Customers expect a tidy, relaxing retail environment

HOW would you rate your "guest experience" at a hotel where on arrival, you found the signboard faded and peeling and the reception area full of so many stacks of unopened boxes of office supplies, it was hard to reach the check-in counter?

You then had difficulty manoeuvring your cases along the corridor to get to your room because of the bundles of bedding, laundry and piles of other house-keeping items getting in your way. "Unsatisfactory" would be your answer I suspect no matter how polite and helpful the staff.

So why do so many managers of local stores, large and small, think it is any different for their customers?

Pushing a shopping trolley round the congested and narrow aisles of many supermarkets in Brunei can be a major traffic management challenge, especially on busy days, such as the end of the month. Even wandering around some department stores can become a military assault course as you squeeze past unopened boxes of merchandise or climb over product displays that extend into the aisles.

It often seems that managers regard aisle space as merely a convenient extension of their storeroom instead of the place where their customers can leisurely browse the displays or conduct their purchase transactions.

Bruneian customers do notice even if they don't complain directly to the store manager.

One key positive outcome of the recent "Are You Being Served? 2011" survey was that nearly 90 per cent of respondents thought the overall service experience in Brunei had improved.

They credited much of this improvement to the arrival or extension of more international brands such as Toys R Us, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf; the opening of new retail spaces, eg Airport Mall, Citis Square Mall; and the renovation of established players such as SupaSave, Hua Ho, and Jaya Superstore.

However, this was balanced by more than 70 per cent saying these improvements merely highlighted how poor many more Bruneian stores and supermarkets continued to be, failing to meet customer's ever increasing expectations. Nearly 80 per cent of respondents went on to rank "Improving Service Environment and Decor" was one of their "Top 10" Improvement Priorities.

Leaders in customer service, have long understood that superior brand value and increased profitability is derived not just from the functional efficiency of their store or branch network, or by attempting to entice more customers into the store by announcing sales incentives; but from what marketing guru Philip Kotler coined in his 1973 paper to the Journal of Retailing, as "atmospherics".

"Atmospherics" is a term borrowed from architecture to describe how buildings are designed and their interiors laid out, to create a particular emotional engagement; such as in a concert hall or a place of worship.

The influence of Kotler's "atmospherics" principles on retail space design was so profound that in the 80's and 90's visiting a shopping mall became a fun, recreational pastime rather than a functional, shopping trip.

A generation of youths even enjoyed 'hanging out' at shopping malls so much rather than parks or fair grounds and in such numbers that they became known as "mall rats."

There is a huge amount of highly academic research on "atmospherics", but for retailers it simply means ensuring that your store is, most importantly, "customer-friendly" and a physical manifestation of your brand and brand values.

Disney, Nike and Apple stores are famous examples of this. Steve Jobs went so far as to insist that his "simplicity of design" philosophy was carried over from Apple products into their online and physical retails spaces and interestingly, AV Electronics, the local Apple distributor, is highly recommended by "AYBS? 2011" respondents for having a great store experience.

A clean, tidy, clutter-free and well-organised store that is easy to get around, where customers can find what they are looking for with minimum hassle and maximum convenience, is a challenge every Bruneian store and supermarket must face-up to if they want to deliver the retail experience their customers demand.

This does not mean catching up with high-street leaders in Orchard Road, Bukit Bintang Plaza, Starhill Gallery or even One Borneo immediately.

But catching up with the local leaders like Citis Square and Times Square, who are already setting new and higher standards, would be a practical and achievable start.

The views of the author are his own and do not represent those of The Brunei Times.

The Brunei Times