Part of delivering an exceptional customer experience is delivering incremental value along with the products and services you sell. Some of you may charge for incremental value such as design services but most of you use it to differentiate your store, increase average sale, and create more loyal customers and advocates.
But what is the incremental value you offer really worth, and is it something the customer sees as adding to their experience?
Consider this. What if your store was empty? What if you not only quit selling products, but also took everything out of store except for your counter and some chairs? Would your customer still visit? Would your store be the first place your customer turns to for advice and an opinion?
I think these are fascinating questions since they define the true incremental value you and your team delivers.
I can think of a few stores I would still visit. One obvious choice is the Apple store. Even if the place were devoid of products I would still go there to ask questions, and probably hang out and shoot the breeze.
I know I would also go to Jordan's Furniture store. It's is the only store in town that not only contains a trapeze school and an IMAX theatre but also boasts a replica of the Massachusetts State House made out of jellybeans.
I would also stop in and visit Kathy Fields at The Crafty Yankee, a wonderful store not too far from my home. I know that if I asked Kathy or a member of her staff for advice on gift buying they would have some fabulous suggestions.
These stores deliver incremental value besides the products they sell.
There are many more stores I would never go in again. The only reason to go to these stores is because they sell something I want or need. Because of that I have no loyalty to them. Given any reasonable alternative I have no reason to ever go back. These stores have little, if any, incremental value.
Maybe some of these stores have incremental value than I've ever seen but because they didn't deliver it proactively when I was there to make a purchase I wouldn't think to go back now that they don't have any product.
Here's an exercise for you and your team. List five to ten ways your store offers incremental value. Maybe you teach people how to pack, or share with your customer the latest fashions. The value is dependent on what you say. . . or maybe I should say what you used to say with what you use to sell.
Now ask yourselves what percentage of the customer's experience consists of that incremental value? Are you proactively delivering that value?
So let me ask, would you still have customers if you were no longer selling products?
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