Friday, May 25, 2007

2 Very different experience


I visited the new Docker Showroom in the Indiranagar 100 ft road (Bangalore)last week and it was a perfect example of "everything being perfect - except the personal touch"

Catalogues / Tissues / Chocolate - with Dockers written on it / A laptop kept which probably helps in browsing the catalogue on a screen. But everything was there like some pieces in a museum and u are just walking thru it ....I wish there was someone who would come and say - Hello sir can i show you some cords or have a chocolate or something about the latest chinos which ads are talking about.......There were certain store exec's checking their inventory some just standing there watching you. I was there for 20 minutes and I could literally see the faces of people coming and going out - WOW! What a store - let us check it out. Walk in make a round of the store ,take a look at the plane probably thinking - Wish I could ride it....touching some fabrics, not sure if they should have the chocolate or see the catalogue, smiling at the sales exec and then moving out.

Around 100 mt rs from there I visited a small shop called "Apple of my eye" - a shop which specialises in everything to do with children. Note that I am saying store and not a showroom as it was probably a bungalow converted into a store. I have two kids and they just didn't want to come out of the store - there were toy cycles they wanted to ride, chocolates etc but most importantly some very smiling, accommodating always help full kind of staff - the entire place was live and you could see that everyone was having fun (including the sales exec's) chatting and yes 9 out of 10 customers bought something or the other.

Why am I writing this because
- as a customer I was quite frustrated when I walked out of the Docker's store and I (and my wife and kids) were thrilled to bits when we walked out of the Apple....eye store.
- as a marketing person I felt these guys must have spent crores creating the store ,doing consumer research etc etc......all of this probably not done by a store which is at a stone's throw.

How could they create that experience......was it pure guts / mother's experience....or just fluke?