Listen Up, Retailers

Retail marketing is all about creating and delivering outstanding shopper experiences. An outstanding shopper experience is one that feels intimate and personal, and happens at just the right moment through just the right channel. Personal and well-timed retail moments are driven by insights about the shopper. Insights are the result of good data, good data comes from shoppers, and shoppers like to talk.

So ask them questions.

In this bright new era of the enhanced shopper experience, a retail marketer must build and sustain a conversation with the shopper. Asking an individual shopper about her opinions and really listening to her replies both provides actionable info and helps the shopper feel connected to and invested in the brand.

The benefits of shopper conversation are myriad:

Good feedback leads to better marketing and experience creation decisions. When a shopper shares what she likes about the brand, great! When she shares what she doesn’t like, that’s even better.

Good feedback helps a brand discover (and activate) advocates and champions. Great brand advocates self-identify. Give her a chance to do that.

Good feedback helps a brand identify at-risk customers. Give the shopper a voice when she is bored, disinterested or angry.

Good feedback empowers a brand to maintain (and increase) shopper satisfaction. From good conversation comes deepened trust and loyalty.

There are many ways to open a dialogue and converse with shoppers on an individual basis. Here are 28 to start:

1. In-store intercept
2. Focus group
3. Phone survey
4. Email survey
5. Survey service
6. Suggestion box
7. Touchscreen
8. Chalkboard
9. Facebook chat
10. Twitter forum
11. In-store movement tracking
12. Exit interviews
13. Social listening
14. Mobile survey
15. Post-event feedback form
16. Experience testing
17. Website activity
18. Community group
19. Feedback portal
20. Customer reviews
21. Live chat
22. In-app feedback
23. Checkout survey
24. Brand boards
25. Pinterest or Instagram feedback session
26. Ranking / voting mechanisms
27. Video
28. Text-driven Q and A