Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a customer coming into your place of business to either purchase something or receive a service? How do you know what your customers are experiencing if you never have put yourself in their shoes?
Many businesses use “shoppers” on a regular basis so that they can find out what customers experiences are.
Take a few minutes to think about what it might be like to be a customer coming to your place of business. Now read through the list of questions below and take the time to think about what your customer’s experiences might be like throughout their encounter with you.
If you were to call your business and ask for an appointment or to see if they had a product or service you needed what would that conversation be like? Would you be greeted with a warm, friendly person on the other end of the phone that is ready to help you? Would they be knowledgeable and able to answer questions properly?
If you were to walk into your place of business what would you see as you walked through the door? Is your business a pleasant place visually? If you have carpeting and furnishings are they in good shape and clean? If you have aisles are they neat and clear? From the way your place of business looks, would you want to do business there? Visual negativity is a customer killer.
People want to work with businesses that are clean and organized, it makes them feel good. If this were not true why would Prada, Versace or Bloomingdale’s spend millions on making sure their store windows are so appealing that you cannot resist going inside to see a fantastically presented store?
Now that you are inside of your business what do you smell? Is it a nice clean pleasant smell, does the smell make you want to stay or run away? Foul odors not only will turn your customers off and make them think twice before coming back. If you are running a medical, dental or personal service business; i.e., hair or nail salon, massage or yoga studio, etc., people have been known to report bad smells in these types of practices to the health board for an inspection.
The last thing to consider about your place of business is what are your customers hearing when they are in your office/business site? What are the employees saying? What type of music are you playing? Are other customers happy or are they complaining? What does your place of business sound like? Have you ever stopped to listen?
These are great self-examination steps for your business and should be done not only by the business owner but by all of the employees as well because everyone’s input in to what they see, hear, and smell is important and can only lead to improving the business as a whole.
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