Lady Geek

With the collaboration between Best Buy and Carephone Warehouse (Best Buy bought half of the chains retail arm for £1.1b last week), the competition to deliver better customer service within the technology retail environment is on.

With the exception of Apple, service is much of a muchness whether it is John Lewis, PC World or the Sony Stores. It wouldn’t take much work to lift a retailer above the disappointing average.

I agree with Charles Dunstone , chief exec of Carephone Warehouse when he says

‘I think the consumers of Europe are ready for someone to do a better job selling electronics’

And if anyone needs to deliver a more inviting retail experience its Carephone Warehouse. As one Lady Geek said,

“I feel like bait walking into Carephone Warehouse dreading the first sales person to pounce.”

Interestingly, Best Buy moved their staff from a commission based sales structure, where customers were put under pressure to buy, to a more laid back approach with a focus on providing advice.  Perhaps Carephone Warehouse will adopt this model.

Even with internet online sales reaching 18% last year (ahead of the expected 15% of the market), expectations of the store experience are higher than ever.   Women particularly, talk about technology as they would any other purchase, they want to see it in the flesh.   Women want to feel the product.  See the weight of it.   Experiment with it.  Play with it.  Actually see what they are buying.

The physical environment is also about reassurance for women and many women will go back into the store once after they have decided what to buy as “they still feel a bit wobbly about it“

We have just conducted some research for Comet: We discovered different archetypes along a skills and confidence axis- confidence in their attitude to technology and skill in terms of their knowledge.

When it comes to high confidence and high skill, more men fall into this category.  Whats interesting is that when it comes to high skill and low confidence, women are much more likely to fall in this space.   Women do not have the confidence to buy technology, whilst many have the ability.   Women I have spoken to start their sentence with “I feel so stupid…” or “This is all jargon to me” but when you dig deeper, many women are more informed than their male counterparts.

The other important point is that as technology becomes more exciting and desirable, the desire and enjoyment of buying it is much greater, whether that is in store or online.   I know I really looked forward to buying my HD TV.  Its by no means a ‘distress purchase’ which much of the white goods fall into.

If BestBuy are willing to invest and re-invent the Carphone Warehouse experience the hum-drum mobile-phone retail marketplace could be in for a shock: Mobile phones are amongst the most desirable tech products and nobody is selling them in a particularly interesing way – on the other hand I just wonder if BestBuy appreciate how much sales they are missing because of the unfriendly high-pressure environment that their latest acquisition has become famous for.