Kevin Moffitt, president, Office Depot.
As shopper demand for new products and services tends to increase during holidays and key seasons such as back-to-school season, businesses have a chance to stand out from their competitors and help their customers be successful. In addition to offering timely deals and curated product assortments, we must be thoughtful in our interactions with customers, focusing on how we can best provide solutions to meet their needs at a given moment in time. And as preferences and shopping habits continue to evolve, businesses should use data from key customer segments and shopper feedback to help unlock insights shaping their future actions and identify areas where they can help to solve specific challenges for customers.
That’s one reason why we do a back-to-school survey every year.
This year’s survey—conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Office Depot between May 17 and May 29, 2023—included 1,000 parents of kids 5-17 and 1,000 K-12 teachers. It revealed that nearly 40% of parents have already started back-to-school shopping for their child before July. And this year, we introduced our back-to-school assortment sooner to help meet that earlier demand. The survey also found that two in three K-12 teachers miss their classroom during the summer and may be thinking of how to reconnect, decorate and prepare ahead of the return to school.
According to the National Retail Federation’s 2023 back-to-class and back-to-college surveys, in the current economic environment, nearly 50% of back-to-school shoppers are shopping for sales more often to find more ways to stretch their dollars so students have everything they need for the first day of class. The same number are also doing more comparative shopping online.
Data like this can help businesses better understand their customers’ changing mindsets each year and adjust in-store and online offerings accordingly.
Here are four tips businesses can consider to help break through the noise during key moments throughout the year, such as back-to-school:
1. Put in the effort to understand the times of year that matter most to your customers. Use customer surveys, third-party research, and qualitative interviews to inform your strategies. Aim for the intersection of moments that matter most to your customers and the times when you’re best equipped to help them.
2. Go beyond demographics to listen and get to know who your customers really are. If you’re in the retail space, visit stores and interact with those shopping at your locations. Explore different areas of the country and find out how your customers and their expectations differ from region to region. Spend an hour taking customer service calls. Your customers are real people with real problems that your brand can help solve. One-on-one research can reveal learnings that could drive game-changing business outcomes.
3. Support your communities and build relationships with your customers. Think about how you can leverage relationships to drive local impact, allowing customers and employees the opportunity to help make a meaningful change in their community or towards a national cause that they can identify with. For us, empowering education and supporting local communities is at the heart of our company. We host a national education donation drive in Office Depot and OfficeMax stores across the country to help connect hundreds of Title I public schools with educational resources to support teachers and students. We also provide backpacks filled with new supplies each year to students at select Title I public schools across the country. Recurring programs like these are integral to who we are and how we operate.
4. Lead with authenticity and purpose. Beyond single moments in time, anchor your efforts in things that matter to your customers to continue to earn their trust, strengthen your bond and increase preference and loyalty. Explore strategic initiatives that not only support the community but also support efforts reflective of your organization’s culture and align with your business imperatives.
Back-to-school, holiday season and summer break and travel: these are shared moments in time where everyone is going through similar experiences. As retailers, they present unique opportunities to connect with customers. To do so authentically, strategies should be informed by both direct engagement with customers and communities and leveraging research and data. Any brand can offer a seasonal deal. Very few can offer the exact right product at the right price to the exact customer who needs it at the right time. It’s critical that we continue to listen, learn and adapt to meet the needs of those we serve.
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