POP Survey system (short form for Point of Purchase Survey) is an electronic collection of customer satisfaction responses that are completed at the time of purchase. iPads are installed at each cash desk and consist of 5-7 closed ended questions that are answered using emoji’s.
Truthfully, I'm kind of excited to talk about this case study, which spans 5 years of working at Hudson's Bay, 2 university courses, and a trip to India.
Before we being, I'd like to just say that the 5 years I've spent at Hudson's Bay as a sales associate have been some of the best years that I can remember of my young adult life. The people that I've worked with have made it something to be remembered. The company itself is rich with history and is passionate to serve the Canadian consumer.
The intention of this case study isn't to look down upon Hudson's Bay, but rather an opportunity to assist the company in better serving the customer. (Which they already do, trust me, I love shopping here!)
Surveys play an important role in understanding shoppers and their experiences within the store. Retailers use this information to improve the quality of service they provide to their customers in hopes of building loyalty with their base. Shoppers although wanting the best shopping experience, are sometimes stopped in giving their feedback due to their lack of time or the website link at the bottom of the receipt for the feedback goes unnoticed.
Can we provide a digital solution that helps customers and the store to capture feedback on a customers shopping experience during their in-store journey?
A tablet survey strategically placed at the Point of Purchase to capture a customers in-store experience using a handful of questions and emojis.
Hudson's Bay does have a plan in place to collect experiences of an in-store shopper. As a sales associate I was recommended to provide this paper-based survey to customers should they be interested in providing feedback.
At first glance, you would mistake this to be a short multiple-choice quiz. As a shopper, personally, I wouldn't want to take time out of my busy schedule to write in the information. If the customer does fill in the details, at the end of the day, managers manually input these forms into an excel sheet.
In 2019, this form of survey capture is entirely outdated in every aspect. From acknowledging the customer to complete the survey, to data entry for further review. The most pressing issue with this survey are the questions that are asked. Sure, they ask about the customers experience (to an extent) but these questions do not provide any valuable data to form strategies for future customer experience improvement.
Yes, Hudson's Bay is a fairly old company that is still improving in its technology. Do other mainstream stores provide an innovative solution to capturing customer's shopping experiences? sort of.
H&M, an amazing company that uses technology on various levels of a stores operation. When I walked passed this survey tablet, I simply did just that, walked passed it. A rack of clothes was blocking the tablet, turning it into just a pillar with text, pretty invisible. After playing around with the survey for a few minutes, I realized that I could give actual feedback, if I had known about this tablet beforehand.
While walking away I overheard something odd. A customer standing in line at the cash desk, had asked to speak to a manager and report the messy state of the department where she previously had been. As I stood there, the customer standing in line, completely missing the survey tablet stationed to capture her poor shopping experience was going unnoticed.
I started to see some contrast between the two companies, Hudson's Bay and H&M:
1) Hudson's Bay lacks the technology for capturing shoppers in-store experiences, but customers still filled out the paper survey.
2) H&M has the technology in place for a smooth shopping experience feedback but customers aren't aware that the technology exists.
The reality is, this completely depends on the customer, whether they are willing to have the patience or time in their busy schedule to fill out the paper-based survey or digital.
India is a great for a visit, inviting people, amazing food, and affordable prices. I lucked out after walking into a grocery store to find my favourite bag of chips. At the checkout, I noticed something unfamiliar, a survey machine. Though a very outdated capturing device, it did what no survey machine inside of a retail store in Toronto did, capture real-time experience responses from shoppers.
This blew me away. A small grocery store in the dead center of India was receiving more information about their customers than anything I've seen before.
Let's break down the checkout process at this grocery store:
1. Stand in queue to check out desired items.
2. Cashier scans selected items.
3. As the items are scanned and bagged, the cashier requests the shopper to identify their response on the machine.
4. Once the response is given, items bagged, the customer can make the payment for the purchase.
The process was simple, but a simple observant can point out something interesting that occurs during this process. The cashier is using the "window of opportunity" during the shoppers journey, wherein, as the cashier scans and bags the items, the customer is not idly standing with a credit card in their hands. The customer has given their undivided attention 1) to the checkout process so there aren't any mistakes in the prices and 2) to finish making the payment.
The placement of the device coupled with the window of opportunity provides a 30 second period for the shopper to give their honest response, still fresh from the shopping experience.
All the pieces were in front of me, I just needed to put them together.
Outlining what was important during my research and observations with survey capturing systems in locally in Toronto and in India, I narrowed down to a digital survey system, placed at the Point of Purchase utilizing the window of opportunity, added with a slight update to be relevant to the retail store and its customers.
Emoji were key in matching a rating system with the shoppers mood or experience. A scale of 1-4 or 1-5 represented an extremely unsatisfied, unsatisfied, neutral, happy, and extremely happy. Matching this scale with relevant emojis allowed to visually match emotion with a rating to quantify this data.
The idea was simple, with a table in a respective department, the manager has the option to ask a department specific question along with general overall store questions. Making the questions changed during set times of the day to reflect in-store traffic give a more tailored overall store and department health check.
A key feature in making this device a valuable capturing tool is to look at the customers journey. At a retail store such as Hudsons Bay, sales associates are encouraged to approach customers and assist whenever they can to promote valuable customer service. An "uber-like" rating system allows the shopper to give feedback on a sales associates customer service.
Hudson's Bay truly is an innovative company in the Canadian retail space. They have taken steps to implementing certain technologies to help capture the shoppers in-store experience, but it still lacks in more aspects than excels.
1. Shoppers come first⏤ One thing Hudsons Bay excels at than any other retail operation is the customer first experience. Their customer service has always been a staple of Canadian shopping.
2. Time⏤ Nothing is more important for a shopper at the checkout than time. If the customer is not reminded about giving their feedback either at the link at the end of the receipt or letting a manager know, they will forget!
3. Change is difficult⏤ Though this is an idea to help both the retail operation and its customers, implementation and adoption of such survey capturing method are very foreign in North America. Although, slowly we are seeing such emoji experience capture machines at Airport washrooms, and public spaces for measuring their cleanliness.