Formal wear and customer care
What suit shopping taught me about crafting a better user experience
I felt like I was swimming in the open ocean. Racks of jackets and pants stretched before me in intimidatingly straight rows. There were pin stripes and solids, blues, grays and blacks - so many choices. And all I wanted at that point was to find something in my size.
To an inexperienced buyer, suit shopping can be a daunting task, and as I set off down Newbury Street to buy a new suit for a company holiday party on a chilly Wednesday afternoon last week, I knew I would need some guidance.
Though the business of selling suits dates back to a time far before the first digital user interface, the best practices of suit sales offer e-retailers critical lessons about crafting a successful online user experience.
Lesson 1: The user is a guest on your site — be polite and show them around
I walked into the first shop and looked around at the vast selection. It had been quite some time since I last bought a full suit, so I knew I would need to be measured. I was also hoping to consult a clerk about which cut and color I should choose for an upcoming party. I looked around for a store employee, and found, to my astonishment, that there was no one around. For the next fifteen minutes or so I picked through the racks, but with so many options and a complete lack of guidance I soon grew frustrated and left the shop in search of a place with better service.
Just as in a brick and mortar shop, when a person visits your website they are a guest. Put quite simply: it’s rude not to provide your user with some helpful tips to get them oriented.
Though your UI might clearly imply the correct interactions, there is no substitute for an explicit and well-placed instruction. One of the biggest mistakes that an interaction designer can make is overestimating a visitor’s intuition. Though a given function or page might make perfect sense to you as a designer, you must tap into your empathetic side and try to view the page through the eyes of a flustered user.
That is not to say that every page you publish should be designed for someone who has never used a computer before. Instead, go through your site with the eyes of a new visitor, find potential snag points, and drop in some clear and helpful tips. These tips need not be lengthy; in fact, when thinking about the copy for your tips, you should aim to be as clear and concise as possible. You don’t need to write an essay for your users. Your aim is to always be there with quick and helpful advice in the event that they need a nudge in the right direction.
The brilliant team behind Airbnb’s iPhone app provides first-time users with a quick and elegant tour of the app’s key features:
Though this short set of screens may not seem like much, it is an exemplary tutorial sequence. The copy is short and simple, the icons help to illustrate each panel’s meaning and at any point a user can skip ahead.
The time you invest orientating the user to your app is well spent and will help users to have a much less frustrating experience as they use your application to shop, book travel or whatever else.
Lesson 2: Sell within the parameters of the user’s request
I walked down the block until I came across a shop with an inviting array of suits displayed in the front window. Hoping to make a purchase, I walked in. I was immediately greeted by a smooth-talking salesman in a velvet jacket. I was a little wary of his gaudy outfit, but he seemed nice and was extremely accommodating. I explained what I was looking for and we set out to find it. He pulled a number of great-looking suits from the rack, and as I tried them on I felt confident that I would find something that I liked in this store. The salesman was polite, but he began to get very pushy with the merchandise. As I stepped out of the dressing room and stood in front of a mirror he sauntered up with shoes and a very expensive overcoat in hand.
“You’re going to need these to complete the look; plus, they’re on special,” he assured me.
“No, thank you,” I replied. “I’m really only here to buy a suit today.”
“No problem,” he said, as he put the coat and the shoes back on the rack. I tried on another suit and once again the salesman approached me with more clothes. This time he was pushing shirts, a belt, a tie and a tie clip.
“No thank you, I’m not interested,” I told him, this time with a hint of irritation in my voice.
Having tried on a few different colors and styles I settled on a suit and took it over to the counter with the intention of purchasing it. I watched the screen on the register as the salesman begin to ring me up. To my surprise, the total began climbing alarmingly, soon surpassing my pre-specified budget. “Wait a minute,” I said, “these are way higher than the prices you told me earlier.”
“Oh, yeah, I thought I would just ring up the shoes for you, too,” the salesman sheepishly explained.
I didn’t understand why he had done that. He had been trying so hard to make a sale that he had forgotten about trying to satisfy me, the customer. I wasn’t crazy about the suit I had picked out, and the salesman’s slippery trick ended up being the straw that broke the camel’s back; I left the store without spending a cent.
This over-the-top salesman blatantly reminded me of annoying internet spam: constantly popping up in my face and trying to sell me something that I don’t want and didn’t ask for.
There is a lot that e-retailers and app developers can learn from this example of an overbearing salesman. No customer likes to be harassed and they certainly will not appreciate an attempt to sell them something they explicitly said they were not interested in. That is not to say that you should sit back, cross your fingers and hope that someone buys a product from your website. There are a number of proactive techniques that can be used to entice users to buy more without making them feel as if they are under attack.
Amazon.com masterfully employs one such technique for making sales. Rather than foisting merchandise on their visitors, they opt to provide an easy-to-navigate environment where users can quickly find exactly what they want. They also provide a more than adequate amount of unbiased information (including customer reviews) to help shoppers make an informed purchasing decision.
Like most salespeople, Amazon does take a stab at up-selling; unlike many salespeople, Amazon does so with subtlety and tact.
