MARKETING MARKETING 26 CÓMO INCREMENTAR LAS VENTAS EN TIENDA MÁS DE UN 20% GRACIAS AL SHOPPING EXPERIENCE HOW TO INCREASE IN-STORE SALES BY MORE THAN 20% THROUGH THE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE Marcos González de La-Hoz, Tomás Ibáñez, Gabriel Pagola & José Luis Ruiz BRAIN TRUST Consulting Services (Spain-Portugal-Brazil-Argentina-Chile-Mexico) Marcos González de La-Hoz Director académico del nuevo Programa Customer Experience Management de IE Business School que comenzará en octubre de 2014 Academic Director of IE Business School’s new Customer Experience Management Program which will commence in October 2014 Con clientes sensibles al precio y poco fieles, muy bien informados –muchas veces mejor que el propio vendedor–, con capacidad de hacer oír sus opiniones a los cuatro vientos y con canales de compra online siempre disponibles, la tienda tradicional puede convertirse en un simple muestrario, al que acudir para hacer un chequeo adicional (físico) del producto, antes de cerrar la compra online, posiblemente a un precio más ventajoso. Customers today are price sensitive and not very loyal, as well as being extremely well informed (often more than the actual salesperson). If you add to this the fact that they have the means to broadcast their opinions to the world at large and have permanent access to online shopping channels, it is not hard to see why traditional shops are in danger of becoming little more than showrooms where customers go to check out products in person before buying them online, possibly at a far better price. Sin embargo, creemos que la compra en tienda presenta un conjunto de atributos potencialmente muy atractivos para los clientes, que pueden ser identificados y gestionados para lograr una mejora de la rentabilidad. Para que se entienda mejor nuestro acercamiento, lo presentaremos sobre un reciente caso de éxito que Brain Trust CS ha desarrollado en 2013 para un operador de telefonía móvil multinacional, con una We believe, however, that in-store shopping can offer a series of advantages that customers could find very attractive, and which can be identified and managed to attain a sustainable increase in profit. In order to make it easier to understand our approach, we are going to explain it using the successful case of a project developed by Brain Trust CS in 2013 for a multinational telephone MARKETING MARKETING 28 cartera de varios millones de clientes, en su operación comercial de Brasil. Por shopping experience entendemos el conjunto de eventos y procesos de la experiencia del cliente, específicos de la tienda y que favorecen el comportamiento de compra. operator with a portfolio comprised of several million customers in Brazil. When we talk about a “shopping experience,” we refer to a set of events and processes that make up a customer’s experience, which are specific to in-store shopping and which promote purchasing. Objetivos y planteamiento El objetivo esencial del proyecto era determinar en qué porcentaje se podrían incrementar las ventas invirtiendo solo sobre variables ”experienciales”, sin actuar sobre ninguna de las 4 P’s clásicas de la oferta (precio, promoción, características del producto y ubicación). Para hacerlo se diseñó un piloto sobre seis tiendas de la región de Sao Paulo, dos de cada tipología que el operador tiene en funcionamiento (kioscos en centro comercial, tiendas de tamaño medio en centro comercial y flag ship store a pie de calle) todas ellas representativas de la realidad comercial en cuanto a resultados de ventas. Se incluyeron tanto puntos de gestión comercial directa del operador, como puntos de venta franquiciados en el caso de kioscos y tiendas de mediano tamaño. En la fase de diseño se identificaron un total de 67 acciones sobre la experiencia de compra, de las que 39 se consideraron “prioritarias”, según un ranking de esfuerzo de implementación vs. retorno esperado en incremento de ventas. Objectives and approach The essential objective of the project was to determine by what percentage invested sales would be increased by investing solely in ‘experiential’ variables, and without acting on any of the four classic P’s of a sales strategy (price, product, place and promotion). In order to achieve this a pilot scheme was designed involving six stores in the Sao Paulo region, two from each of the three categories used by the operator - kiosks in a shopping mall, mid-sized stores in a shopping mall, and flagship stores on the high street - all of which would provide real results in terms of sales revenues. They included not only outlets subject to direct sales management by the store operator, but also franchises in the case of kiosks and mid-sized stores. At the design stage a total of 67 actions related to the shopping experience were identified, of which 39 were considered ‘priorities’ based on a ranking of the effort involved in their implementation vs. the expected increase in sales revenues. 29 Variables de acción No vamos a enumerar las 39 acciones objetivo identificadas para nuestro piloto; mencionaremos los “atributos de la experiencia” en que se agrupaban las acciones y algunos “disparadores clave hacia la compra” que identificamos. • Experiencia de trato del cliente en la tienda: algo aparentemente poco relevante como el saludo a la entrada se demostró como un disparador potente de la experiencia. O bien no se saludaba al cliente cuando los vendedores estaban ocupados o se usaba el saludo “oficial” que sonaba muy poco empático. Quedó clara también la necesidad de que el cliente se sintiera “organizado” desde el momento de la entrada: qué tiempo de espera existe, cómo se le puede ayudar, etc. Teniendo también en cuenta que los clientes, si bien agradecen una expectativa clara de servicio, le gusta tener la oportunidad de curiosear de modo autónomo. • People Experience (vendedores): el vendedor debía ser un modelo de usuario avanzado y cercano. Se les dotó del mejor terminal disponible de la