Understanding the Customer Experience

There’s more to selling than carrying what a customer is looking for. People have a complicated labyrinth of processes that they go through before making a purchase. Understanding some of the things that a customer must feel, see and believe before they buy can help you to further your business. Gearing your store, customer service, décor, and retail displays towards satisfying the many needs and questions of your customers can help you to understand what they need to see to make purchases and come back again and again.



Customers need to be able to generalize what they feel about your store before they decide that it’ll be worth coming in to shop. Communicate things like price range, quality, and brands from outside of the store.



Communicate with your customers as often as you can about promotions and sales so that they are thinking about you on a regular basis whether they come by the store or not.



Let people know when you have new styles or seasons of clothing arriving. Change up window displays, promotions, advertisements and other forms of communication often so that anyone interested in staying up to date can easily do so.



Develop relationships with your customers when they come in and thank them for supporting local businesses. In today’s economy, it is becoming more and more important to people that they keep their local economy strong. Allow other people in your community to place their business cards or flyers somewhere in your shop. This type of local networking is a very powerful way to create a good image for your store.



Keep up with regular social networking so that your happy customers can spread the word about you. Offer special discounts to customers that "follow" or "like" you online. Contests and other online offerings will keep people spreading the word about your boutique and help you to find relevant customers.



When customers do come into your store, answer questions that they might be asking themselves with your displays. Show them what clothes would look like when being worn by using mannequins or hanging mannequin forms on your slatwall. Keep your inventory of sizes and colors fully stocked so that customers won’t worry that when they find something they like whether or not you’ll have their size. Make displays interesting to keep them browsing throughout the store. Using slatwall or adjustable slatwall panels is a great way to keep displays up higher where customers can see them. They also save lots of space and are extremely easy to adjust and redo.