Traditionally, it has been detrimental to a business not to be sufficiently responsible with customer treatment, not to treat them with courtesy, with sympathy, even with education, on many occasions. Now it is no longer harmful, now it is lethal.
Buying online is faster and, sometimes, easier and cheaper, and as consumers lose their fear of monetary transactions and payment via the Internet, the network is gaining followers. The options on the Internet are growing, and each new birth (of a business on the Internet) exponentially increases the range of possibilities for the buyer.
It is true that online commerce is more promiscuous. If the consumer buys in a virtual establishment and does not like it for any reason (it is difficult for him to find the products, the website has poor functionality, it is slow, he does not like the design, it does not seem safe and also more intangibles such as knowledge of the brand what's behind it, the image it has, the confidence it generates, a long etcetera of reasons) in one click you change stores. The "location, location, location” has another weight as a reason for purchasing online, because we are talking about another location, here we talk about SEO and SEM and some other elements that affect the location of the website on the Internet.
But this promiscuity is something enhanced in the buyer thanks to the Internet and as a consequence of the moment we are living in. We have already heard on numerous occasions about the liquid society, which believes that nothing lasts forever and that any aspect of our lives can be changed at any time and very quickly. 'If I don't like it, I leave because I have more options and I do it right away'. And this effect is transferred to traditional commerce, 'If they don't treat me with due attention, I'll leave, change stores or buy it online. It's colder but I don't have to put up with physical robots lacking education and feelings.. And let's not talk about having a positive shopping experience, in the most holistic sense of this experience, this is science fiction for some businesses.
Customers like to buy, or rather, go shopping, but this myopia and lack of concern for customer service is going to desert some shopping centers and shopping areas of the city. It is not enough for us to be multichannel and sell on the Internet because the point of sale (purchase) generates a brand image.
Why in the middle of 2012, in the middle of a crisis, do merchants/retailers not realize the importance of customer service? And this goes for any product, for the supermarket retailer, for the clothing store, for the perfumery, for the bank office,...
Because in the majority of studies that are carried out or circulated in the market, the importance that consumers give to “customer treatment” has been the same for some years, since before the crisis of 2006, 2007 and until today. . But the real crux of the matter is that this customer treatment does not gain in importance in itself (which it does minimally) or in isolation, but rather it is a more complex customer treatment endowed with greater meaning. And those “new” components associated with “customer treatment” are the ones that have changed.
According to a study by the consulting firm Hamilton Retail based on 800 surveys of customers of stores located in shopping centers in Madrid, before the crisis the consumer understood the treatment received as a customer as: The attention received in the different stores in the center and the Service itself of the center's customer service, normally the information service.
And in the middle of the crisis, the consumer understands customer satisfaction in a broader, more complex way. Now the client states that the treatment he receives means the attention he receives in the downtown stores (the same as before the crisis), but also the quality that these stores offer, the security and surveillance of the center in general and the places to entertain. to the children that the center offers.
In this way, before the crisis, customer treatment brought together a 20% of the importance of their satisfaction with the center and at this time this value has doubled. Once again, an importance that is not determined by the increase in value itself but by a deeper and broader understanding of the concept. For the customer to be satisfied with the treatment they receive in the shopping center, in the stores, now it is not enough to serve them well, but they also ask us for quality products and services, more security and more options to entertain the whole family. if we talk about a shopping center.
Does any retailer still believe that they can continue mistreating their customers? What's more, do those in charge of the stores, whether owned or franchised, believe that just with a smile the customer is satisfied with the attention we provide and that that is why they are not going to change stores?
Jordi Aymerich Martínez
