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The experience of entering a store and following through with a purchase has many integral and important factors to it, with the ultimate or ideal result being that, we as consumers leave the store happy, and content.
Involved in this process are the obvious stages of product selection, stock availability, staff interaction and (often my downfall) availability of funds, however there are also a number of more subtle nuances that typically assist with the purchase.
These can be interactive, such as the number or density of other customers in the store (none, few or many), through to how the staff in the store behave, such as those that have obviously been told to follow the customers to all corners of the store (possibly one of the most irritating things to have to experience).
However one of the things that I believe has a major impact on consumer behaviour is the music that is being played in the stores and the fact that is can have such a profound impact on the general feel of the store. More importantly, is how this music can impact the decision to stay and browse or make you turn on your heel and walk out, something that I feel I have been doing more and more.
In my formative years as a shop assistant, I remember we would debate each morning what music we should be playing that day. If it was raining outside customers generally needed cheering up when they came in the store, similarly so if it was a Monday, being the first day of the week, they were generally seeking a 'pick me up' and required inspiration.
However the music also needed a different 'feel' at various times of the day, as no one liked anything that was too lively first thing in the morning, conversely anything too dour or melodic in the afternoon and the customers (and possibly the staff) would be dozing off.
My recent experiences however, have left me unsure whether the music in the stores I've been visiting has been given any thought at all. In fact so inappropriate has much of it been that it has often sounded as if it's been coming from a CD that was found on the floor, or possibly propping up the coffee table in the staffroom.
One experience involved the nerve-grating repetition of a scratched CD, so that the whole store listened to a full minute and a half of the same two seconds of a song, I'm sure I heard all of the customers emit a collective groan. Upon asking why no one had changed it, I was told, "Oh yeah, it happens all the time".
Forethought
The fundamental issue that this musical dilemma poses is not the fact that some of the members of staff in our retail stores have poor taste in music, they may of course think that my musical preferences are equally dire. No, this is more to do with the fact that the staff in the stores (and I'm assuming it's a managerial decision as to what music is played) are showing a collective lack of forethought when it comes to thinking of the most appropriate ways to encourage their customers to buy.
The problem may of course stem from the fact that with the retail market continuing to operate very successfully, the last thing on the mind of the retailers are details such as this, which may well be considered to be relatively minor. However as the market continues to mature and the competitive nature of retailers increases, the more successful retailers will be those which have the customers preferences' first in their list of priorities.
The writer is Head of GRMC Retail Services, Dubai.
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