Why the human experience must be an essential factor in the strategies to succeed in developing our business.
I ventured with my family a few years ago on a 1,500+ mile trip from Bentonville, Arkansas, to Mexico City. After driving for more than ten hours, we arrived in Laredo, Texas. Already tired, we went into a Chick-fil-A for a quick dinner.
After ordering, I realized I had left my wallet in the car. I rushed to get it when the clerk said, “Please, don’t worry. You are coming very tired with your family, and we are going to do this; let us take care of your bill today, but how about when you come back from Mexico on your way home, you stop at our restaurant?”
A Memorable Experience
My surprise was huge. It was one of the most memorable customer experiences of my life.
Why did the employee give me dinner for free when it was so simple for me to go, pick up my wallet, and pay? What kind of organization or training did this employee receive to offer me this experience?
Over time, I studied Chick-fil-A more and realized that the answer lay in the culture of this company, which focuses, above all, on human values and how its purpose inspires to create the best experiences for its customers and employees.
As a Hispanic and retail enthusiast, I have never stopped asking myself: how do we translate experiences like these to Hispanic retail? Are we preparing ourselves in 2024 to meet the expectations of our customers?
A recent study published by Acosta-Televisa reported that more than 2/3rds of Hispanic shoppers enjoy shopping in physical stores as much as they did pre-pandemic.
Do we see it? Because I assure you, your competition does.
Related Article: Good Business Management Skills Is The Path of Success
On the other hand, are we also reflecting on the experience we are giving our employees?
We may already have priorities in becoming more customer-centric, with better digital and physical experiences. Still, we must remember that our workforce must be included, and undoubtedly, for every improvement we make in their knowledge, our customers will benefit.
This is what I call “The Human Experience Strategy.” Optimizing our investment by generating customer loyalty at the same time that we reduce employee turnover by generating employee loyalty.
The NPS (Net Promoter Score) metric is widely used in retail. This metric measures the advocacy of your customers.
The inflation we have experienced in the last couple of years has made price the leading indicator of change. However, after price, customer experience accounts for 27%, both physically and digitally.
How can we start to offer more human experiences?
For example, a Nielsen study in Mexico revealed that 73% favored the store, explicitly showing them the savings of a promotion to have more confidence in the store.
Other more sophisticated models to show this benefit of retail savings can be seen at Sam’s Club. If you are a member of this chain, check the “Savings” option in your profile, and you will see how much you have saved through coupons, gas discounts, etc.
This tool is potent in the customer experience because it is personalized and tells me if these savings have already covered the value of the membership.
And it is precisely this world of hyper-personalization that forces us to make 2024 a year where Hispanic retail invests in data and analytics tools.
The advantage is that large corporations have already documented much of the learning in this dimension, and we can jump immediately to more accessible and validated options that allow us, for example, to know and identify our customers individually.
I was recently asked by a Walmart operations leader what I saw as critical to winning the Hispanic customer. My answer was simple.
The Hispanic customer values that you get to know them, that you thank them for their visits in person (or digitally), and finally, that you gain their trust through the best human experience you can offer them!