From Transaction to Transformation: Can Positive Retail Experiences be Restored?
Fast Food Automatic Ordering System
Professor Joe Goldblatt
According to Loop, a property management firm specialising in retail letting, the average rent for a 1200 square metre shop in my neighbourhood is £20,000 per annum. When you add business rates, staff salaries, and insurance, even before factoring in the cost of stock and marketing, perhaps it is no wonder why retail has become such a cold and callous experience for many customers.
I recently popped in to do business with The Colonel (as in Sanders of KFC fame) and was shocked to see a sign on the counter that effectively stated “We cannae help you. You must use the machine to order.”
I then timidly and with great trepidation asked the tall, handsome and very youthful laddie behind the counter if he could show me how to operate the machine. He shrugged his shoulders and stepped around the counter to provide me with a tutorial about how to spend £1.25 to order six chicken nuggets.
I was successful in my lesson and then feeling ever more confident, I asked him what happens next? He said that I should follow him back to the counter where in a moment my magic order number would be announced and I could retrieve my prize. This entire experience took less than five minutes.
However, during that five minutes, The Colonel lost a valued customer. I decided I no longer wished to do business with a machine and if due to the rising cost of doing business, this was the future of retail, I would be more selective in where and how I transacted my business.
I prefer the opportunity to have a positive customer experience over a cold, callous, transaction any day. Perhaps that is why the first time a restaurant presented me with a squiggle known as a QR code to order my meal, I decided to politely walk away. The QR code takes away my opportunity to have a friendly banter with the server and learn about his, her, or their favourite items on the menu. It is instead a cold, imersonal and unless the WIFI is perfect, impossible task to operate QR code!
My friend Ivan Artolli, former General Manager of the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh once told me that to him his hotel is a Cathedral. You walk in feeling one way and you walk out feeling another way because you have been transformed by the total experience. I completely agree and can attest that several times I have departed the great lady of Princes Street’s loving arms and had so much fun I could not remember how I returned home!
In the best selling book The Experience Economy, the authors Pine and Gilmore evangelised about experience makers such as the Walt Disney Company who offer an experience that is both unique and authentic. Later, the same authors wrote a book about authenticity and when I finished reading it I soon realised that researching and reporting about authenticity is a helluva lot easier than delivering it seven days each week.
My father of blessed memory owned a small hardware store for many years. He never once advertised due to lack of funds, however, his small shop put two children through college, paid off his shop and home mortgage, and left our mother with a legacy to comfortably support her following his death. His retail success was based upon three not so secret factors.
Firstly, he knew and respected his customers. When a customer once asked him the shop would accept his check my father said “Certainly!” Then Papa gently grilled him about his job (to find out where he worked), his family (to find out where he lived), and as the customer drove away, Papa covertly wrote down the number of his automobile’s license plate. In nearly half a century, Papa only received one bad check. Where other retailers were posting signs that said “Two forms of ID required with payment by check”, Papa showed respect for his customer while quietly protecting his own investment.
Second, Papa believed that humour is the best medicine to heal broken hearts and also bond with his customers. More than once I heard him reply to the question “Hi Max, how are you?” by smiling and saying “I am alright and I will soon get over it!” With small children he would turn to their parents and ask “Does his parole officer know that he or she (this is before they) is out today?” His customers would chuckle, relax, and look forward to doing business with Papa.
Many years later, I am volunteering weekly in a charity clothing shop to raise money for cancer research. I use Papa’s methods by showing gentlemen our trousers and announcing proudly “Today only, we are having a trouser sale. If you buy one leg, you get the other one free of charge!” They also laugh, just as my father’s customers once did.
When a customer is seen browsing in our books sectionI whisper to them “All the books are individually priced but some of them, due to the strong content, require that you must be over 18 years of age. Do you have an ID?” The customers, who are usually over fifty years of age smile and sometimes even offer to show me their ID! Humour, indeed, is the best medicine for weary customers who have turned away at the end of the day from their screens, tablets, and smart phones to explore a real book.
Third and finally, Papa knew better than most in his generation, that what most customers really want is attention. Therefore, when someone enters my shop I smile and say “Good afternoon, let me know if I may help you in any way.” When it comes time to pay, these customers almost consistently make an additional donation to my charity and some say “You made my day!”
Therefore, if we are being forced to have transactions with automatic ordering systems for retailers to retain their profit margins then, as the famous Hollywood producer Samuel Goldwyn once said you may “Count me out.” Keep your dumb machines and QR codes and I shall continue to search for a warm smile, an attentive personality, and occassionally someone to laugh at my silly banter because for me shopping is only a bargain when the overall experience is even greater than the cost of the goods.
Professor Joe Goldblatt is Emeritus Professor of Planned Events at Queen Margaret University. His views are his own. For more information about his views visit www.joegoldblatt.scot