The Sale Is Not Over When the Customer Pays!

A customer walks into a store, buys a pack of biscuits, pays for it and walks out. Nothing unusual. But later, the customer wonders whether the other brand offered better value.

Sounds trivial? Perhaps. But that is precisely where post-purchase cognitive dissonance begins.

It need not be an expensive automobile, a diamond necklace or a premium smartphone. It could be a packet of sugar, an expensive bar of chocolate or even a box of branded apples! The value of the purchase does not necessarily determine the extent of dissatisfaction. 

The feeling of having made the wrong choice can be just as real, irrespective of the amount spent.

Behavioural scientists call this Post-Purchase Cognitive Dissonance – the discomfort or doubt a customer experiences after making a purchase, when questions about the decision begin to surface.

A competing product, an attractive offer, a negative review or even a casual comment from a friend can trigger this feeling.

What happens when the customer wants to return the product?

Refund and exchange practices differ across countries. 

In many Western markets, retailers voluntarily offer generous return policies as a matter of customer service and relationship building, alongside statutory consumer rights. The law, of course, varies by country and product category.

In India, there is no blanket legal obligation under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, requiring a retailer to refund a customer simply because they have changed their mind about a purchase. 

However, this does not absolve retailers of their obligations. Defective goods, misleading descriptions, unfair trade practices and other legitimate consumer grievances are covered by the law. 

Section 39 empowers Consumer Commissions to order refunds in appropriate cases. E-commerce businesses also have specific obligations under the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020.

There is another interesting dimension to this phenomenon.

Think about the last time a retailer, whether a neighbourhood store or an XXL retail chain, requested you to write a short online review after a purchase.

That request is almost like holding up a mirror immediately after the customer has made a decision. The review reflects whether the purchase has settled comfortably in the customer's mind or whether a little doubt still lingers.

A positive review is an affirmation. A negative one is often an indication that the customer's expectations and experience have parted ways.

So, what should retailers do?

The responsibility does not end at the billing counter. 

A genuine thank-you, product education, reassurance, responsive after-sales service and transparent return policies can go a long way.

Retailers spend considerable time and money acquiring customers. Yet, many forget to nurture the customer after the transaction.

Perhaps it is time we looked beyond conversion rates and sales per square foot.

The real test of a successful retail transaction is not just whether the customer bought the product, but whether the customer continues to feel good about having bought it.

After all, a sale is an event. Customer confidence is a relationship.

And relationships are what build retail businesses.

The Customer: The Purpose, Not the Interruption

I first saw this quote on the Calcutta Metro Rail Station in 2001, during those twenty-minute underground rides from Rabindra Sarovar to Park Street. Those journeys cost me INR 7 per day; the monthly pass was a lifesaver on my meagre five-figure post-MBA salary.

I was a Management Trainee at RPG Retail then, fresh off campus recruitment. I was responsible for the Operations of Asia’s largest music retail store in the day - all of 7,000 sq ft, designed by Fitch PLC and a monthly turnover of INR 60 lakhs. That’s INR 2 lakhs a day, selling cassettes worth INR 28 for Bengali music and INR 33 for Hindi. 

CDs and DVDs were just hitting the market and were priced at INR 299, restricting them for just a few hundred in the city and a few thousands in the country, perhaps. 

Retail wasn't entirely new to me — I'd worked part-time as a waiter at Baskin Robbins Ice Cream parlour in Chennai, the second outlet in India and the first in the city. 

I already understood, however faintly, the mechanics of managing customers.

Reading Gandhi's words daily only deepened what I was beginning to learn: that customers were everything. 

Back then, many shopkeepers still believed they were doing the community a service — stocking shelves at competitive prices with wafer-thin margins, almost grudgingly. The servitude was absent.

Curiously, little has changed in twenty-five years.

I'm uncertain if Gandhi's quote still adorns that metro corridor, but I notice something troubling: despite all the talk about customer experience and digital transformation, servitude has largely disappeared. 

From luxury brands to neighbourhood shops, there's an undercurrent of indifference masquerading as efficiency.

I've run retail businesses and launched startups. 

I've always tried to live this principle visibly — showing my teams that the rice and milk we buy at home exists because customers chose to give us their business yesterday. 

Without them, regardless of title or designation, there's no revenue to manage, no salary to draw.

We've certainly shifted customer focus dramatically. Technology has changed the experience. Yet we have miles to go in creating exemplary customer moments. 

The irony isn't lost on me: we've mastered the transaction but forgotten the transaction's foundation — genuine respect for the person across the counter.

Today, on Gandhi Jayanti, his words resonate as loudly as they did in 2001. Perhaps more so. Happy Birthday, Late Shri, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi ji.

Hey! Ram.

Boston Days — Part 15

The Robot Brewed It. But Did It Mean It?

(I am writing "Boston Days" as a series of articles for quick reference for myself and other retail pilgrims. This article covers what a frappe in downtown Boston and a robotic kiosk at Logan Airport taught me about the one thing no machine has yet learned to deliver — the soul behind a brand.)

