Take one iconic retail venue, one prominent retail business, add a consumer psychologist, mix well and, finally, add a symbol of the hedonistic 80’s and what do you get? The road to CX success!
Jointly organised by thinkTRIBE and Mobify, this breakfast event provided delegates with some fascinating insights, asking the question: is your online presence truly delivering?
“Today’s consumer is ever more demanding, and with a low tolerance threshold, they switch brands with unerring speed. Can you be sure that your online presence is always performing at maximum capacity?”
Because, as we know, consumers today are less tolerant and more promiscuous than ever before. Each and every touchpoint has to be 100% on point. Every minute of every day. Loyalty is now an ephemeral concept in retail as the modern savvy consumer constantly seeks out best value.
And when it comes to customer experience, mobile is king. Tablet is practically a thing of the past as smartphones have increased in screen size and functionality.
Debenhams realised some time ago that their online presence was in urgent need of attention, and led by Jim Hingston, Head of Digital Product and Senior Product Manager, Mel Wasley, they set about transforming the digital experience for Debenhams’ customers.
With the help of both thinkTRIBE and Mobify they are now able to deliver an online customer experience which is second to none.
But what is it that’s driving this rapid shift in consumer behaviour? To find out, we have to delve into the minds of all of us and what better way to do this than with leading consumer psychologist, Zana Busby of Retail Reflections.
“The memory of the experience is more important than the experience itself” – Zana Busby
Providing fascinating insights into how our brains operate, in particular that we are unable to make decisions without emotion, she challenged the audience to rethink their strategies when it comes to attracting and retaining customers.
Retail in 2019 is more complex, more competitive than at any other time. Consumer expectation is exceeding retailers’ capabilities to deliver at an alarming rate.
Against this backdrop it is more important than ever to understand what your peers are doing to counter this and, increasingly, to understand just what makes us tick as consumers; why we purchase and more importantly why we don’t.
And that 80’s icon? Host for the day, Andrew Busby, brought along one of the original Motorola Dynatac ‘brick’ phones as a way to demonstrate the sheer power and influence we now have in our pockets through our smartphones.
It might be several decades since we saw the first ‘brick’ phone but it was only one decade ago that we saw the first smartphone.
The pace of change now means that it would be a brave person to predict just what power consumers will yield in another ten years’ time.
Andrew Busby is a former retailer, Founder & CEO of Retail Reflections, Forbes contributor and an IBM Futurist.
https://www.thinktribe.com/blog/does-managed-web-monitoring-help-with-your-roi/