Maybe we're doing something right after all
By Clint Engel, Senior retail editor -- Furniture Today, August 26, 2002
We all seem to enjoy a good industry horror story. Maybe it's because they're funny. Maybe it's because they didn't happen to us. One of my favorite stories came from Bill Cook of Denver's Howard Lorton Galleries a few year's back. Someone ordered a popular dining room from the store and it was between cuttings at the factory. "We placed an order, and the customer was married, divorced and bankrupt before the dining room arrived," Cook said. (I almost added, "had died.")
But it seems that many of these tales of angry consumers, big delays, dumb-as-stump salespeople, reps and industry reporters are nothing more than dirty little exceptions to the rule. At least that's what I took home from a presentation by Bob George and Lee Brown of Impact Consulting Services during the American Furniture Manufacturers Assn.'s Marketing Division meeting this month.
Through thousands of ongoing interviews with consumers and a smaller, recent sampling of the industry, George and Brown showed just how good this industry can be. Questions on what brought product to their attention, how long it took to get it, and how they would rate salespeople all showed consumers giving pretty good marks, while the industry's opinion of itself often suffered.
Most of the industry sample, 57.7%, thought it took one to three months for a customer to receive their purchase. Most consumers, 63.2%, said it took less than a week, with 51% of those purchasing high-end upholstery saying it took one to two weeks.
Did they get it when promised? Nearly 92% of consumers said yes, one of the few instances where the industry had a slightly better opinion of itself (nearly 97% said yes).
"That's better than the pizza guys, and we have more ingredients in our products," Brown said.
Participants also were asked to rank the effectiveness of store display and salespeople. Here, the consumer had the better opinion, giving store display more than an eight out of a possible 10, while the industry gave itself less than a seven. And the salesperson got better than a seven for product knowledge and general effectiveness from the consumer, while the industry gave him or her right around a six.
Some other interesting points: The importance of the salesperson is rising. In 1994, under 2% said salespeople were responsible for bringing the product they bought to their attention. But of the consumers asked the same question this year, more than 14% said the salesperson was responsible.
And consumers don't shop nearly as long for furniture (less than a week for 43.7%) as the industry often thinks (one to three months). While I'm oversimplifying here, a big point is that more and more consumers say they're using the Internet to carefully research their choices before stepping into a store, and they don't consider that research a form of shopping, Brown said.
Which led to one of George's concluding questions: "What are you doing on your Web site to prepare the consumer for a fast shopping experience?"
