I've written about this topic in the past, but as more & more companies move to SM and SM strategies, I thought it was worth revisiting. You can't really read any advertising/brand article today without reading about how important people think social media is. There are any number of weekly conferences on the importance of SM and how it's changing business as we know it. Yet, at the same time, it seems that the in-store experience gets worse and worse.
Yesterday, my wife & I went pre-shopping for Christmas. Yea, I like to pre-shop, one of my quirks. And it's clear that stores are beefing up their sales staff in anticipation of the shopping season that starts in a few days. Unfortunately, much of the staff that we encountered didn't seem all that interested in being helpful and even those that tried to help, sadly didn't have the information they needed to be helpful.
I sent out several Tweets yesterday about our exploration of the Sony Reader and how disappointed we were by our experiences. Our first stop was Best Buy, where we couldn't initially find the display. The helpful associate in the phone department (we also needed a battery for my wife's old Pebble) and he sent us to the computer department. But, that's not where the Sony Reader is and the 2 people helping us in the computer section weren't even sure if Best Buy carried any ereaders. In fact, one of the guys was positive they didn't carry any. But, we listened to the other person and went over to where he suggested and there was a display of the Sony Reader. But, one of the readers wasn't working and we tried everything we could to get it restarted. When we finally went to get another person to help, he told us that the units were locked in a demo mode and there was nothing we could do.
Best Buy is one of those stores that I usually find to be a good example of a retailer in desperate need of e-tailing their retail. Their web site is full of useful and helpful information. I use it a lot. I like the consumer reviews, I like the depth of information. I find it easy to research products on their site and use it whenever I'm looking for electronics. But going into their stores is usually painful. It's easier now to find the right section thanks to the redesign of the store and the new graphics.
But once you get to the right section, it's really hard in my experience to get any information about the products. I usually look at the product, then head over to the Apple section, go to the Best Buy web site and then continue my research there. The first thing Best Buy should do is at least put computers in each section so I don't have to trek across the store to get to the computer section. But they should also be doing a lot more training. Then, they should require the staff in each section to review the web site for that section and know what people are saying about the products. They shouldn't be allowed on the store floor until they can pass a test about their section.
But, I'm not writing a piece about Best Buy, because each of the stores we visited yesterday had the same problem. An Office Depot where no one knew where anything was, even with one item being a featured item in their circular. Most places we visited didn't have nearly enough staff to handle the business that they had in the store.
And when the store experience is this bad, it's just easier to shop online. And then you're spending a lot of money on physical space that you're not using well.
But the major point for me is that if you're putting all of this effort into creating social experience online, why are so few companies even trying to create a social experience in-store? Some are and doing a great job at it.
For example, lululemon athletica is a great store where you really feel a part of the community when you're there. Simple things, like teaching free yoga classes once/week in the store to the chalkboard by the dressing rooms where they encourage notes from consumers about the product that the store shares with the design team to the boards in the store showing the 5 year goals of the employees. Whenever I've taken a group a group to any lululemon store, I've found a staff that's engaged and very happy to be there. The same thing is true of the new Hollister flagship store in Soho, although not always true of their more normal mall locations. And, of course, the Apple stores usually have a great staff that knows their product and always seems to want to be there. And I was told a story where an employee of a store was going to be out for 4 months and the store management was told to let that person go. They store staff covered this persons schedule for four months so they could keep their job. That's a team.
For far too many retailers, the frontline staff is treated like a necessary evil. Something they have to do, but wouldn't if they could figure out another way to accomplish their goals. They don't train them well and they don't seem to care if they're there or not.
But in an age of social media, how can companies be spending time, effort and money to create online social media engagements and then spend so little time figuring out how to create a social engagement in the physical stores? After all, each day, thousands of people walk through the doors of their stores, theoretically to spend money and buy their product. Yet, too many store employees act like having us in their to shop is an imposition.
If they want us to keep shopping, stores are going to need to beef up their in-store experiences to match the SM experiences they're creating online.
BTW, an interesting side note about SM folks. While I hear a lot of discussion about breaking down the silos to make SM successful, I hear very few of them talking about this issue. It's interesting how they are still creating silos between online & offline.