{"id":507,"date":"2017-03-16T01:11:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T08:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/?p=507"},"modified":"2025-11-11T05:31:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T13:31:24","slug":"the-3-keys-to-giving-your-customers-an-amazing-in-store-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/the-3-keys-to-giving-your-customers-an-amazing-in-store-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"The 3 Keys To Giving Your Customers An Amazing In-Store Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And growing your revenue as a result<\/span><\/i><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We are now living in the Amazon age.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This 9000 pound behemoth is swallowing up mom and pop retail stores left and right. Maybe not as literally as Wal-Mart has done, but it\u2019s happening nonetheless.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With Amazon\u2019s huge warehouses and distribution deals, you\u2019re going to go out of business if you try to compete with them on price.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><b>So how do you win? By leveraging your in-store experience &#8211; which Amazon can\u2019t offer. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While people love the convenience of online shopping, they still enjoy the experience of going into a store, comparing options, and buying something that they can take home and use right away.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you can give your customers an amazing experience while they\u2019re inside your store, you\u2019ll make it much more likely that they\u2019ll keep coming back for more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this article, we\u2019re going to give you 3 key tips that will help make your customers (and your revenue numbers) happy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019ll be using research from motivational psychology as well as an extremely useful report by Synchrony Financial titled: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.synchrony.com\/s\/SynchronyFinancialCustomerExperienceWhitePaperSept2015.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe Retail Customer Experience &#8211; Which elements of the shopping experience matter most?\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This report examined the data from a survey of over 1000 consumers who go to retail stores, asking them about the most (and least) important factors when it comes to shopping.<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"background: #fffb90; border: 1px solid #fffb90; padding: 15px 15px; margin: 0 0 20px 0; font-size: 18px;\"><strong>Exclusive Bonus:<\/strong> <a class=\"manual-optin-trigger\" href=\"#\" data-optin-slug=\"fkbi8otmehjvwmal\">Download this free checklist<\/a>\u00a0With 9 questions you can use to improve your customers\u2019 experience of your store!<\/div>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#1: Make Sure Your Employees Are Happy Through Motivational Psychology<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYour employees are your frontlines. They\u2019re the public face of your business because they deal directly with customers. If they\u2019re unhappy or uninformed, customers notice.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Retaildoc.com, from <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.retaildoc.com\/blog\/improve-retail-customer-experience-sales-follow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c4 Ways To Improve Your Retail Customer Experience and Sales\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This first point may be the hardest to execute effectively, but it\u2019s also the most important. How your employees feel on a day to day basis matters &#8211; especially when it comes to your bottom line.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Think about it like this: studies have shown that our emotions are contagious. That means, if a customer walks into the store, and your employees are all in a relatively good mood, your customer will feel uplifted. And happy customers buy more!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the opposite happens if your employees are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Resentful due to a perception of low pay<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disengaged due to not being challenged, having a poor role for their skills, or being a bad hire<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fighting amongst themselves due to personality conflicts<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, let\u2019s be clear: you are in the business of doing business &#8211; not being a therapist. You don\u2019t hire people in order to sweet talk them each day about how amazing they are.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>However, <\/b> <b>motivational psychology<\/b><b> has shown that when three basic psychological needs are met, your employees will be much more motivated (and happy) while at work, which will make you more money.<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The logic is simple: happy employees = courteous, attentive, and helpful employees (assuming they have the necessary skillset to make that happen). And the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.synchrony.com\/s\/SynchronyFinancialCustomerExperienceWhitePaperSept2015.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Synchrony customer experience survey<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> we mentioned earlier found that for both department and apparel stores, the most cited reason for an amazing in-store experience was \u201cthe associate was helpful\/attentive\/courteous\u201d.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The survey goes on to say: \u201cOver half of surveyed customers say they will shop a retailer more often because of a positive experience in the store.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With that in mind, here are the three basic psychological needs and how you can help your employees meet them:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Autonomy <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; aka independence. You can help employees meet their need for autonomy by giving them free reign in areas that they have shown to be trustworthy in, and avoiding micromanagement. Let your employees make mistakes and learn from them.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Competence<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; aka the feeling of being good at and getting better at skills. You can help employees nurture their sense of competence by giving them tasks appropriate to their skill level and continuing to train each and every employee in new skills &#8211; such as their ability to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/5-tips-to-help-your-retail-team-sell-more-without-being-salesy\/\">sell<\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Relatedness<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; aka feeling seen and heard. You can help your employees feel more connected by making it a point to give positive feedback (that is warranted) whenever possible, and training your managers to do so as well.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make sure to reward the actions rather than the employees themselves. So, say, \u201cThat was a skillful handling of an upset customer\u201d rather than \u201cYou are really skilled at handling upset customers\u201d.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The difference is subtle, but by calling attention to the actions (rather than the person) you give them more incentive to repeat that action, and also set a precedent of giving constructive feedback that focuses on actions instead of labelling the person as bad.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A final note:<\/span><b> while money isn\u2019t actually the prime motivator for most people, money CAN be a blocking point if there is a perception of unfairness. <\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trust us &#8211; if you invest in your employees by paying them 15-25% more than the average rate for their position (and hiring better candidates to fit), you\u2019ll more than recoup that money through your employees\u2019 positive influence on your customers.