What we can expect from tomorrow’s customer

I suspect a few of us arrived home a little later than expected from the Tomorrow’s Customer Retail Dinner, and not just because of the excellent hospitality at The Ivy, courtesy of our partners, Samsung.

Our guest speaker, Martin Hayward, gave us the benefit of his extensive experience of customer data to give us a glimpse of what Tomorrow’s customers might expect from the retail experience. He touched on everything from religion to data protection, sparking a wide ranging and passionate discussion about how to get customers in store, and what to do with them once you have.

The word of the night was “friction”, Martin points out that in the move to provide a frictionless experience for customers, we may be missing some of that human contact we all need. He asked why OAPs go shopping on a Saturday, when it’s much quieter during the week? The answer is that they want to be amongst the hustle and bustle of a busy high street (if such a thing still exists). Sometimes the “happy friction” of a smile, short conversation and a simple “how can I help” is the difference between a potential customer choosing one retail outlet and another.

The conversation turned to the implementation of in-store technology, and admissions that this is sometimes more about logistics than to make the customer experience more pleasurable. That being said, the effect of this in more than one instance has been to liberate colleagues from behind the counter to offer real customer service amongst their customers. As our dynamic chair for the evening, Dominic Grounsell, pointed out: “tech can make you more human”.

As we looked at the slightly disgruntled waiting staff, and then our phones and watches, we realised we had been talking for much longer than intended and several dashes for the last train were in order.

It was clearly an evening that was much needed and one that everybody agreed should be repeated in the near future.

By Alex Ricketts, The Marketing Society's Head of Membership. Follow him @bigalrick