Design for relationship.

• Author: Hall, Robert
• Position: MARKETING SOLUTIONS

"... the intuition there wasn't simply 'How do we best help people fix their computers?' It was 'How do we restore and enhance customer relationships?'

--Ron Johnson, on Apple's Genius Bar, "Retail Isn't Broken, Stores Are," Harvard Business Review, December 2011

THERE IS MUCH DEBATE ABOUT THE ROLE OF THE BRANCH in the midst of the multichannel explosion where transactions can be conducted by a multitude of increasingly mobile electronic devices such as cell phones and tablets. Of particular challenge is how to integrate and optimize the various channels as branch traffic continues to decline and daily product sales per employee, according to Novantas, have dropped from 1.70 in 2003 to 1.12 in 2010. To this complex question let me propose one very simple, blindingly obvious tenet: The branch is the channel for building relationships. While it is a place where transactions, sales and customer service are delivered, its unique and most valuable function is to form, grow and mature relationships.

Longer-term customer retention, expansion, and attraction of new customers, along with the building of the brand and future revenues, are most influenced by this one single mission. II we could take that tenet to heart, it would clarify a bunch of issues around strategy, skills, tactics, metrics, incentives and results.

Some background. We have all lived through various chapters in the life of the branch. Al one time or another, we decided to make the branch the place to: improve quality and get rid of defects; enhance customer service by solving problems and being very friendly; increase sales including crossing-selling additional products; and lower cost through greater efficiency and reduced staff.

Yet many of these initiatives have ignored or even been detrimental to relationship building. Examples abound: rigid, centrally driven quality control procedures that are off-putting to customers; silted customer service efforts that require dealing with a separate and often distant stranger; aggressive cross-sell efforts that ignore customer needs and often repel relationship building; and, cost reduction efforts that make skilled and available staff scarce.

The Apple Store example

The Apple Store provides a compelling example of the hem on relationship building in a world driven by young, tech-save buyers--they are not driyers of your father's Oldsmobile. Apple now has 357 stores with over 77 million store visits this past quarter. Their average annual...