Do customers dwell with you?

26. October 2010 by Frank Goad.

“Dwell time” is an oft overlooked but highly valuable time your customer spends considering your company. It’s defined as the time a customer spends with you in the absence of buying or being assisted with a sale. It’s when they’re browsing, waiting to talk with someone or simply killing time because someone else is involved with you or your personnel. 

Believe it or not, you want to increase your customer’s dwell time, but you want to guide them in it. You have the power to make it enjoyable and entertaining with some attention to detail. For instance, do you have a showroom? Is it clean and well organized? Is the lighting appropriate for the displays? Are there comfortable chairs? Can they get a drink of water or a cup of coffee? Are the merchandise displays laid out in a way that encourages customers to leisurely browse? Does it provide a positive sensory experience?

If you don’t have a showroom, then you must make the main contact point as friendly, inviting and engaging as possible. If it’s a brochure, is it small and packed tightly to save money? If so, you probably cost yourself more money than you could ever save because, if customers won’t read it, you don’t get sales. The most inviting print pieces have plenty of open space (white space, negative space, etc.). If a page is too busy or crowded, the reader’s brain quickly passes it by because it causes mental or emotional confusion or conflict. Packing as much as possible in to persuade them can actually do the opposite. In design terms, less is more.

Is their first contact a product sample? This is where the “first impressions last” rule must be considered. If possible, make a sample its own little presentation. Rather than have only the product be what they see, use a printed bag or box with a picture, the name and a some basic information on the back – keep it very simple. This does two things: A. It makes it seem like a present (and not just extra stock), plus it’s a bit like unwrapping one, and; B. It helps ensure that they remember your product’s name and image. Yes, this does cost more, but the emotional experience helps build your brand more strongly in their mind and gets them to dwell on your product longer. When you might have only one shot and you can’t be there to talk about it, it better be good.

If you have a showroom, look at the lighting. The human eye is drawn to the brightest thing within its field of vision. You want display areas well lit, and you also want to have the room light lower than the highlights on your displays. This creates attractive zones for the eyes, highlights the products and helps the customer’s brain focus on what you want them to see. Again, if your showroom is crowded, simplify it because people like a feeling of space and room (Americans are particularly needful of this).

Take the way Apple does its stores. They are somewhat Spartan, clean-looking and they use spotlights to bring out their electronics – you almost have to look at their products if only because there are so few distractions. How do you know it works? They can barely keep product in their stores – do you have that problem? Another example is large retail chains like Macy’s. Look at their ceilings and notice how many spotlights they use. They know that lighting leads people where they want them to go by creating attractive visual zones.

If you have e-commerce on your site, it’s a natural tendency to try to tell folks everything all at once, but that’s not how we learn, or buy. If they linger on the site, they are more likely to buy because they’ve had a pleasant experience. So, keep your home page uncluttered and provide lots of navigation clues so that they can always tell where they are and how they got there - the first sign of confusion means they’ll likely bolt. Do usability testing on your site (or as you’re building it – don’t wait until the end as that’s too late) by putting a customer in a chair, put a video camera on the screen and see where they go. Are they going where you want them to? Where do they linger? After you’ve done a few of these, you’ll have a very good idea whether or not your design is working.

So, dwell for a time on your spaces and see where you would dwell.

Frank Goad is president of Frank Communications, a marketing and advertising consulting firm specializing in helping small- and medium-sized businesses grow and prosper. www.frankcomlex.com, 859-619-5050

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