goods you offer in that merchandise space.
It's not enough just to load on variety. It's essential that you give the shopper a way to smoothly sort through the choices. Otherwise the abundance of alternatives will overwhelm and immobilize the shopper. As you introduce expanded alternatives, give the shopper meaningful categories to use.
Researchers at Stanford University and Columbia University find that categories enhance the sense of control by allowing the consumer to give reasons to themselves for the choices they're making. For foods and beverages, the categories might be by taste (coffees are mild, dark roast, or nutty). For clothing, the categories might be by usage occasion (leisure, office, party). For power tools and sports equipment, the categories might be by level of expertise recommended.
Bruce D. Sanders
Consulting Psychologist
RIMtailing
Vacaville, Calif.
Posted by: Today's Tip Contributor on August 30, 2011
When it comes to handling customer complaints, consumer-behavior findings support the notion that you only have one chance to make a good first impression. If you respond quickly to address an initial complaint, your customer stays remains likely to make future purchases from you. In fact, a prompt, thorough resolution of the problem often leads to the customer becoming even more likely to come back to buy more.
Researchers at the University of Virginia found that if a customer again encounters the same sort of problem, repurchase intentions drop sharply. The customer might not even bother to return to your business to complain, choosing instead to shift purchases elsewhere.
This means you might not learn why you've lost customers. Whenever you think you've resolved a complaint, ask them if they are fully satisfied. If they reply that they are not, see what you can do to change it to "yes." Then when you get the "yes," say: "If you ever have a problem like this again, please be sure to let me know. Here is my business card."
Use "I," "me," and "my" instead of "our store." Take personal responsibility. Then be sure all staff know that if a customer calls or comes in asking for you by name, staff should either get you or say you're not available at that moment and then add: "May I please see if I can help you?"
Also, if you have a frequent-buyer program that allows this, look for regular customers who have not come to your store for a while. Contact them to ask if there are any problems that you can solve. Ask, "What might I do to make it more likely you'll shop here again soon?"
Bruce D. Sanders
Consulting Psychologist
RIMtailing
Vacaville, Calif.
Posted by: Today's Tip Contributor on August 29, 2011
The holiday shopping season means more traffic and larger sales volumes, but it also heralds an important, seasonal change in overall shopping patterns taking place on your site, as well as dramatic changes to visitors' interests as they scour the web for holiday gifts. Planning for the online holiday shopping season needs to start now. Here are five tips to consider.
1. Keep improving your site. Out of fear that something might break on their websites, too many retailers freeze their site for the last two or three months of the year. While playing it safe might be comforting, it's not conducive to achieving high conversion rates. Make sure your digital teams are digging deep into website analytics to identify what updates will offer the highest strategic advantage. Then focus on rolling out those updates in a way that will resonate with your customers. Hold off until January on updates that won't move the needle in a big way.
2. Embrace a different form of personalization. Traditional forms of personalization that focus on the individual, social profiles, and past purchasing history are going to be substantially less effective during the holiday. This is because people are shopping on behalf of husbands, wives, sons, mothers, friends—often, everybody but themselves. Personalization approaches that take into consideration a site visitor's current intent will be much better suited to the holiday buying environment.
3. Highlight relevant gifts. Retailers that make it easier for shoppers to find gifts will reap substantial benefits during the holiday season. The key here, however, is relevance: Merely offering up a fixed set of products that aren't great gifts won't get you far. Creating relevance for your customers becomes a crucial balancing act between your interest in moving certain products and serving up the products your customers want and need. The savviest retailers will keep this in mind when crafting their sites for the holiday season.
4. Think social. Saying "social is important" is like saying the sky is blue, but you'd be surprised how many online retailers are still struggling with how to incorporate social into their businesses and drive sales through it. While some see social as more of an evergreen opportunity, a recent study on customers' online experiences during the last holiday shopping season found that 16 percent of respondents purchased an additional product based on their Facebook friends "liking" or purchasing a product. This season, ask yourself how you are making it easier for customers to share your products and their purchases online. If you're drawing a blank, you may be missing a big opportunity.
5. Develop a mobile strategy. Like social, mobile is one area that's likely already on your radar and then some—holiday season or not. Looking back at the previously cited study last year, 13 percent of the respondents said they used mobile phones to make holiday purchases while 18 percent used them for comparison shopping. While mobile shopping has not yet hit the mainstream, it's certainly emerging as an increasingly effective way for you to engage with your customers. With just months until holiday buying hits full swing, there is no time like the present to get your mobile strategy sorted out. Your more digitally savvy customers will thank you.
Bill Hustad
Chief Customer Officer
Baynote
San Jose
Posted by: Today's Tip Contributor on August 26, 2011
Sometimes it's easy to forget what it is that really motivates people. Whether you lead a business or a project team, it is important to foster an environment in which people are empowered to create and feel satisfaction in achievement. With that in mind, here are five traits that successful business leaders share:
1. A collaborative management style. Engaging the team and stakeholders in problem-solving and decisionmaking is critical for management success. I'm not advocating anarchy or a lack of leadership, but I am suggesting that those closest to the work probably know it best and should be invited to collaborate on how it is done.
2. Adaptability. Project teams and individual projects are always different. Successful managers are able to adapt and overcome the challenges new projects present. A fluid project-management approach is a very effective method for managing project-based work.
3. Resourcefulness. This implies creativity and occasional out-of-the box thinking to solve problems, along with a tenacious, never-give-up approach to overcoming obstacles and resource-allocation issues.
4. Communication skills. It is paramount that you are able to effectively communicate with stakeholders, project teams, and their peers. If you are unable to customize their communication style to the appropriate audience, success will be elusive.
5. Flexibility. No matter how well a project is planned, there will always be something or someone to throw a monkey wrench into the works. Flexibility is the genesis of creative thinking, which is critical for project success.
Ty Kiisel
Manager of Social Outreach
AtTask
Orem, Utah
Posted by: Today's Tip Contributor on August 25, 2011
Location-based mobile marketing delivers text messages to consumers on their phones when they are near your store and in a mindset to make a purchase. It's the perfect nexus of place, time, and consumer intent—a holy grail for retailers. So how do you make sense of what services might be right for your business?
1. Claim your business in services such as Facebook Places and Google Places. This ensures that your business is correctly listed and can be found by consumers. Check out their location-based merchant services and gauge the fit for your business.
2. Reach out to the deal services such as Groupon and Living Social and ask specifically for ways to participate in their instant deals.
3. Acquire consumer information when they enter your store so you can reach them beyond the first purchase.
4. Try out a promotion or two and measure the increase in foot traffic, as well as the ROI.
5. Use the features that encourage repeat business—loyalty is what you are after, not one-time deal shoppers. This means rewarding customers for repeat visits and sending them new offers after a visit, rather than just offers to get them in the door the first time.
Since many of these mobile marketing services are new, they are priced at what may seem like a low cost, compared with other marketing platforms; this is because they want to give an incentive to businesses to try them. The highest ROI for businesses will come to those that combine a number of social media and location-based services to reach their audience in the coming months. In other words, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Experiment with different services and find out which work well for you.
Alistair Goodman
Chief Executive Officer
Placecast
San Francisco
