Customer Experience

My most recent customer experience happened to involve of the largest purchases I have ever made.  I walked into the campus computer store last week after my Dell computer crashed on me earlier last month. The best way to describe this experience fully would be to walk you through my thought process during those brief twenty minutes and the thoughts leading up to my decision to walk into the store.

To unpack this experience properly, I must first talk about how it provoked my senses. The campus computer store is not necessarily flashy. It is in the corner of the FAC and is usually packed with students asking ignorant questions to sales clerks who they assumed are IT. The store features a few tables with laptops open on them similar to how the Apple store would present them. Without these tables with laptops, the store looks like a low-budget convenience store that only sells headphones and laptop cases. I immediately went over to these tables to test the feel of the laptops. I picked up a couple Dell laptops to feel their weight and use their touchpads. I then went over to the sleeker looking MacBooks. I felt the light MacBook Air and compared its size and weight to the MacBook Pro. I preferred the feel of the keys and the touchpad on the MacBooks to the Dells.

From an emotional standpoint, my only real emotion was “I will be broke”. The salesclerk did the best thing he could do to handle this emotion, he never mentioned price. He only mentioned the features of the product. He told me that if I did want my computer to crash again then the best product to buy would be a Mac. I can admit that I did have a certain emotional attachment to not being an “Apple” person. I liked the fact that my Dell could run all the programs from McCombs. I liked the fact that I was not drinking the Koolaid of Steve Jobs by having every single Apple product out there. My head overcame my need to go against the Mac fanatics. The salesclerk assured me that I will be better off with a Mac for X, Y, and Z reasons. The salesclerk kept my mind off the staggering price of the Mac and pointed out all of its advanced features.

When buying a technical product like a laptop, the majority of the decision is made based on the intellectual aspect of the purchase. I relied heavily on the salesclerk to tell me the ins and outs of each laptop. I wanted to know why I a better processor would help me. I needed to know why each feature on the laptop made it worth the expensive price. The salesclerk’s job in these situations is to give the customer practical examples of how various features will help their customer. Telling me the processing speed means nothing to me unless you can break it down into examples of which speed allows which functions.

            The salesclerk did a great job of showing how this new MacBook would change my day-to-day life. He told me how he was once stuck being a “Dell person” (I do not know how that is an actual term, but it made perfect sense to me at the time). He told me that he ended up biting the bullet and switching over to a MacBook after realizing it is a far better value. He related his personal experience to my current situation to push me over the edge and make a purchase decision. He finally addressed the value of the product, as he knew I was already sold on getting a MacBook. He did not give me a chance to back out of the purchase. Instead, he grabbed a laptop from the back of the store and brought it to the counter as I was taking a moment to see if I wanted to wait on purchasing the laptop. He put me on the spot and I appreciated it. I am now typing on my purchase