A recently released report by Gallup underscores how difficult it is for marketers today to know where to focus their efforts.  The report, which is based on a survey of US consumers’ retail shopping behavior (and includes some really interesting data on the engagement premium), at first suggests that success lies in the quality of customer service efforts and ease of shopping—both very functional aspects of the retail experience.  But three paragraphs later, the authors argue that retailers’ most effective strategy is to build an emotionally engaging experience. 

Well, which is it?  Of course, we’d all like to have an experience that is as good as can be, both functionally and emotionally.  However, we as marketers have limited time and financial resources.  We appreciate advice that steers us on how to prioritize. 

So, here is MLC’s take on how to make those tradeoffs. 

"Thank you, I will have one...it looks very functionally appealing"

Start by stealing a page from Lion-Nathan’s playbook.  Lion-Nathan is an Australian beer brewer, and has taken a clever approach to focusing the organization on the one or two most important pressure points to drive deeper consumer engagement.  High level, here’s how you would do this (there’s more detail in this case study for MLC members):

1. Gather attitudinal and behavioral data across your current and potential customer base.
2. Define the threshold attitudes AND behaviors that characterize different levels of engagement across a spectrum. 
3. Now, estimate the profit that those slices comprise, and spot one (or two, but not more) of the most leveraged audience slices to focus on. 
4. For those slices, study the differences in behavior and attitude that separate them from similar-looking audience slices at the next higher level of engagement.
5. Then, focus your marketing and experience efforts on those behavioral and/or attitudinal barriers, specifically.

Note: depending on your situation, you may find that either improving the functionality of the experience or creating a stronger emotional bond is higher return.  Regardless of which it is, with this approach, it will be easier to structure marketing and experience improvements because you’ll have an audience in mind with specific barriers to focus on.

Depending on where you land, I’ll recommend two important pieces of research and best practice:

• If it’s the functional part of the experience that you need to improve on, focus on reducing customer effort. MLC’s sister program, the Customer Contact Council, has done groundbreaking research here.
• If it’s the emotional connection you’re looking for, take a look at MLC’s  loyalty work focusing on shared values.  Read this short blog post and give the embedded podcast a listen.  Or, MLC members, you can access the full body of that work here.

Related posts:

1. Customer Experience Myth: Touchpoints Matter
2. Customer Experience: More Than Just a Marketing Buzzword
3. With Social Experience, Be Different…in a Way That Few Can Follow
4. Welcome, Retail! Customer Focus is Waiting
5. 5 Fresh Ideas for Reducing Customer Churn