In the light of social media, a negative customer experience is now a disaster ... in other words, a negative customer experience. " bad buzz " in modern jargon.
The latest victim is Monoprix, which has managed the feat of refusing access to one of its shops to a blind person ... or rather his dog, in total breach of French law! In response to the outcry from socialites, on Twitter the chain said "strongly condemns the events that took place in Marseille and offers its apologies".
Marseille? In the same town where an employee was sacked in 2011 for trying to remove six melons and two salads from a rubbish bin ... and in the face of the outcry from socionauts - bis repetita - the chain retro-pedalled and reinstated its employee.
Ikéa was recently forced to apologise on Twitter to a father and daughter for sending them into police custody for forgetting to scan a plastic box at the checkout!
How did we get here?
Over the years, the brands have built up a strong "model customer - just as an author writes his text according to a specific "Model reader capable of cooperating in the textual actualisation of the way he, the author, thought it".as Umberto Eco reminded us in Lector in fabula.
Just as a writer writes his novel based on what he imagines a future reader to be like, a shop constructs not only its offering but also its staging based on a specific target audience. "model customer that it hopes to welcome onto its shelves ... marketing will speak more simply of the persona.
The persona of a city-centre retailer will obviously be dynamic, with a hint of bobo, certainly in a hurry, attentive to all the delicate attentions paid to them, perhaps organic, etc.; and as their customer experience has to be perfect, we'll make sure to erase anything that might disturb them.
Like dog hair on his trousers?
The schizophrenia of the retail sector described above is easily explained: any customer who does not comply with the "model or persona(s) is a disruptive element likely to undermine the constantly enriched experience of the "model ... and so ruin long and patient efforts.
The problem is that the customer "model can also turn out to be more altruistic than imagined ... hence the previous bad buzz!
The problem is also that the novelist accepts de facto that the "not a model reader doesn't buy a book they wouldn't buy anyway ... while the retailer wants to welcome as many customers as possible to its shops.
Hence the need to rethink your personas ... to make them more human.
