The success of a retail company is highly dependent on its customers. This primarily brings to light the idea that the success of a retail store relies up on the shoulders of the customers. This is why every store that sells products or caters to its customers through service must ensure that the customers have an extremely satisfactory enjoy full experience (Makudza, 2020). This is integral as it will enable the company to not only on the loyalty of their customers but also on a good reputation in their designated industry. The following paper will discuss my experience as a customer at Woolworths which is a departmental store based in Australia and at Princess Polly store which is an online website for clothes. Furthermore, the paper will also present the various touch points and moments of truth along with the IDIC Model to reflect upon my experience diligently.
Positive Experience
I shop at the Princess Polly store extremely often. This means that as a person, I personally like to shop a lot. This is why my experience at Princess Polly has always been nothing short of wonderful. I order from the website of the store pretty often which means that I’m familiar with the interface of the website. It is essential to understand that for a store that strictly runs online, it is extremely important that their website is user friendly. This not only contributes to the customer experience but also helps the company enhance its customer base. I had an extremely satisfactory experience at Princess Polly store. This mainly suggests the idea that not only was the website easy to maneuver around but it was also extremely easy for me to find clothes that are in my size. Additionally, my customer experience enhanced tenfold when I was allotted a 25% discount coupon while I was paying for my purchase. This also illuminates the three touch points that I faced while shopping at this website. The first touch point includes the user friendly interface of the website which helped me find the clothes that were my size. The second touch point refers to the fact that the Princess Polly website also posts customer reviews. This is essential as it helped me make my decision in regards to which clothes to buy (Pennington, 2016). It also helped me make informed decisions when it comes to understanding the size chart mentioned in regards to the clothes. Finally, the third touch point includes the fact that the company awarded my loyalty to its brand and provided me with a 25% discount coupon. This not only enhanced my shopping experience but also contributed to me trusting the Brand religiously (De Keyser et al, 2020).
In regards to moments of truth, my first moment of truth in regards to the company refers to the promise that the brand made in terms of delivering good quality clothes. My second moment of truth is when it comes to Princess Polly store, the company includes diverse variety of clothes at the store and sells them for affordable prices (Kranzbühler et al, 2019). Finally, my third moment of truth in terms of the company referred to it accepting an immersive fashion outlook at affordable prices.
Negative experience
However not all customer experiences are supposed to be positive and satisfactory. This mainly elucidates the idea that I had a terribly negative experience while shopping as a customer at Woolworths. Woolworths is mainly a supermarket chain that is extremely prevalent in Australia. While I usually shop at Walmart, I had recently decided that I would like to try out Woolworths since it is so famous in my country. Unfortunately, my experience was far from satisfactory. This is because not only was I rudely rebuked by a store assistant when asked for directions, I was also made to wait for it in a long line of fellow shoppers while the cash counter remained empty. This mainly suggests the fact that a company’s success depends on the experience it provides its customer base (Krishna & Deshwal, 2016). My experience at Woolworths was not only negative but also off putting. This primarily brings to light the fact that I had to interact with store assistants who were not only unhelpful but also extremely rude (Zolkiewski et al, 2017). Furthermore, I also had to wait in line for a long time since the cashier was absent from their desk for a long time. In regards to my touch points, my first touch point includes the fact that I was treated so poorly by the staff present in the store. In addition to this, the fact that they also adamantly refused to provide me any assistance contributed to my second touch point. Finally, my third touch point in regards to this negative shopping experience refers to the fact that I had to wait for an extremely long time for the cashier to come back to their desk and continue checking everyone’s purchases out (Rosenbaum et al, 2017).
In reference to my moment of truth, my first moment of truth in regards to the brand was the fact that I had expected it to be extremely welcoming and inclusive when it came to store assistance. However, the truth was shattered when I was poorly treated by the staff. The second moment of truth refers to the fact that I thought that since Woolworths is the leading supermarket chain in Australia, it would hire people who are more professional (Herhausen et al 2019). Finally, my third moment of truth in terms of the company refers to the fact that the company chose to hire people who are not only incompetent but also extremely unfair in the treatment of customers (Lemon & Verhoef, 2016).
