Is Confusion a Feature or a Benefit?

There are plenty of ways for companies to assess the level of sales and service being provided by their client’s employees.  Most often schedulers will send evaluation forms for shoppers to complete, including a narrative piece about the interaction at the end.  Being a part of the scheduling world, there is a trend I have been noticing within our shopper database.  Even after assigning a shop to a mystery shopper and discussing each question on the evaluation before they head out, there is one mistake that many shoppers make.On our individual evaluation forms for credit unions and banks, there are questions regarding whether or not the employee discussed the features or benefits of the financial product the shopper asked about.  Often shoppers have no idea what a feature or a benefit entails.  Below I have identified the definitions of each. Features: These are anything that a product does regarding it’s functionality.  Also, features include any prices involved, fees, other add-on’s, etc.  For example, if you are discussing a checking account, features could be that the account offers a 1.25% quarterly interest rate, there is a minimum balance requirement of $100, and it comes with a debit card.Benefits: This includes anything that the consumer could, duh, benefit from.  The word “free” is a definite tip off.  Things like free checks with a checking account, the ease of paying bills with online bill pay, or the security of a VISA card would all constitute as benefits of banking with the financial institution. 

It sounds like the distinction would be an easy one, but amazingly this difference is one that many shoppers have a difficult time with.  When trying to decide whether something is a feature or a benefit, ask yourself, “does this put a smile on my face?” 

More often than not, if you’re smiling, you’re benefiting.

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