jahn said:
Hi Peter
Please tell me how to go about - "lowering job or customer expectations,"
and tou will have a friend for life.
.......
Dilbert must be smarter than I thought, if he can find anyone in an Ikea store.
You've hit the nail on the head!
I first entered an Ikea about 3 weeks ago. Despite having worked in retail, it was a real culture shock, and I felt genuinely disoriented.
However as I walked around, I reflected on it and realised that it was the product of a very clever and deliberate design process that sought to change the way the customer interacted with the store.
Such a design process appeared to include cutting staffing costs (by reducing the total number of staff) while lowering customer expectations of you being able to find a staff member.
Unlike other retail outlets, Ikea is brutally honest about this and tells the customer up-front (literally) with big boards when you enter explaining 'why they are so cheap'. They actually tell you that there are unlikely to be many staff and that all information is provided on little cards attached to each product. Providing pens, pads and a disposable tape measure is another example of getting the customer to do stuff that would be done by a staff member in a conventional store.
This is all lowering expectations of service, with the 'why we are so cheap' material trying to sell to the customer the advantages to them of the Ikea way. The aim is to ensure the customer feels they are getting something in return.
Other examples of conscious design include the 'pipeline' of funelling customes from entry to exit so they see all parts of the store and making the dock a public (customer) area that people go to get their stuff. This reduces staff labour in moving stock to the floor. (conventional store = 1. Receive goods, 2. Shelve in dock, 3. Put on floor, 4. Sell off floor; Ikea 1. Receive goods, 2. Shelve in dock, 3. Sell from dock). One step is eliminated.
Ikea has obviously read their Alvin Toffler, as it's not all high-tech scientific management. They have sought to counter their brutal efficiency by adding several 'high touch' human elements, for example the child minding facility, a cafe and a staffed front counter (not that blokes will tend to ask before entering).
These human elements are a bit like a nice street number or high-quality bathroom fitting on a house, they might be only a small part, but they might change the way the house presents.
Ikea is not alone in changing expectations; it's just that they are so blatant about it, so even people like me can pick it up. Supermarkets have been doing it for years, as have businesses who say 'we won't send you a brochure but it's on our website to be downloaded and printed on YOUR printer' and public transport systems with automated ticketing (instead of buying from a person).
It is fair to say some efforts have been more successful than others.
This probably has as much to do with success at lowering customer expectations (by telling them What's In It For Me) than exceeding a certain level of service.
But where customers attitudes are hostile and entrenched, then substantive change rather than the superficial marketing floss of 'communications' or 'perception management' may be required.
Regards, Peter