The IDIC Model primarily stands for identify, differentiate, interact and customize. On the basis of my first positive experience at Princess Polly store, the company was successful in treating it customers as individuals and develop deep relations with them. This means that the company fulfil the first step of the model which is identified as it successfully identified its customer base and connected with them. In regards to differentiate, Princess Polly store succeeded in segmenting their customer base on the basis of their value to the organization. This means that the company was able to focus on its treatment of its customers which further contributed to the value that they held for the organization. In regards to the third step which is interact the company successfully communicated with its customer base and hence fulfil their needs. This also refers to the fact that I was able to interact with the company as a customer through its social media pages as well as its online presence on other social media platforms (Bueno et al, 2019). Finally in terms of customize, Princess Polly store succeeded in anticipating the demand and needs of their customer base and hence created products that are vibrant and varied enough to be customized.
On the basis of my second experience which was negative it is evident that bold words field to identify its customers as individuals and hence also field in developing a bond with them. In accordance with the second step of the model which is differentiate Woolworths as a company fails to connect with their customers on the basis of value as well as on the basis of their needs. In accordance to the third step which is to interact Woolworths as an organization succeeded in catering to the needs of their customer base but failed to interact with them on the basis of their experience. Finally in terms of customizing, the company fails to connect with its clientele enough to customize products for them and hence anticipate their needs and fulfil them.
Conclusion
In conclusion it is evident that customer experiences are vital for the success of a company. The above paper discusses the two customer experiences that I have had recently which include both positive and negative aspects. In addition to this the above paper also discuss is various touch points and moments of truth in regards to the chosen brands. Finally, the paper also expresses how the two experiences with the IDIC Model. Thus, it can be said that I understand that not every store will be able to fulfil my expectations. However, it is necessary to take note of the fact that while Princess Polly store treated me with the at most respect, the staff members at Woolworths failed to treat me like a paying customer.
References
Bueno, E. V., Weber, T. B. B., Bomfim, E. L., & Kato, H. T. (2019). Measuring customer experience in service: A systematic review. The Service Industries Journal, 39(11-12), 779-798.
De Keyser, A., Verleye, K., Lemon, K. N., Keiningham, T. L., & Klaus, P. (2020). Moving the customer experience field forward: introducing the touchpoints, context, qualities (TCQ) nomenclature. Journal of Service Research, 23(4), 433-455.
Herhausen, D., Kleinlercher, K., Verhoef, P. C., Emrich, O., & Rudolph, T. (2019). Loyalty formation for different customer journey segments. Journal of Retailing, 95(3), 9-29.
Kranzbühler, A. M., Kleijnen, M. H., & Verlegh, P. W. (2019). Outsourcing the pain, keeping the pleasure: effects of outsourced touchpoints in the customer journey. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(2), 308-327.
Krishna, A., & Deshwal, P. (2016, March). Customer service experience and satisfaction in retail stores. In 2016 3rd international conference on computing for sustainable global development (INDIACom) (pp. 3719-3723). IEEE.
Lemon, K. N., & Verhoef, P. C. (2016). Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey. Journal of marketing, 80(6), 69-96.
Makudza, F. (2020). Augmenting customer loyalty through customer experience management in the banking industry. Journal of Asian Business and Economic Studies.
Pennington, A. (2016). The Customer Experience Book: How to design, measure and improve customer experience in your business. Pearson UK.
Rosenbaum, M.S., Otalora, M.L. and Ramírez, G.C., 2017. How to create a realistic customer journey map. Business horizons, 60(1), pp.143-150.
Zolkiewski, J., Story, V., Burton, J., Chan, P., Gomes, A., Hunter-Jones, P., … & Robinson, W. (2017). Strategic B2B customer experience management: the importance of outcomes-based measures. Journal of Services Marketing.
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