gama, que debían usar como equipo principal y ser capaces de ejemplificar anécdotas personales de uso con el cliente. Se hizo una revisión a fondo de los argumentos comerciales, identificando los más efectivos. Además de una evaluación de perfiles comerciales y del sistema de incentivos. • Terminales: disponer en la tienda de equipos reales, en perfecto estado y funcionales, se percibió como Action variables We are not going to list the 39 objective actions identified in our pilot scheme, but will rather simply refer to the “experience attributes” into which actions are grouped, and some of the ‘key buying triggers’ we have identified. • Client in-store treatment and experience: Something as seemingly irrelevant as a greeting on entering the store proved to be a powerful trigger in the overall shopping experience. However, sales staff were often either busy and failed to greet the client, or used the “official” greeting, which sounded hollow and lacking in empathy. Something else that was clear was that customers need to feel “organized” from the moment they enter the store (how long were waiting times, offers of assistance, etc.?) However it should also be noted that although customers appreciated offers of assistance, they also liked to have the opportunity to look around by themselves. • People Experience (sales staff): Salespersons needed to be fully cognisant with their product and have a warm manner. They were provided with top-of-therange cell phones which they were told to present as their main offering, and were expected to be able to offer personal anecdotes to the client about using the phone. MARKETING MARKETING 30 A complete revision of sales pitch and presentation was carried out, identifying the most effective, coupled with a review and evaluation of sales profile and the incentive schemes employed. un diferencial claro frente a la competencia, que normalmente dispone de maquetas. Esto además era más viable ya que el operador optó en su oferta por una gama muy simple. Los terminales reales y disponibles reforzaban en positivo esa opción (menos es más). Además, en una determinada fase del proceso de venta, el cliente debería tener en sus manos su terminal favorito para poder experimentar a voluntad. Como curiosidad, la mayor resistencia de la organización a esta acción se planteó con la pregunta “¿cuántos equipos nos van a robar a partir de ahora?”. Con lo que hubo de hacerse un esfuerzo específico de diseño en este sentido. • Environment Experience: se modificó el diseño de los kioscos para “forzar” una interacción más directa con el flujo de personas circundante. Se reforzó el branding de fachada en las flag ship stores y se habilitaron plazas de parking para clientes aprovechando espacios infrautilizados, entre otras cuestiones. • Comunicación y acción comercial: se detectó que los flag ship stores son visitados mayoritariamente por clientes de la cartera con motivos de postventa. Se buscó maximizar los impactos comerciales hacia estos clientes durante su tiempo en la tienda, con demostraciones no explícitamente push, buscando upselling y recomendación. Resultados Después de dos meses de operación con las acciones implantadas los resultados desglosados por tipo de tienda fueron los siguientes: Tipo de tienda Flag ship store Tiendas medianas Kioscos Variación Global ponderada Variación en ventas (1) + 2,28 % + 20,60 % + 53,43 % + 21,08 % (1)Total ventas brutas durante dos meses período de análisis piloto vs. ventas mismo período año anterior, descontada la variación en ese mismo lapso experimentada por el conjunto de tiendas del mismo tipo fuera del piloto. Finalmente, debe destacarse que desde el inicio del proyecto hasta la obtención de resultados pasaron tan solo cuatro meses. Cell phones: The fact that sales staff had real cell phones to hand, which were ready for use and in perfect working order, was seen as a clear differentiating factor vis-à-vis the competition, which usually only used imitation phones. Moreover, the store opted to offer a very simple range which was more feasible. Real cell phones and their availability proved to make this approach a very positive move (less is more). In addition, at some point in the sales process the client had to be able to hold a cell phone in his or her own hands, in order to be able to experiment with it at their leisure. Curiously, the main opposition to doing this came in the form of the question: “How many cell phones are they going to steal from us as from now?” This meant that it was necessary to make a special effort with the design to counteract the possibility of theft. • “Environment Experience”: The design of the kiosks was modified so as to strengthen direct interaction with the flow of passersby. Other actions included the strengthening of the branding of the facades of the “flag ship stores”, and making parking spaces available to clients, taking advantage of spaces that were underutilized. • Communication and sales action: It was discovered that the majority of clients who visited the flagship stores did so for after-sales service purposes. Hence we searched for ways to maximize sales impact of sales activity directed at clients while they were in the shop, using demonstrations that were not explicitly hard sells, but rather based mainly on recommendations and upselling. The results After only two months of operations with the adjustments in place, the breakdown of the results for the different types of store was as follows: Type of store Flagship store Mid-sized store Kiosks Total variation (Weighted) Variation in sales (1) + 2·28% + 20·60% + 53·43% + 21·08% (1) Total gross sales during the two-month pilot program vs. sales returns for the same period last year, compared to sales revenues in the same period in shops of the same type that were not included in the pilot program. Finally, it is worth noting that the time interval between the commencement of project and obtaining the results was only four months.