Improve the experience of a customer in a shoe store?

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Improve the experience of a customer in a shoe store?

Asked at Microsoft over a year ago

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yogesh247 · Answer 1 · 2019-12-12T06:46:15+0000

Here is how I would approach this problem:

1. Ask clarifying questions: What kind of a store are we talking about? Is it a store selling all brands or is it an exclusive showroom? What kind of customer experience are we trying to improve? Is it before purchasing, while purchasing or after purchasing?

Now I am going to assume that it is a store which sells all the brands and we are trying to improve the overall customer experience in general.

2. Identify customer personas: The following customers will be visiting our stores:

Parents purchasing their shoes for their kids
Adults purchasing casual shoes
Sportspersons purchasing sports shoes
Professionals purchasing formal shoes
All others purchasing specific profession shoes

3. Select a user persona: Since I am more comfortable with the persona of adults purchasing casual shoes, I would be choosing that persona. Let's step into its shoes and re-create its user journey:

Firstly, he realizes that he needs to buy new shoes. The motivation behind purchasing new shoes might be the fact that his old shoes are worn out or have gone out of trend
Then he will consult his peers and search online for the latest trends satisfying his budget
The discussion would also include from which store should he make the purchase
Then he will go to the store to purchase. Note that only the customers who either want to feel the physical product or who are getting discounts in physical stores will be willing to prefer physical stores over online marketplaces. Thus, it is safe to assume that the customers entering the store will be conscious of the price and quality of the product
Then he will try on different products until he fixes his mind on one which will satisfy his ego
Then he will make the payment through debit card/credit card/e-wallets/cash etc.
Finally, he will try the shoes with different outfits to see if they go with each one of them
He will also wear the shoes in front of his peers and get their feedback
If the feedback is good, then it is ok, else he will storm into the store with the complaints and try to return the shoes or purchase another pair

4. Some measures to improve customer experience: Following are some of the measures to improve customer experience in a shoe store:

Introduce a VR facility that will help them "try on" different outfits with their new shoes prior to purchasing.
Introduce a loyalty card and collect data for every customer. Based on data analysis, give customized recommendations to each of them

	Pros	Cons
Introduce a VR facility	Reduce the return orders	Implementation cost may be high
Loyalty program and data analysis	Better customer satisfaction; Discounts can also be given to those who purchase loyalty cards	It may take a long time to collect data

5. Give final recommendations: Although initial investment cost may be quite high, I would recommend introducing a VR facility because it has a high potential for improving customer experience.

Maha Alam · Answer 2 · 2019-11-19T04:06:47+0000

Understand the problem - questions to clarify:

1) What kind of experience are we improving? [Answer] overall experience of walking into a shoe store to buying

2) Is it any store? Or a specific brand? [Answer] any. I'm going to assume the shoe store sells all types of shoes. From fancy dress shoes to casual shoes.

Before I start on improvements, I'll start with customer personas. Who are the customers walking into a shoe store? Customers can be:

1) Parents looking to buy shoes for their kids

2) Teenagers looking to buy trendy shoes

3) People who are looking to get comfortable walking shoes

4) Shoe hobbyist looking for one of a kind shoes

5) Construction workers wanting to buy steel toe shoes

What are current user pain points with shoe shopping:

- Finding the right size/shoes not fitting properly

- Having shoes strech or not fit after

- Finding a color of shoe that you like

- Finding a good deal

- Shoes being out of stock

- Finding good quality shoe that will last more than a season of wear

- Finding someone at the shoe store to help you

I can personally resonate with some of the pain points because I've found that after you buy shoes, they end up stretching or not fitting after. The pain point I will focus on is customer support in the store. The goal of the improvement is to help customers be in and out as quick as possible in a shoe store and provide great customer experience. Another goal is to minimize the time a customer spends in the store being idle.

Next, I'll walk through the user journey of visiting a shoe store.

1) User has a need for shoes

2) Check where the local shoe stores are

3) Plans a visit to the store

4) Goes to the store

5) Tries on shoes (maybe multiple)

6) Makes a purchase decision

7) Walks of the store

To improve the current experience here are some ideas:

- When searching for shoe stores online (prior to visiting) making shoe deasl more apparent. This will help drive foot traffic

- When the customer comes into the store, have a personal shopper ready to go to help streamline the process for the customer to find shoes. We can narrow down what the customer is looking for by asking a list of questions oh what they need shoes for. If having a personal shopper isn't feasible then having an in-house experience via an app would work. The app would serve as a personal shopper narrowing down the choices of shoes. The goal of this is to eliviate any pressure the customer might experience when shipping for shoes. If they're using an app, the customer will select a shoes via the app and indicate to the store which ones they'll try on

- Have the customer try on a couple of different pairs of shoes to see what they like

- Make it apparent which deals are happening on shoes

- If the customer finds what they like, have an instant check-out process. If we're using a personal shopping, they can take payment. Otherwise, through an app Digital Pay must be available.

If we're going with the app idea, another way to streamline the process is to have customers pick out shoes they want to try on beforehand. That way, when they're in the store there's no waiting time to try on the shoes. (I believe Nike has a similar experience).

As an extention, we can track the personal shopping experience to see where the gaps in the process are.