How Successful Retailers Win in Endless Disruption

Organizations do not have the luxury of focusing solely on operations these days. Over the past decade, retail as an industry has changed. To survive, retailers must put the customer at the center of everything they do.  That said, not everyone believes it yet.    Not so long ago, I was having a conversation in the C-Suite of a company about Customer Experience. Unfortunately, this company was not into the idea of putting the customer at the center of everything they do. Now, I won't tell you the name of the company, but I will tell you that when I read the room, I had an image of what it must have been like in the room when Blockbuster decided not to buy Netflix because "streaming is never going to catch on." Don't just take my word for it. Take Professor Barbara Kahn's from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. As a guest on our recent podcast, she spoke about how retailers are winning in today's hypercompetitive retail market. (Spoiler alert: their strategy is built around the Customer Experience.) Professor Kahn co-hosts a weekly program on Sirius XM Channel 132 called "Marketing Matters," and her new book, The Shopping Revolution: How successful retailers win customers in an era of endless disruption, discusses the chaotic world of retail. She shares the details of what worked and what didn't when she had a front-row seat to witness it unfold as the director of the Patty and Jay H. Baker Retailing Center. When she was the director of the center, she spoke with a lot of retailers. She asked them to describe their idea of the perfect retailer. They mentioned a lot of operational details from products to managing inventory to optimizing the supply chain. While their definition included understanding products and building an attractive mix of wares that a customer wants, it didn't mention the Customer Experience. Kahn decided to research her marketing library to see if there were any frameworks that were about customers, but to no avail. The frameworks she found were product and logistics-focused.  She wasn't satisfied with these. So, she decided to write her own. The result was the Kahn Retailing Success Matrix, which she included in her book. http://whartonmagazine.com/issues/spring-2018/the-4-best-retail-business-strategies/#sthash.hob4hi4Z.ji6jXm2z.dpbs  This episode of our podcast explores how the Kahn Retailing Success Matrix can help you with your Customer Experience. Listen to the podcast in its entirety to learn more about how The Kahn Retailing Success Matrix could work for your Customer Experience.   The Intuitive Customer podcasts are designed to explain the psychological concepts behind customer behavior.   If you would like to find out from one of our CX consultants how you can implement the concepts we discussed in your organization's marketing to improve customer loyalty and retention, contact us at www.beyondphilosophy.com. To subscribe to The Intuitive Customer and never miss a podcast, please click here.