Third sector retail: a salve to 21st century bruising CX
Commentary by William Carson, Teleperformance.
Recently I have found myself wandering in and out of charity shops. I’m not completely skint (yet) or have a particular skew to one cause or another so I reflected on why this had become a pattern of my high street amble.
I realise it’s the customer experience that I like. The enthusiasm, the personable attention, the conversation and even the lack of sophistication. It actually feels like I’m ‘shopping’ – that I’m truly the most important person to have come through the door, that I’m in control. I don’t feel like a targeted demographic and my senses aren’t aggrieved by ‘point of sale’ advertising, never to be repeated deals and offers that I won’t be able to resist. Third sector retail is basically a customer experience that is more or less free of economic behavioural science and psychology (or should that be psychosis) and I feel all the better for it.
My latest purchase was a wonderful glass wine decanter that can take over a litre of wine. I’d researched these on ebay and they varied in cost from tens of pounds to hundreds of pounds. I remembered several of the charity outlets near me in London always had glassware on show and set off to see what was in store. True enough, there it was in the window, behind lock and key. The shop manager was called to retrieve it giving the whole buying experience a sense of occasion. It was plain, perfectly formed with a glass stopper – and a snip at £6!
What might the giants of retail learn from third sector establishments?
Choice: By their very nature, charity shops are niche in that they aren’t niche if that makes sense. From shoes to glassware, music to jewelry, there is an eclectic juxtaposition of items that echo the ‘department’ stores of old. Perhaps the recent introduction to Homebase centres of Wiggle, the leading online cycle retailer, and Habitat may be an indication that retail collaboration to the benefit of the customer experience is coming of age.
Clarity on Price: There is nothing subversive or misleading about a sticker with a number on it! Has some brand ‘trust’ been eroded by a multiplicity (some might say duplicity) of offer mash ups and ‘deals’ that have proven to be more costly to the customer in the end? Perhaps this is partly why Lidl, Aldi and TK MAXX are succeeding in undercutting traditional big brands.
Customer Service: No doubt third sector volunteer staff are trained at a minimum to work the till, what items go where and what if any discounts they can offer the canny charity shop customer. However, this isn’t the two days offsite immersed in power point and role play training that is perfectly valid for major brands but is instead symptomatic of a recruitment strategy that places ‘life’ experience and shared values at the heart of its approach. Maybe great customer experience is sometimes delivered by those who have had, well – great life experience, period.
After Sales Care: Not that it matters for items that are already hugely discounted on their original pricing but clear information is always evident at the till in charity shops on their returns policy. It is as much about informing the customer as it is about protecting revenue. This clarity on policy is often less obvious on major retail sites and while this is partly due to the compliance brands need to work to, there is probably an opportunity to build customer trust with some of the most pertinent policies clearly presented and not consigned to FAQs.
Accessibility: With ‘show-rooming’ on the rise, that age old experience of being able to see, touch, handle the goods you are interested in – and purchase the item you like there and then – is another valuable ‘experiential’ aspect to third sector retail. Sir Philip Green in an Evening Standard article recently appeared to promote the idea of brands on the one hand launching flagship stores in major cities in retail complexes like Westfield and on the other hand providing online access only for everyone who lives anywhere else. I don’t believe that is healthy for consumerism or retailers and here again the charity shop can be an oasis of retail therapy in an otherwise barren landscape of vacuous brand outlets.
Not for a moment do I believe every charity shop will offer a good customer experience, and I understand completely that leading brands need to bring a whole range of creative ideas across all aspects of their enterprise to remain relevant and grow market share. However I think everyone in the industry would learn something they could value in their day to day role from the occasional shopping trip to a third sector retailer local to their home or work place.
