My Customer Experience

Everyone has encountered thousands of experiences with brands, retail stores, and a variety of other outlets but which experiences will actually create value for the company?  Easy, the experiences that stick with you in a positive manner and the experiences that bring you back to that company or brand. 

Before I go continue, if you have read previous blog it is true I work for H-E-B but in no way or manner is the following experience influenced by my employment there. 

About two years ago a brand new H-E-B opened in San Antonio, actually an H-E-B Plus location and I was curious about it, so I went for a visit.  As I pulled in to the parking lot I noticed that it was very clean with no trash or stray baskets all over the place, unlike Wal-Mart and this is where my experience began.  As I began walking towards the store I noticed that they had a Boars Head cart out in the front selling hot dogs and sausages, I thought to myself what  a great way to sample their product and at the same time get a quick snack in.  After the hot dog I walked into the courier, I remember thinking this place is huge and I haven’t even walked in yet.  The front lobby/courier was at least 25ft tall, a bit overwhelming and they had perfect produce items displayed on pallets.  The one thing that really caught my eye about these produce displays was that there was a cantaloupe display that had pre cut half cantaloupes available for purchase with no additional charge.  When I finally walked in there was a nice elderly woman waiting to greet me with a smile and an advertisement for the store, she made me feel very welcomed.  The first department I walked into was the produce department and the displays were eye candy, everything looked very colorful and presentational.  There were a variety of samples in the department which I fully took advantage of and I also got to try my first star fruit, it was delicious. As I continued to walk, the seafood employee got my attention with the microphone he had on and the live lobsters he was selling.  He grabbed one out of the lobster tank and held it up for me to see and hold if I wanted with a glove, it was pretty cool but I wasn’t about to pay 20 plus dollars for fish.  I had only walked about 20 feet when there was a employee in what they called a Cooking Connection area and she was actually cooking up recipes and showing customers how to cook a meal with all of the ingredients readily available for purchase, very clever idea. So again I had to help myself to some samples of what she was cooking, if I recall right it was some sort of chicken pasta.  After that I was feeling a bit full and needed to get what I came for which was a lot of cups, beer, soda, and ice.  You may have figured out that I was having a social gathering at my house that night.  But once I got to the soda isle they were all out of what I came for H-E-B 3lt. sodas, I guess one of the employees noticed me looking around for them in the isle and asked if I needed help.  I told him I was looking for 3lt HEB soda and not 5 minutes later he came back with five of them from the back receiving area and even brought a shopping basket with him so I wouldn’t have to carry them.  After picking up the rest of my shopping list I headed to the check out area, where of course they had a delicious smelling rack of Hot French bread, I couldn’t resist the smell and I stuck one in my cart.  Once at the check stand I was again greeted with a smile and a hello, in addition the cashier asked if I wanted to donate to the Food Bank in denominations of $1, $3, $5, I kindly declined. Once I checked out the cashier thanked me by my last name and I was like “how did you know…” and I remembered that I had paid with a check.  The same elderly women was at the door and wished me a good day.  I had never left any place so satisfied, surprised and appreciated.

Breaking the experience down using Strategic Experience Modules:

Sense: The first thing that appealed to my senses was sight, the cleanliness of the parking lot to how big the actual store was from the front lobby to the aisles. Second this experience did a great job in satisfying my taste buds, the store had a variety of samples and ready to eat food for purchase, and may I add every sample was delicious especially the Star fruit. Touch came into play when I got to hold the lobster, even though it didn’t smell all that great but I actually did touch everything I sampled and bought.  Smell played the biggest role when I passed by the Hot French bread, man it smelled like it was right out of the oven and probably the only reason I bought it.

Feel: The entire store atmosphere and the employees I engaged with truly made me feel appreciated and welcomed.  When the cashier thanked me by name I thought that was a great notion and not one you encounter every day, this made me feel cared for.  The elderly women at the door also made me feel appreciated and lightened up my day.

Think:  The only part of my experience that I believe touched on the think notion was when the cashier asked if I would like to donate to the Food Bank, which I thought was a nice gesture of the store to actively try to help area charities. But it didn’t make me actively appeal to my intellect.

Act: I would say the Cooking Connection did make me think about a healthy lifestyle because all of the recipes that the employee was cooking where healthy and organic.  I do believe they were attempting to promote good health and took it a step further by actually demonstrating how to cook these meals, and for the most part they didn’t seem complicated to make.

Relate: Overall this experience didn’t make me think about relating to a bigger context nor did it appeal to any kind of my personal desire for self-improvement

This overall experience in my opinion did a great job to create value for the company and more specifically the store itself. A variety of tools were used by this store to create value for themselves, and an overall total customer experience. All of one of the SEM’s were used, also including the strategic use of people (employees), product presence (produce displays), spatial environment (very spacious front lobby), and creating a strong visual/verbal identity (big colorful signage throughout the store).  This store provided an exciting environment through the use of samples, microphones for employees, and the Cooking Connection.  Now the key for this store/company is to deliver a consistent representation time and time again.  Will I be able to walk into this store six months or a year from now and experience the same thing?