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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. There are hard-to-please customers in almost every industry, with certain people being picky about which clothes, houses and even romantic partners they will consider.
A new series of studies has found that shopper pickiness can go beyond shopping for the best option. The researchers define what it means to be picky and also developed a scale for measuring shopper pickiness.
Margaret Meloy, department chair and professor of marketing at Penn State, said the findings could help companies devise the best strategies for satisfying their pickier customers. If a company knows they have a lot of picky customers, they may need to change the way they reward salespeople or dedicate specific salespeople to their pickiest customers, because picky shoppers have very narrow preferences and they see perceived flaws in products others wouldn t notice, Meloy said. Alternatively, a company may allow picky shoppers to customize their products to satisfy thei