An Abbreviated Confession of My Love for Barnes & Noble

Customer experiences are private events that occur in response to some direct observation or participation in an event or events. They must be induced. This can be done intentionally, in which case the marketer is usually the one responsible, or unintentionally. Because these customer experiences are private events, they mean different things to different people. What could seem like nothing more than a ribbon tied to a bag to one person, could validate a claim of quality to another. Today I will talk about a customer experience that is personally very meaningful to me.

I spent this summer on the east coast. Because I had been far away from home for a long period of time (I stayed in Europe from the end of December to early June and left for Washington, D.C. the day after I arrived home), I started to feel homesick. Not to mention, I took advantage of the fact that public transportation was more accessible on the east coast and that, for the first time, I had access to interesting cities like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. These constant upheavals made me feel even more uprooted. However, whenever I stepped into a Barnes and Noble to seek solace from the unforgiving summer sun, it was if I was instantly transported back to Houston. I always found a home inside of Barnes & Noble.

The best way to break apart this experience in order to analyze it would be to view it from my, the customer’s, point of view in the order that I experience the store.

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

Walking from a distance to Barnes & Noble, you see the strong, dignified forest green and white letters, beckoning you closer. The large window displays show off bestsellers and offer you a glimpse of the satisfied patrons reading inside. If you are anything like me, you smile and your pace quickens because you know what awaits you inside.

THROUGH THE DOUBLE DOORS

Barnes & Noble has two sets of double doors to all of their stores. This has less to do with the customer experience, and more to do with the fact that two sets of double doors conserves more air-conditioning than one set. However, because this extra chamber creates space, retailers decided to maximize its potential by displaying bargain books that fall under a certain theme. I suppose this enhances the experience for some customers, but personally, my eyes just quickly glance over it as I hurriedly grab the second set of wooden double doors.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

As soon as you enter the bookstore, you just smell it. It's distinctly Barnes and Noble: the smell of Starbucks and new books commingling over a good read. This is usually where I pause for a second or two to take in my surroundings and appreciate the fact that I am here and literate. I soak in the bright space and high ceilings. I appreciate the wooden shelves and tables. I hear the soft notes of adult contemporary music playing in the background. I note the cash registers on my left and the Starbucks coffee shop on my right.

FRONT OF THE STORE

The main promotional tables are placed inside the octagon at the front of the store. Small green signs with cream letters announce descriptions like “new arrivals” or “best-seller.” Most customers will stop to at least look around these tables, which is why this is the most expensive spot for a publisher to place their books. 

Barnes & Noble will purposely arrange for books with the most copies present to lie in the center of the display table and for books with the least copies present to lie towards the edge of the table. This makes it easier for customers to see what titles are available and it makes it easier for customers to grab a book if they are interested. This display strategy increases sales.

THE CHILDREN’S SECTION

Barnes & Noble provides an area aimed towards children. There are benches surrounding a stage in the front. Occasionally, authors will come and read to children from the stage. The children’s area is also filled with child-sized picnic tables that give children a place to read. At least in Texas, there are children’s books written in Spanish here as well. This area helps make Barnes & Noble a family-friendly place. Parents are happy to take their children to a bookstore over a park when the weather is over 100 degrees or after the sun goes down. This area also encourages parents to shop at Barnes & Noble more often because it allows them to safely leave their more independent children alone in the children’s section while they find their own books.

THE MEDIA SECTION

The music section is strategically placed in the back to entice non-readers to purchase some of the books they passed on the way to get to the CDs and DVDs. A great thing about the Barnes & Noble’s music section is that they let you sample CDs and purchase it immediately in the media section of the store.

THE RESTROOMS

I have to be honest and admit that the worst part about Barnes & Noble is their restrooms. It looks like an average public restroom and is usually not as clean as you would like. The quality (or lack thereof) of their restrooms always surprises me given the attention to detail they give the rest of the store.

THE REST OF THE STORE

Barnes & Noble laid out their bookshelves very logically. Books on aging are placed next to books on health, next to books on dieting, next to cookbooks, etc. This eases the customer’s navigation of the store, which only makes them feel more positively towards Barnes & Nobel. It also places common areas on interests next to one another, in theory, increasing cross selling. 

The bookshelves always appear full. Employees fill up gaps in the shelves by turning books to show their cover instead of their spine, therefore increasing their chances of being noticed, and hence, purchased. This move also assures the customer that Barnes & Noble is not falling behind in restocking their inventory. It looks more purposeful than a half-empty shelf.

Perhaps one of Barnes & Noble’s most distinctive characteristics is its comfortable couches and chairs. I have many a fond memory in those green chairs. This is what originally differentiated Barnes & Noble from traditional bookstores. Traditionally, bookstores were very tiny and they discouraged reading books inside of the store (sampling merchandise, if you will). And then Barnes & Noble came along and offered wide open spaces to explore thousands of books and seats to sample them all in. This sampling, lingering strategy can also be seen in Barnes & Noble’s music section and online at bn.com. It is a major factor in why Barnes & Noble became so successful.

THE PEOPLE

Now, I cannot write about a customer experience inside a retail store without touching on customer service. If a customer asks a worker about the location of a certain book, the worker is encouraged to walk the customer to the bookshelf, grab the book, and hand it to the customer. These small gestures make Barnes & Noble feel more like a community.

Another way Barnes & Noble creates that sense of community is through special events which can range from the midnight release of the last Harry Potter book to a Malcolm Gladwell book signing. 

You have, by now, read many reasons why Barnes & Noble offers such an exceptional customer experience; however, the sums of the parts do not equal the whole. Much of the reason why I enjoy Barnes & Noble so much is because it brings me back so many memories. Almost every week from elementary school to high school, my dad would take my family out to Barnes & Noble, followed by Marble Slab, which is a completely different and wonderful customer experience in itself. So when I step into Barnes & Noble, I am transported back in time. I am just eight years old again and my parents are finding their own books a few yards away, not a few hundred miles away.