A common customer interaction for many retailers is locating the nearest store. How easy or difficult is it for your customer to find this information? Is there a store locator clearly shown on your website? Does the store locator show hours of operations, is there a local phone number, are directions easily accessible? If you answered no to any of these questions what do you think your customer does when they cannot find the right answer. Generally they have a choice,
(1) Keep looking for the information they need with increased frustration
(3) Call your 800# to find the required information
(if they can find a number on your website, that experience is for a whole other post)
(4) Go to a competitor
All of these options cost you money. If you are a consumer (which all of us are) what experience do you want to have? The easier and more accessible we make information, the better the customer experience will be. It may take a bit more time and effort but this simple transaction can say so much about your brand.
Now, how do you turn this very simple transaction into an ROI for your business? Let's say that in a particular market you spent $20,000 on local advertising and promotion and you expect that advertising to generate 50 new customers. The cost of aquisition is $400 ($20,000 / 50). If in the process of trying to find your actual store location 10% of your targeted customers gave up and went somewhere else your cost of aquisition just went from $400 to $444 ($20,000 / 45). In the first scenario if your average retail ticket is $100 it will take 4 visits to your store to receive an ROI on your initial investment. In the second scenario it would take 4.4 visits.
What if when the customer looked for a nearest location, the information requested is quickly provided increasing the liklihood of achieving your target of 50 new customers? What if you could also increase their average ticket price from $100 to $120 by providing a coupon or special promotion related to just that store? You now have decreased your ROI from 4.4 visits to 3.3 visits ($400 / $120).
See the attached article on best practices for improving your store locator usability.
http://bit.ly/thwvv0
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