A coffee chain that is struggling to get back at its feet. And a coffee making robot. Stark tale of 2 coffee offerings.

At downtown Boston, I paid my retail pilgrimage to the SBUX outlet at Assembly Row. Barista Ms. Anita was empathetic to my ask — any food item without eggs. And no, they don't have any.

She went on to prepare a wonderful frappe for me. Great drink for the soul, some rest for my feet before I continued my retail walk.

Assembly Row in Somerville is one of Boston's most compelling mixed-use destinations — open, walkable, anchored by brands that belong. Starbucks fits in naturally.

Founded in Seattle in 1971, Starbucks today operates over 36,000 stores across 80 countries. 

Yet the chain has endured a turbulent few years — leadership churn, flat same-store sales, and a high-profile CEO transition that brought in Brian Niccol from Chipotle in 2024 to engineer a turnaround. 

The comeback story is still being written.

What Ms. Anita delivered, though, was the Starbucks I recognise — warm, personal, unhurried. She read the customer, filled the gap, made it count.

Cut to Boston Airport on my return leg to India.

At Terminal E of Logan International, tucked past the departure boards and the duty-free frenzy, stood Mt. Comfort Coffee — a beautifully branded, self-contained automated pod, adorned with hand-drawn wilderness illustrations and a glowing LED outline, a robotic arm working silently at its centre.

Order placed on a touchscreen. Coffee delivered by the arm. No human in sight.

I stood and watched. Hardly anyone else stopped to do the same.

A few gates away, George Howell Coffee held its ground — a well-regarded Boston craft brand, known for sourcing discipline and specialty blends, with a proper counter and a considered menu. History, provenance, and craft in one place. Few takers, still.

No Starbucks at Terminal E. Two alternatives — one human-less, one storied — and neither drawing queues.

I found myself sitting with a question I could not answer:

If a robot can brew a technically excellent cup of coffee — does the experience, let alone the beverage, still stay true to the brand promise?

Ms. Anita made a great frappe.

The robot, I am told, makes a great cold brew.

But only one of them asked how my day was going.

Boston was teaching me. Again.

(I am writing "Boston Days" as a series of articles for quick reference for myself and other retail pilgrims.)

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13 and Part 14 here.

Boston Days — Part 9

The Store That Spoke to Me. After I Had Already Left.

(I am writing “Boston Days” as a series of articles for quick reference for myself and other retail pilgrims. This article covers frontline culture — and what two factory outlets in Somerville taught me in ninety minutes.)

Assembly Row in Somerville is one of Greater Boston’s more interesting retail destinations. Open-air, mixed-use, genuinely alive on a warm August afternoon. I was there for two names: Nike and Puma.

Same street. Same concept. Ninety minutes between them. A very different education.

The Nike Factory Store is impossible to miss. 

Strong footfall. Unmistakable brand energy. Categories demarcated, range broad — everything that a factory outlet of the world’s largest sportswear brand should signal.

But something was off.

Merchandise was scattered. Shelves in various states of undress. Replenishment appeared to be an afterthought. Staff were few and visibly stretched. Customers were entirely on their own — not by design, simply by default.

The billing queue was long. Not the kind of long that means a great trading day. The kind that makes a motivated shopper quietly calculate whether waiting is worth it.

Footfall without conversion is noise. Brand strength got them through the door. What happened inside was another matter entirely.

Across the street stood the Puma Factory Store.

Fewer customers. Calmer energy. But immediately, noticeably different in composition. Staff were present — not just physically, but attending. The floor was managed. The store felt considered.

I spent over thirty minutes inside. Browsing, trying on, thinking. I stepped out without a purchase.

That is when it happened.

A Puma associate walked up — calmly, without rehearsed enthusiasm — and asked a simple question. Had I found what I was looking for?

It was an unremarkable interaction on the surface. Except it hadn’t happened inside Nike. And it happened here, after I had already left.

Someone had noticed that a person spent thirty minutes inside, walked out without buying, and was carrying unresolved intent. That is not a trained reflex. That is a culture.

A few kilometres away, inside an HBS classroom, I had spent an entire session the previous week discussing the Walmart case. 

Doug McMillon’s conviction — that Walmart’s greatest long-term competitive asset was its people — had generated sharp debate. His bets on frontline dignity and training were not HR policy. They were strategic capital allocation.

Standing on that Somerville sidewalk, I had just watched the same case play out. Not in a classroom. In real life.

One store had the crowd. The other had the conversation.

Ninety minutes at Assembly Row. No slides. 

No framework. Just one street, two stores, and a reminder that the greatest competitive advantage in retail has always been the person standing closest to the customer.

Boston was teaching me. Just not always inside a classroom.

(I am writing “Boston Days” as a series of articles for quick reference for myself and other retail pilgrims.)

Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8 and Part 9 here.

CX – the only tool to retain customers

It’s all about how customers are treated – the eternal philosophy of modern retailing. 

