Monday, January 24, 2011

Customer is King/Queen


Shopper's personality: What's your style?

XPRESSDubai has eight shopping styles that sum up residents' consumer habits, reveals university research
Dubai: The perfectionist shopper rules the retail runways in Dubai, university research on resident shopping personalities revealed.
Preliminary findings from the American University of Dubai have been revealed to XPRESS as the Dubai Shopping Festival starts on Thursday. The two-year study revealed that the ‘Perfectionist Shopper' is king in stores, over-taking the ‘Status Shopper', which dominated the market before the financial crisis knocked them from their perch.
The research stated that Dubai has eight shopping styles that sum up residents' consumer habits.
Preliminary findings
Tarek Mady, Head of Marketing Department, American University of Dubai, said preliminary findings showed that residents had become shop-savvy and wanted more "bang for buck". The shopping styles revealed are as follows:
The Perfectionist Shopper: A consumer who spends much time comparing products to get the best deal and quality - the most common shopper in Dubai.
The Status Shopper: A consumer who is interested in the latest trends and is compelled to buy high-end products like bags, cologne, phones, etc. This shopper formed the main chunk of the market during pre-recession, but is now a smaller group.
Price Conscious Shopper: An increasing group of shoppers who pays more attention to prices and value, or on whether they need an item or not. These consumers rarely admit to this shopping style, but sub-consciously use it.
Brand Conscious: A consumer who likes to choose an item based on brands.
Novelty or Fashion Conscious Shopper: Purely influenced by fashion rather than price or need.
Recreational Shopping: Shopping is a routine activity for these consumers — something they do for recreation rather than for need.
Impulse or Careless Buyers: Shoppers who buy on spur of the moment, with little or no browsing to compare options.
Confused or Overwhelmed Shopper: More likely a male than a female consumer who shies away from shopping because he is overwhelmed by the number of choices.
Habitual or Brand Shopper: A consumer who buys brands out of loyalty and familiarity.
The research conducted in 2008 and 2010 will be published later this year and includes a survey of 300 shoppers at Dubai malls.
Mady said residents today have become more sophisticated consumers than they were before the recession. Shoppers have adopted more price-conscious habits as the market evolved. He described retailers' marketing as "pretty bad" and non-existent for some. Companies operating in the city need to improve marketing strategies to tempt consumers into spending, he said.
They could no longer rely on Dubai's avid consumerism, living the mall lifestyle, which began shrinking last year due to the financial crisis, he said.
Samer Renno, Chief Executive of Renno Communications Group, said a greater focus was needed on customer relations. He said stores needed to offer improved products and services to tempt consumers to part with their money as shoppers held the power in the retail market, which witnessed the main change since the financial crisis. Shoppers also had greater negotiating skills so service was as important as price, he added.
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Is Customer Retention a Necessity or a Luxury?

Renno Communications Group taps into Customer Retention Program

As part of its continuous efforts to raise the bar of the communications industry and introduce innovative solutions across the region, Renno Communications Group (Renno CG), a communications consulting agency in the Middle East, announced today the launch of its Customer Retention Program (CRP).

Commenting on the launch of CRP, Samer M. Renno, Chief Executive Officer, Renno Communications Group, said:

'Providing an optimal customer experience is not a luxury but a necessity. The current global financial downturn has uncovered significant flaws among the major sectors, from hospitality to retail and banking, when it comes to customer service, as many companies have become more focused on gaining new customers and neglected the retention of their existing ones.'


Renno added, 'Recent studies of customer experiences indicate that 43% of all customers who defect do so because of service issues, while three quarters of these defectors cite employee attitude as their core frustration. Most serious aspect of these studies showed that 83% of those who have a negative service experience tell at least one other person. With so much riding on employee-to-customer interactions, companies must find new ways to ensure that employees strive to over-serve customers at every opportunity.'


According to Renno, to retain a customer there needs to be proper understanding of how they are being served. 'Our 'Undercover Shopping Program' offers clients the benefit of measuring the abilities of their staff and quality of the customer service they are providing. This provides the clients with the information to analyze the gap in their sales force's performance in order to enable them to make the necessary changes required for the benefit of their customers.'

Renno CG has over the past decade since its inception worked relentlessly to provide its clients with cutting edge communications solutions that are based on 360 degrees (Full Circle) tactics, which are designed to strengthen not only brand positioning but also ensure that the client's image is protected against any internal or external factors.

Renno CG's Customer Retention Program has been implemented in all the Agency's network offices and has already received a positive response from its clients throughout all sectors in the region.