Page 57 of the book Priceless: Turning Ordinary Products into Extraordinary Experiences: – a customer went to a store to buy a can opener, but it was on a shelf 12 feet high, so she picked another product. Bad product placement, and bad experience!
What do you think – do libraries do this? With high shelving, sure – but also by making our information hard to find. For example… A new book can be:
- on a new books shelf
- a genre shelf
- a themed display
- in the kids or adults section
- on the normal shelf
- Or checked out
And the library catalog doesn’t always provide this type of detail to our customers. The catalog entry might say nothing more than “new books” – but our customer is left scratching his head, wondering “where is ‘New Books’?” Another good one – a library catalog entry might say “browsing collection” – huh?
We need to provide clear direction so customers can quickly and painlessly find our stuff – thus providing a positive experience. And, simple as this might seem… customers want to repeat positive experiences.