On a recent shopping trip to a well-known fast fashion retailer I decided to try-on a few things. Since fitting rooms are my thing I always approach the fitting room area with great anticipation. I have a mental checklist that I work through as I proceed through the fitting room process.
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Topics:
In-Store Experience,
store design,
Fitting Rooms,
conversion,
dressing rooms,
color,
apparel retail,
Customer facing,
Alert Technologies Inc.
I’m often asked what constitutes a good fitting room from a customer point of view that would take into consideration things like size, color, and environment. This is the first in a series of blogs on what I think about each element of fitting room design and the impact each has on the overall customer experience in the fitting room.
First up is size. Size matters! Unfortunately, there is no standard size fitting room. Sizes range from a box about the size of a phone booth (remember those?) which are so small they make you lean up against the door when trying on, or the curtained ones that your butt pokes out as your balancing on one foot, to eerily large rooms that make you feel isolated and deserted.
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Topics:
Customer Service,
In-Store Experience,
store design,
Fitting Rooms,
conversion,
dressing rooms,
apparel retail,
Customer facing,
Alert Technologies Inc.,
Markdowns,
Margin
Fitting rooms and their service, as well as how to outfit and staff them, are passions of mine. That’s why I was excited to be included in the article in the Wall Street Journal about fitting rooms yesterday. As I was reading the story though, I had to re-check the date at the top of the page because it sure sounded like it was 1995 all over again. The writer focused once again on why making fitting rooms productive is so elusive for the brick and mortar apparel retailers.
Why is keeping the dressing room area free of dirt and dust too much for some, while others think a laser focus on tweaking paint colors, adding couches and posters will ‘seduce’ customers? All under the misnomer of service? Why wasn’t the importance of the fitting room in relation to sales and other performance metrics the true story in the WSJ rather than an episode of HGTV for dressing room chic?
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Topics:
Customer Service,
In-Store Experience,
Fitting Rooms,
Lean Payroll
Back in 2003 Envision Retail published research that confirmed – “The fitting room customer is 71% likely to buy versus the customer who browses the sales floor at 28%”. They further declared that this proved that getting customers into the fitting room was good for business.
Recently, Envision updated this statistic and now states – “Conversion of customers in the fitting rooms is 67% compared to those who do not use the fitting rooms of only 10%, making the fitting rooms the most commercially valuable space in the store”!
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Topics:
Customer Service,
In-Store Experience,
Fitting Rooms,
Mobile,
Technology,
Customer facing,
Alert Technologies Inc.
The last chapter is closing on Holiday 2010 with the release of the January retail sales figures. It was pretty much as we all expected, maybe a little stronger than some had guessed, but overall pretty good for most retailers.
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Topics:
Customer Service,
In-Store Experience,
Fitting Rooms,
Mobile,
Customer facing,
Alert Technologies Inc.,
Margin
The word on everyone’s lips today in retail is margin. From the gurus on Wall Street, to the management teams steering the ships of big retail, everyone’s preaching, ‘Enough with the cuts already!’ ‘We need top line growth and margin improvement!’ So why is it when I walk my local mall and enter almost any store I’m greeted with “Hi, welcome to fill-in-the-blank! Check out our buy-one, get-one stuff and our 40% off whatever!” Or my favorite, “…we just did a whole bunch of new markdowns, come check them out!”
I’m not speaking to discount self service retail here. They know who they are and they pay for their service model with margin. I’m talking about the retailers who preach that they do put customer service first and attempt to provide personal service to their customers in the name of adding value which translates to higher margin.
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Topics:
Customer Service,
In-Store Experience,
Fitting Rooms,
Lean Payroll,
Customer facing,
Alert Technologies Inc.,
Payroll Allocation,
Markdowns,
Margin
Last week, I was training a group of managers at a large chain retailer to use our fitting room service system we had just installed when one of them asked, “This makes it so much easier for us and better for our customers. Why isn’t this system everywhere?”
This isn’t the first time I’ve been asked this question, and it always makes me cringe a little bit. And although our customer list includes some pretty impressive retailers, it’s the one question that bothers me because way back in 1995 when we launched I thought the system would become ubiquitous. What I’ve learned over the years is that this system is not for every retailer with fitting rooms. This system requires a firm commitment to fitting room customer service backed up by a well defined, well executed, and well monitored fitting room service strategy. Break room posters, marketing slogans, and corporate memos espousing commitment to great service don’t cut it here; I’m talking a top to bottom “how to” strategy for servicing the fitting room customer. So that knocks plenty of retailers out right there.
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Topics:
Customer Service,
Fitting Rooms
What is the most important conversion area in apparel retail? Answer: The Fitting Room. What area in brick and mortar apparel is the least serviced? Answer: The Fitting Room. Why?
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Topics:
Customer Service,
In-Store Experience,
Fitting Rooms