How one difficult store visit sent shoppers to Walmart, Target and a competitor’s site
A major cell phone brand split store visitors into those who easily accomplished their visit and those who did not, then watched where each group went for the next 14 days. The difficult group visited Target 70% more often and competitor websites up to 33% more often.
- Client
- A major cell phone brand (not named in the source)
- Solution
- vSurveys+™ intercept survey, MFour Studio™
- Challenge
- Understand customer experience in its retail stores, and the impact that experience had on subsequent shopping behavior — physical and digital.
- Method
- An in-store intercept survey split shoppers into those who easily accomplished the reason for their visit and those who had difficulty, then observed where each group went over the next 14 days.
- Result
- Shoppers who had a difficult visit went to Target 70% more often, and to a competitor’s website 33% more often, than shoppers who had an easy one.
- Why it matters
- The brand can now survey the exact individuals who left unsatisfied and went elsewhere, and ask them what the store failed to do.
Understand the impact of your customer’s experience.
A major cell phone brand needed to understand customer experience in its retail stores and the impact it had on subsequent shopping behavior (both physical and digital).
Geo-location put the survey in front of shoppers as they left.
To better understand consumer experience, MFour used geo-location to survey shoppers immediately after visiting the brand’s retail stores.
The intercept survey asked an array of questions surrounding the customer experience, including:
- Based on your visit today, how easy was it to accomplish the reason for your visit?
Shoppers were categorized into two groups based on their response.
- Those who easily accomplished the reason for their visit (A)
- Those who had difficulty accomplishing the reason for their visit (B)
A difficult visit sent shoppers to Walmart and Target.
14 days after visiting the retail store, shoppers who had a difficult experience in the retail store visited both Walmart and Target at a higher percentage than those who reported an easy experience.
- Walmart: 22% vs 18% – a 22% increase
- Target 17% vs 10% – a 70% increase
And to their competitors’ websites.
Shoppers who had a difficult experience showed higher visitation to competitor websites over a 14 day period after visiting the retail store.
- Phone Provider A: 28% vs 21% – a 33% increase
- Phone Provider B: 21% vs 16% – a 31% increase
Survey the respondents!
This validated behavioral insight suggests that the brand’s retail stores are failing to satisfy a need that subsequently was sought after by major retail brands. Meaning, shoppers who had a difficult time accomplishing their reason for visiting the phone retail store chose to visit Walmart and Target hereafter in search of a solution that was otherwise not satisfied by the phone brand’s retail store.
vSurveys+™ unearthed differing behaviors between two groups of retail shoppers – with MFour Studio™, the phone retailer has the ability to survey the individuals who had a difficult experience and subsequently visited Walmart/Target and ASK them what the retail store failed to satisfy, why they chose to go to Walmart/Target, and did Walmart/Target satisfy the need.
This behavior insight gives validated competitive intel — it shows the retail brand where unsatisfied customers are looking elsewhere and to what extent. It is clear an in-store visit did not meet the expectations among those who had difficulty achieving their reason to visit. This creates a question gap: What expectations did the in-store experience not meet that then drove the behavior of visiting the online website(s)?
This follow-up research allows the brand to make adjustments in their retail store to ensure an easier experience and prevent losing business currently being re-captured by Walmart/Target. Beyond improving the in-store experience, retailers can use this insight to strategically capture lost in-store sales/satisfaction by placing revenue-driving initiatives within big box retailers.
About the client
A major cell phone brand operating its own retail stores, measuring whether a shopper’s in-store experience changes where that shopper goes next. The brand is not named in the source material.
About MFour
MFour solves the issues of data fraud and commoditization in research using validated consumer data and a groundbreaking end-to-end insights platform. Utilizing the 4.5 star rated iOS & Android Surveys On The Go® app, MFour collects validated consumer behaviors + surveys to gain deep insights into consumer journeys.
Find out where an unsatisfied shopper goes next.
An intercept survey tells you the visit went badly. Connected behavioral data tells you which competitor they opened afterwards — and then you can go back and ask them why.
Talk to an insights strategist