A Wren Says

In a marketing course I was taking, the instructor talked about meeting customer needs. Customers are dissatisfied when products don’t meet their needs and wants, but often they don’t really know what they really need and want. The thing I took away from that? As a consumer, I need to figure out what I want to increase my own satisfaction with what I buy.

To getting the most out of our shopping trips and avoiding that buyer’s remorse, we need to reflect on what it is that we are really looking for in the first place. That can start by reflecting on what is driving you to shop, thinking about why you’re interested in the item, and what you’re hoping the products will do for you. That is all well and good, but I have found that asking more and better questions at the store or using website chat functions helps me get the information I need to make better decisions.

Now, I ask questions of the store associates and let them make suggestions. Instead seeing them as people who are bothering me while I shop, I see them as a wealth of information that can help me get to the things I really want. Sometimes they will make suggestions that work better than what I thought I was looking for and they always have a better idea of the inventory than I do. I no longer am “just looking,” I’ll take the help their offering to learn as much as possible about what is in the store and available to me.

Maybe that won’t work for you, maybe you still want to be left alone when you shop, but I will still encourage you think more about how you find information and figure out what it is that I really want.