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#2: Create A Meaningful, Easy To Use Rewards Program<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People love rewards. There\u2019s a reason that giants like Starbucks use rewards programs &#8211; they incentivize shoppers to return over and over.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Creating incentives like this is crucial if you want your business to succeed. You always have to remember that in the modern retail environment, you\u2019re not just competing against other brick and mortar stores.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You\u2019re competing against the insane convenience and low prices of Amazon and Walmart. In order to stand a chance against them, you have to give consumers psychological hooks that make them shop with you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><b>A rewards program appeals to your customers\u2019 inner children: who doesn\u2019t love playing games?<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Your customers will feel like they\u2019re \u201cleveling up\u201d every time they visit your store. In the aforementioned survey, having an easy to use rewards program that could be used for savings of store gift cards was the fourth most important factor towards a positive customer experience (out of 27).<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"background: #fffb90; border: 1px solid #fffb90; padding: 15px 15px; margin: 0 0 20px 0; font-size: 18px;\"><strong>Exclusive Bonus:<\/strong> <a class=\"manual-optin-trigger\" href=\"#\" data-optin-slug=\"fkbi8otmehjvwmal\">Download this free checklist<\/a>\u00a0With 9 questions you can use to improve your customers\u2019 experience of your store!<\/div>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">#3: Make Things Hassle Free For Your Customers<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it comes to making your customers enjoy their time in your store, hassle doesn\u2019t help. You want to make things as frictionless as possible for your customers.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customers are often stressed out, and the last thing you want to do is contribute to that stress. If your customers feel a sense of ease while in your store, they\u2019ll unconsciously associate your brand with positive emotions (leading to more sales).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The customer experience survey gives two great ways you can make life easy for your customers: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Making returns easy<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Letting customers get sale prices without coupons.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These were the second and third most important factors in the survey that determined how customers experience your store.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Easy Returns<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People HATE feeling like they\u2019ve made the wrong decision on a purchase. It feels like they\u2019ve lost money.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/loss-aversion.behaviouralfinance.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the human mind is much more influenced by potential perceived losses than by equally large gains<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So your customers constantly have an objection to buying from you that they may not even be aware of: they\u2019re scared of buying something they won\u2019t like, and then not being able to return it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>If you can alleviate this fear of loss by offering returns without original packaging, receipts, or time limits, you\u2019ll earn your customers loyalty. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, there may be a few unscrupulous folk who try to take advantage of your generosity, but repeat offenders will be easy to spot.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sale Prices Without Coupons<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Loss aversion applies here as well. Imagine a customer walking into your store, seeing a sale item they are excited to buy, and then realizing they forgot the coupon.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They\u2019ll feel like they lost out on the purchase. If you simply make your sales valid with or without the coupon in question, you\u2019ll remove a whole class of annoyances and objections from your customers\u2019 minds.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bonus Tip: Use Storewide or Category Wide Sales<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We know that you\u2019ve been wondering: what was found to be the #1 most important factor for consumers having a positive experience in store?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was being able to pick their own sale items! Now the wording is a little ambiguous, but it seems to mean that customers enjoy having a perception of saving no matter what they choose in store.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This doesn\u2019t mean that you should never run specific item sales, or that you should only do storewide sales. But at the very least &#8211; <\/span><b>consider doing \u201ccategory sales\u201d, where you give a set discount to all brands and choices within a certain category of product.<\/b><b><br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That way, if your customer is interested in that product category, they\u2019ll feel like they are saving no matter what specific brand they choose.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wrapping Up<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Giving your employees an environment where their basic psychological needs can be met is the number one thing you can do to give your customers a more enjoyable in store experience.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This comes from a mixture of common sense and psychological research: nobody enjoys being in a store with a bunch of surly or disengaged employees.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Following up on that, if you can:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Give your customers an easy to use rewards program<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Allow your customers to have hassle free returns<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let your customers buy sale items without a coupon<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use category or storewide sales<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then you\u2019ll have customers itching to come back to your store, and your revenue numbers will look great as a result.<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"background: #fffb90; border: 1px solid #fffb90; padding: 15px 15px; margin: 0 0 20px 0; font-size: 18px;\"><strong>Exclusive Bonus:<\/strong> <a class=\"manual-optin-trigger\" href=\"#\" data-optin-slug=\"fkbi8otmehjvwmal\">Download this free checklist<\/a>\u00a0With 9 questions you can use to improve your customers\u2019 experience of your store!<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Source to the featured image display on the index of the blog<\/div>\n<div><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.freepik.com\/free-photos-vectors\/background\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Background vector created by freepik &#8211;\u00a0www.freepik.com<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And growing your revenue as a result &nbsp; We are now living in the Amazon age. This 9000 pound behemoth is swallowing up mom and pop retail stores left and right. Maybe not as literally as Wal-Mart has done, but it\u2019s happening nonetheless. With Amazon\u2019s huge warehouses and distribution deals, you\u2019re going to go out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agiliron.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}