My local Lund’s grocery store offers a mostly-great shopping experience. Good , nice staff. But there’s one element of the experience that absolutely drives me crazy.
They contracted with Big Bowl to provide Chinese food, which is a great idea. Customers can stop in, grab supper, and likely pick up a few groceries while there. Genius! So, what’s the problem?
For whatever reason, while the rest of the store plays one soft rock station, Big Bowl plays its own DIFFERENT soft rock station! That results in an area in the store where you hear both stations. And there’s nothing worse than hearing two different soft rock songs at the same time!
Actually, there is one thing worse. One day when I was shopping, both stations were playing the same song – but out of sync! Imagine hearing “Billy, don’t be a hero” in one ear, “The soldier blues were trapped on a hillside” on the other!
So, what happened, and how has this continued for over a year now (despite several requests to fix it)? Does the store manager not care? Is he/she so overwhelmed with managing the store that there’s no time to pay attention to the customer experience? Or has the manager become so attuned to the annoyance that it’s faded into the background?
This is what this blog is all about. Especially in a down economy, superior products and services are no longer enough. You need to provide a better experience than your competitors, in order to build that emotional engagement that will keep your customers loyal when your competitors send out their latest sales ad.
Creating that experience that resonates with your customers requires that you go beyond the research to truly understand their experience. Try on the customer’s shoes. Experience your product or services they do. And ask them questions – tons of questions – to make sure you truly understand the heart of the customer.