Most of us are familiar with the 3-second rule: if you drop food on the floor and pick it up within three seconds, it’s still safe to eat. At least that’s the method harried parents have been promoting for generations.
In a similar vein, you can boost customer satisfaction and sales with the 3-minute rule: track what shoppers do immediately after they purchase your product or put an on-sale product in their shopping cart. The results may surprise you.
For example, if a grocery store notices an uptick in disposable cameras when diapers go on sale, it might seem an odd pairing. Yet it makes perfect sense: new parents tend to photograph their infants extensively, and it’s handy to have disposable cameras available in case their smartphone is in use or the battery dies. Or in case what the diaper is being used for happens to create a bit of a mess. That’s why it’s always a good idea for a household with children to have XSORB II Disinfecting Encapsulator on hand, not to mention a canister of Biofresh. Spill clean up is a fact of life for young families.
In the case of the camera-happy parents, applying the 3-minute rule allows a store to capitalize on this non-intuitive cross-selling strategy, by placing disposable cameras and diapers on adjacent shelves or on the same end-cap display.
The 3-minute rule can also help increase sales by encouraging shoppers to keep shopping. Many times people enter a store or log on to a website intending to buy a single item, and then remember or discover other products they need as well. If you place store signs or online reminders strategically (just as you do with spill stations), asking, “What else do you need?” or “Did you remember _____?”, you’ll increase the number of items at checkout.
By paying close attention to information that’s literally right in front of you, you’re creating a fresh customer service strategy that’s likely to see both customer satisfaction and sales increase.