Just below ‘the fold,’ of a given product page, Amazon suggests an array of related products, as well as items that are “Frequently Bought Together.” Just like the salesman at the suit store, Amazon tries to sell additional merchandise. The crucial difference lies in Amazon’s execution. Firstly, the location of these suggestions is key. They are not in your face or obtrusive, but are instead tucked away below the most crucial product information. Additionally, the suggestions are based on what other customers have done. They do not try to sell items because they are “on special,” but instead because others with similar taste have found them interesting.
Amazon creates a relaxed and informative environment for their customers, and so their attempts to up-sell are not annoying. In fact, they are quite the opposite — they are helpful.
By factoring the customer’s feelings into their sales techniques, the designers at Amazon create more opportunities for sales without being overly aggressive and scaring off customers.
Lesson 3: Make the user feel special
It was getting late and I needed to get back to campus in time for my three o’clock class. I had time to look in one more store before catching the train and heading home. It was bitterly cold outside and I pulled my coat tightly closed as I swiftly walked down the block, eyes keen for another suit shop.
People always say that the third time is the charm, and I was hoping to prove that theory correct when I walked through the door of a small shop on the corner.
A polite and immaculately dressed salesmen greeted me at the door and asked for me for my name and for an idea of what I wanted to buy. He was knowledgeable, and was able to translate my vague specifications into a fantastic-looking suit. He took my measurements, offered me a Pellegrino, and before I knew it, I was walking out of the dressing room wearing the perfect suit. He rang me up, and that was that. I was happy, and he made a sale. Everybody won.
This salesman’s success came from his genuine desire to help me find what I wanted and his attention to creating a delightful shopping experience. He listened carefully to what I wanted, offered guidance without being pushy and delivered a quality result. But above all else, he made me feel special. Small things — like asking for my name and offering me something to drink— changed my experience in the store from a good one to a great one.
In 2003, Bain & Company partners @FredReichheld and @RGMarkey developed a metric to help companies measure the likelihood that a customer would recommend them to a friend, this measurement became known as a Net Promoter Score and is now used by many major companies as a key performance assessment. Those customers that are highly satisfied with their experience with a given company are known as ‘promoters’ because they are likely to spread positive messages about that company. On the other hand, those customers who have unpleasant experiences are referred to as detractors because their testimonials are likely to tarnish a company’s reputation.
I left the first two suit shops feeling thoroughly annoyed and frustrated and thus would be considered a detractor. However, I left the third shop feeling happy and satisfied, and would therefore be labeled a promoter.
It is in your brand’s best interest to create as many promoters as possible and, in light of this, website and application designers should seek subtle ways to delight customers and to leave them happy and fully satisfied.
Creating a personalized experience for your users is a great way to show them how much you care about them as individuals and, best of all, it really isn’t all that difficult to do. Ask for their name at the beginning of your relationship and then be diligent about using it in all subsequent interactions.
This small step can go a long way in cultivating a high quality customer experience and is sure to increase customer loyalty and boost your brand’s reputation.
A recent review of my Twitter feed unearthed blatant evidence that going the extra mile to deliver a personalized experience is worth the effort.
@CaroKopp was so delighted by the personalized experiences offered by the apps she uses that promoted them on her Twitter feed. @CaroKopp’s happiness with her experience not only increased her loyalty to these brands, but also prompted her to share. Such testimonials improve brand visibility and reputation, thereby increasing the likelihood of new customers.
Rewards and perks are another great way to show your customers how much you value them.
Any.DO, an elegantly intuitive to-do list app, recently began to use kiip to reward a user for completing all of the tasks on his or her list. Rewards range from Amazon .mp3 vouchers to Uber credits, and positive public acknowledgements from users such as @joshhammz speak to the success of this new feature.
Just as I was very impressed and happy when the salesman offered me a Pellegrino, @joshhammz was so pleased with his experience at Any.DO that he went so far as to tell all of his followers how “cool” Any.Do’s service is.
An app implicitly offers its users a service. But when developers go a step further to reward users for completing simple, well defined tasks while using the app, they are actively showing their appreciation for every user. Task-driven rewards feel like a personal “thank you” — a reward for something you did, rather than a generic incentive provided to the masses.
Using rewards serves in the same capacity as using a customer’s name: it makes them feel like they are having their own special experience each time they open the app.
Moral of the story
Customer service should be of the utmost importance to any company. At the end of the day, a business is nothing without its customers, and therefore, their satisfaction is not simply ideal; it is critical.
The salesmen at the first two suit shops failed to provide adequate customer service. The salesman at the last suit shop put an emphasis on providing exceptional customer service. And it was this distinction in service, rather than a distinction in product, that made the difference between a lost sale and a completed one — or, more importantly, between a dissatisfied user and a newly-minted fan.
Internet and app users have an even shorter attention span than shoppers at physical stores — another option is always just a click away. Because of this, paying careful attention to all aspects of user experience is absolutely necessary to increase the profitability of and customer loyalty to your digital enterprise.
