Shouldn’t “cleaning” form part of your brand strategy?
July 31, 2019
When developing a brand strategy, facility managers and marketers should consider that the facility’s appearance forms part of the brand and the impact its cleaning services has on how customers perceive your brand. Adding “cleaning” to your brand strategy – could be one of the key differentiators in industry where competition for customer attention is fierce, and the customer experience is king.
In modern times where, online shopping is an ever-growing phenomenon, it is no easy feat for mall managers to maintain their visitor foot traffic the mall tenants so heavily rely on. History was made when during February this year when online shopping lead by Amazon, hit a new milestone in the U.S. and for the first time overtook the market share of general merchandise sales.
That said, not all is doom-and-gloom, nor does it spell out the end of the shopping mall as we know it. It simply means that the market has changed, and one must adapt to to seize the what share is still there. In other words, shopping malls will have to be more innovative than ever.
The fact is, everyone is different, and we have different methods of buying as well as expected customer experience. And herein lies the magic…The Customer Experience. In order to lure shoppers to fulfill the expected transaction of a mall visit, the mall will have to perform better in two areas to create a better holistic customer experience. One, be more in-tune with their “end-user” and two, blow their socks off when they do arrive.
Let’s explore this hypothesis:
#1 Better Connected to End-User
Isn’t it about time that shopping malls start acting more like the brands under their roof? You name it, from Starbucks to Best Buy and the Hudson Bay, all of these brands go to extreme lengths to gain customer data, establish databases and from that build up intelligence of their shopping behaviour, personal likes and dislikes, to create a more personal shopping experience. In the humble opinion of this writer, herein lies “the secret sauce”. If the malls can perform a more customized service in an environment built to be generic, they will succeed in gaining increased foot traffic and ultimately higher tenant demand.
#2 Wow Them
The second part of this equation is perceptions and the tangible factors that creates the shopping experience. This could include ease of parking, tenant variety but selfishly, I will focus on the mall appearance that affect the customer’s experience. In this, we have years of experience and knowledge gained from dealing with facility managers, tenants and end customers. Our data have been compiled from our Quality Control systems and shopper surveys, there to measure our consistency and performance.
It’s one thing to have the biggest and best collection of tenants within your mall, but your cleaning service provider lacks consistency, causing shoppers often to be greeted by lingering odors, neglected floors that don’t reflect surrounding light and not-so-clean washrooms. These might seem like small factors, but ask yourself what are some of the first things you can recollect noticing about the facilities upon your last mall visit.
Taking minor steps to ensure that maintaining appearances thought a well reputed, reliable cleaning company is performed consistently, could well just make the difference.
In a world where information is shared so willingly and at a rapid pace, the old saying that goes “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” speaks volumes.