Both brick and mortar furniture stores as well as online furniture entities want to create a seamless shopping experience for their customers but there is a huge difference between these two types of stores. When customers’ needs are anticipated and all the systems are in place furniture stores, whether it be physical stores or those which only have an online presence, run like well-oiled machines. This sounds great but things do go wrong in this imperfect world, but what happens when things do go wrong, for example?
When you walk into a physical furniture store, few can and do make a great impression. Today’s customers are more demanding and many will not purchase from a website without physically seeing the furniture. There is nothing like actually seeing furniture in person and touching it or sitting on it. Then there are those few sales representatives who truly know their job and product line. Product knowledge has always been, and will always be, where excellent customer service starts in the relationship with the customer. To actually feel the different leather grades, for example, and have them explained to you in greater detail is truly something else. Exceptional service such as this permeates every part of a quality furniture store and becomes readily visible at every level of the store, and it is felt at every point of customer contact. With online stores all you see is an image on a screen.
Everyone loves free things. Are the really free though? Online furniture stores which have no physical presence usually offer free shipping, even on heavier items, such as sofas or dressers. Most of the time it’s curb-side delivery, which means that these heavy items are dropped off on your curb and it is your responsibility to take the item from the curb, place it inside your house, unwrap the packaging, assemble the item (if it requires assembly), and finally dispose of the packaging. Real brick and mortar furniture stores, on the other hand, offer a real furniture delivery service where the furniture is brought into the home, unpacked, assembled, and the debris is removed, for a nominal fee. The delivery personnel of these real furniture stores are usually the store’s own employees. The deliver staff is trained so they can handle the product and deliver it right the first time. They understand the product inside and out because they routinely deliver it. When the products are delivered, they are inspected, neatly wrapped, and tied.
In today’s single-parent and two-income families, it’s difficult for most to take time off work to accept their furniture delivery. Customers are not too fond of sitting around for half a day, nor do they like missed store-to-home delivery dates. These time-crunched customers are more demanding. It is best to minimize their inconvenience by narrowing down the delivery window. Where once they would tolerate a four-hour delivery window, they now expect to be a two-hour window. Online entities can’t be as efficient because they hire third-party delivery organizations not only for delivery but also to absorb any other expenses associated with the delivery service. Brick and mortar furniture stores in NJ or elsewhere in the country have their own employees who do the deliveries and are more efficient. They are more vigilant about arriving within the promised delivery window and are quicker to contact the customer if they are going to arrive late.
There are large differences between physical furniture stores and online entities and this includes how they deliver furniture. There are many steps that take place from the customer walking into the store until the delivery but the last person the custom sees is the delivery person, so furniture stores need to make sure that this last step is a strong one. Brick and mortar stores solve this better in the end.
