calendar September 2015 | updated icon April 2024 | read time 2 minute read | Topic Product Information Management

The Extraordinary Customer Experience - A True Story

Shoes

Pay close attention - this is how a customer experience should be. Always.

Well Hidden

A few years ago I was invited to a wedding - my first wedding ever, actually, even though I was in my mid-twenties. Anyway, I had bought myself a nice suit and I needed a pair of shoes to go with it. I’m normally the kinda guy you’ll only see in white Adidas sneakers or Converse shoes, so for the first time in my life I had to invest in a pair of non-sneakers. At that time I was working for Google, and my friend and colleague brought me to this little shoe shop in Copenhagen called Bien Caché - which, if I’m not mistaken, is French for “well hidden”.

I walked into the store feeling more overwhelmed and uncomfortable than on my first day of school. All I managed to say was “I need a pair of shoes”. Not much to work with, not even for an experienced sales guy. But what happened next was amazing. The guy, who turned out to be the owner of the shop, took a quick glance at me and knew exactly what he was dealing with. He said: “A special occasion, I presume? Did you buy your suit already? Please describe it for me”. I left the shop 20 minutes later having tried only one pair of shoes and to this day they are still my only pair of non-sneakers. I absolutely love them.

What Stood Out

I still don’t know what impressed me the most; the guy’s amazing deduction skills or the moment when he (without looking) said  “oh, they’re a perfect fit - I could hear it on the way your foot slipped in”. I mean, really?! That afternoon has stuck with me ever since because this guy managed to turn an uncomfortable and unmanageable situation into the best shopping experience of my life.

Customer Experience Online

Being a consumer today is not easy. It’s actually extremely overwhelming, as we have to navigate through a thick jungle of products and offers every time we need a pair of shoes.  We look online. We look in the store. We look online while we are in the store. We check reviews and ask friends. We have to trust that the products are accurately portrayed in the photo we see and will arrive to us in the quality we expect. 

But imagine if we, as ecommerce professionals, could make the experience I had in Bien Caché the standard? Imagine if we could deduce what our consumers want and present them with the perfect product along with a shopping experience worth remembering. Imagine being able to make your customers feel the confidence I felt in that store.

The truth is: we can! And this is not something we have to wait 10-20 years for. The technology already exists and we can make the vision a reality today.

At Plytix our goal is to make it easier for brands and retailers to greet their consumers with better products and better service. Simply put, we want to create extraordinary shopping experiences for everyone by giving retailers the information they need instantly and easily. 


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