During the recent shopping spree ahead of Deepavali 2024, I witnessed this first hand and could only comfort myself that more than the 4 Ps of Marketing (or 5, or 6 as the list gets elongated from time to time), it is the Customer Experience offered at the retail store that can entice shoppers to spend more. And later, speak about the positive experience to others and further drive themselves as well as more people to the brand / store.

Actually, we had four such instances over the last fortnight – one where we felt a bit cheated by the brand due to the overtures of the staff who were thinking they were doing good to the brand by saving the discounts we deserved. And another, where the staff overwhelmed us with known and unknown promotions that led us to buy more.

Let me start with the positive one first.

My wife and I decided to spend a couple of hours together (no, not the typical husband-wife “me time” without the kids tagging along), rather to explore the Phoenix Mall to see what could suit our needs and budget. Frankly, we went without an agenda (a rarity for your’s truly).

We started exploring at the Fab-India store which was for a change, absolutely empty (it was 11.30am). I tried a kurta first and the girl staff was keen to showcase more designs to me. Within the next few minutes, I had picked up a handful of clothing, once again a rare thing for me, as I prefer to buy clothes from across various brands.

Then, we visited a few other stores until my wife suggested we enter and explore “Avantra” by Reliance Retail. It was my first to the brand store and I was mighty impressed with their assortment. Not that I am a regular buying stuff for my wife, but with a little knowledge of how sarees are displayed and sold, I was quite surprised that the brand had gotten everything right. 

Almost.

The lady staff was quite enthusiastic to showcase the collection to my wife and to her surprise, the product and pricing was just apt. Add to that, a dash of friendly support by the store staff that we ended up buying a lot more from the store, way above our budget. We still decided to bill what we had picked up, to ensure the staff who served us were happy. And the staff offered us a surprise by giving us Gold coins weighing 0.25 gms - 3 units for our shopping! Whoa. 

Passing by aisles of the mall, I quickly entered the “Home Centre” store to pick up a few coffee mugs to sip my filter coffee on Deepavali day. Now, this is the kind of store where customers “indulge” in shopping therapy, especially picking up a number of discretionary items, buoyed by impulse and a push by the staff. 

Alas, we were not so lucky to be prodded by any such staff. Honestly, we found none until we reached the Cashier, who was busy explaining the “Exchange Policy” to another shopper who had come to replace a few things he had picked up earlier.

The most disappointing experience was when we landed up at a women’s fashion apparel store 2 weeks back, (I choose not to mention the name and admonish them here) where my daughter discovered a fabulous collection that suited her needs. She had almost given up on her Deepavali shopping not being able to find what she wanted, having explored over half a dozen small boutique stores as well as 3 department stores earlier in the day at another mall.

What makes a dad happy is when the kid is happy. And happy I was, to pay for more than what we had planned to buy. At the time of billing, I got a message from the brand on my Whatsapp that we are entitled to Rs. 500 off on our next purchase. So, we decided to hold one dress to be billed the next day, as our total bill was a healthy 5-digit figure already. However, the staff wasn’t too happy that we were trying to save some money. She sulked when I informed her that we would bill the item the next day. 

When my wife went the next day to bill the product, the same staff displayed a fuss, that a discount code was required to ensure she was able to deduct it from the bill. Just that we had not received any such code from the Brand. After all, the code gets generated only when they trigger it, which she clearly did not. 

We were anyway going to buy the dress, so my wife decided to proceed without the much desired discount. She did make a mention to the staff, that her husband was part of the retail industry for decades, right after which the staff decided to trigger the code. 

Bingo! I received the code on my Whatsapp and I passed it on immediately to my wife, and then to the staff. Billing was over, product picked up. But my wife wasn’t appreciative of the entire experience.

As the store was just 2 kms from our home, we had discussed the previous day that we shall come here more often, as my kid liked their collection. But the bitter experience made us think twice, if this is where we would spend our hard earned dime.

Through the retail network, I tried to reach out to the brand owner, a second-generation entrepreneur from the city. The gentleman was rather unapologetic to my wife when he called her. Instead of saying “sorry” for the poor experience, he insisted that the brand will reimburse another Rs. 500 to our account which we can reimburse during our next buy.

Sorry, but we were not harping for the discount for which we escalated the matter to the owner. The young man, with limited experience in retail, perhaps, wasn’t able to understand our dismay and rather focussed on the monies. We earn, spend, loose sometimes and the cycle is repeated. But the way the entrepreneur justified the entire episode on a professional Whatsapp group in front of 200 others, was rather in poor taste. His explanation as well did not include the word “sorry”.

This is what happens when business owners presume that Pricing (and Discounts) are the only reason consumers attach themselves with brands. Not sure, whether he understood the magnitude of the issue on hand, but I did. And I decided, that I will ensure such a poor customer experience is never accorded to anyone in such cases where I am involved.

The bitter experience however did not deter our Deepavali celebrations. We had a great time as well as enjoyed when the kid wore the dress from that particular store, as much as we did, when family members wore clothing from Fab-India and Avantra.

Here’s to more celebrations and much better Customer Experiences.