The Customer That Never Was

I ended up waiting on a busy New York city street today. Right next to a Bank of America ATM branch at the corner of an extremely crowded intersection. And I didn't expect to learn a lesson in storefront dynamics.

Being on a corner, the ATM branch had two entrances and one of them was locked without any signs indicating that there was another entrance around the corner. It was an extremely crowded street due to a nearby fair and there was a steady stream of traffic into and out of the ATM vestibule. In the 30 minutes that I was waiting there - about 15 people struggled with the locked door - and 6 of them left without checking the other side. That's a loss of 6 customers who would have done some sort of a transaction.

6? No big deal, right? But take another look at the context. With restaurants, banks and similar services, when people need to avail of the service, it is usually due to something they need to get done. Replace this ATM branch with ... I don't know ... a hair clip store. And now apply the same scenario. Rarely does someone have to buy hair clips. My guess is that more people would try that locked door, not bother any further, and move on to something else. A simple sign could have minimized some of this damage, not eliminate it, because you cannot guarantee that someone will see the sign. But this example just goes to show that even before the customer has entered the store, the buying experience has begun. Make sure you are on top of your game right from the start.