Find out in this wonderful presentation!

Like this:

Well, not really…But that’s what you expected to

see, right?I’ll tell you the true story in a

minute – I promise.Anyways, I am Alex, from

Romania (Eastern Europe).This is me:

First things first: I didn’t do my homework

For “numbers” people: Homework level: 50% completed

I only went to 3 stores:House of Art – clothing store with low to medium

priced clothesSony Center – electronics store only with Sony

products (I love gadgets)Baby Star – baby toy store, also with a few baby

clothes

This is House of Art

This is Sony Center

This is Baby StarForgot to take photo, sorry.You can imagine something with a lot of pink and

faded blue.

But… (never say this word, it means that you discard everything you or the

person talking to you said before – sales tip #1)

I learned some important stuff, especially in the first location, the clothes store and the third one, with baby toys.

I got kicked out of the first store.I then went to play with gadgets at Sony because I

wanted to feel better.No, just kidding. Actually I went to observe their

store because they seemed to be nicer than the first ones. -> I was right!

How I got kicked out – the real dealI went to the clothes store and I wandered around a

little, I pulled out my papers and went to a corner and started to write the observations – wrong first step, I’ll tell you why in the next slide.

I found out that I suck at this!Because I never noticed things previously, I missed so

much!Now I am more used to catching details and I’m

going to keep practicing!

Still didn’t tell you how… :DAfter 30 long minutes !!!!! a saleswoman, who had

been standing all this time 3 feet away from me, came to ask if she could help me. I had just finished my checklist.

I told her what I was doing and she called the manager.

The manager told me I am not allowed to observe her store without beforehand permission from her and that I want to know things that are confidential – after she saw one of my questions on the list.

She then asked me with polite words, but very aggressive body language to get the heck out of the store!

I triedTo have a dialogue and explain to her she doesn’t need to

be worried, but she didn’t understand.The truth is, I could have asked for permission… My bad

there…So I told her I could help her, because I discovered some

problems and I could tell her how to fix them.She asked me: “Do you want to buy something from here?”I said “No” and she said “Then you are not a customer”

and that they had employees who deal with customer feedback and that she doesn’t want to hear anything from me.

So I got out and didn’t look back.

Problems I found:Poor product placement“For sale” items badly promotedCompany image (art studio / exhibition look – expect

expensive stylish products) didn’t match products (pretty cheap + medium quality + not stylish + general wear items, not special occasion clothes)

Salespeople didn’t initiate contact, just waited to be asked by customers

Salespeople’s uniform didn’t match company imageVery few impulse items near cash-register

Easy to fixAs you can see,

most of these problems were easy to fix.

Too bad the manager didn’t want to find out about them.

This is the way she behaved:

The second store visit went betterThis time I asked the manager from the beginning to

allow me to observe his store.He was nice and helped me with information also.I found only one problem, which a customer said out

loud: it was too hot in there, probably from all the plugged-in electronics.

Lesson: always listen carefully to your customers.Overall – very well-designed/managed/etc.

experience at Sony Center (maybe because I love playing with gadgets and big-screen TVs).

Baby toys store visitI noticed that I started observing this a lot faster.I found lots of issues, most important were these:- Name could use bigger font, more wiggly and with

more powerful colours- Music was not in tune with baby theme- Salespeople didn’t have uniforms, didn’t match store

image- No “for sale / promotions” items anywhere- Prices hard to find because products are too colourful

–> need better price tags- No impulse items

Thanks for paying attentionIf you made it this far, I congratulate you.You are about to receive a token of my appreciation

for bearing with my presentation till the end.Here’s a funny gag to make you smile:http://9gag.com/gag/5451041

Have a nice day!