Background

I recently moved house, and I needed to kit out my new pad fast and on a budget.
Where else to do this but IKEA: the home of simple, modern furniture at affordable prices. It seemed like the obvious choice and I visited my closest store one Monday evening.

‘Creating a better everyday life for the many people’ is IKEA’s driving vision. It offers functional furniture combined with distinctive design, and from what I know about IKEA the company holds cost cutting, simplicity and convenience in high regard.

To me, this works well on paper, and as a consumer I buy into this social aspiration of low prices, practicality and nationwide happiness. I participate in the system because I understand my role of taking my furniture home with me and assembling it myself, it is these processes that reduce the price I pay.

The Experience:

It is worrying that to begin with I had to mentally prepare myself for such a shopping experience. I knew what to expect: a windowless, airless and soulless warehouse, but such things I can live with if it means decking out my whole bedroom at an affordable price.

Firstly, I was welcomed by a store layout that has modeled itself on The Cretan Labyrinth…with simplicity as a value, I find this unnecessary weaving in and out of different departments, irritating, annoying and far from simple. Everyone understands why the shop floor is designed like this - in the hope that you’ll buy 20 extra things that aren’t on your list. But already, I felt like IKEA was firmly pulling at my purse strings.

After whizzing round the store, and writing all my items on my order form; which all went without a hitch might I add, I took my order form to the pay station to get it processed. The shop assistant looked like she should be revising for her GCSEs and was more interested in last night’s TOWIE than my furniture. It was 9.30pm and probably past her bedtime so I intervened with her process and checked the list on the computer myself…She’d made two errors, which I amended (I did not want bunk beds that turn into a sandpit). Amazingly, all of my 18 items were all in stock, so I handed over my credit card and furnished my new flat in an instant. My everyday life certainly is better. For now, anyway.

The assistant telephoned down to the warehouse to let them know about my 18-item order and she called to me inbetween conversations with her colleagues.

“Do you want someone to help you lift the items down from the aisles?” she asked me. I looked at her as if it was a trick question; my stature doesn’t lend itself to carrying around beds and wardrobes, albeit flat pack. I’m 5ft 0 inches and hardly built for heavy lifting. I thought that shifting a bed from the top of aisle 7 would have been a given, but it turns out I have to pay £15 for such an effort. Value for money just moved a step further away. Next, was home delivery.

”When do you want this to be delivered, tomorrow or in 8 weeks?” A somewhat distracted assistant asked me, without looking up from her computer system. “Well, neither to be honest.” I replied, “My bedroom isn’t ready for the furniture yet, and 8 weeks is far too long. How about we organise a date somewhere in between? “

“No can do, I’m afraid – it’s tomorrow or 8 weeks.”

I have to opt for tomorrow and suggest we schedule a time for delivery that suits me. Between 9am and 5.30pm is the only option I got. They can’t even specify whether it will be morning or afternoon. I can’t see any evidence of IKEA tying to make this convenient for me, it’s a hassle more than anything.

Next, delivery charge. In my experience the more you buy, the less you pay for delivery. Not at IKEA, the opposite is true here. The more you spend the more delivery charge you pay. Which, in theory makes sense, but falls out of synch with the way other retailers operate; John Lewis for example, offers free delivery on items over £30. I reluctantly, handed over my plastic to pay a £60 delivery charge. My shopping trip at ‘cost conscious’ IKEA was turning out to be more expensive than I anticipated.

It was a stressful trip to IKEA. I forked out money at every twist and turn, and felt bullied into having my furniture delivered at a time that is not convenient to me. Contrary to what IKEA advertising says, I am not happy inside. I cannot argue that they have provided me with attractive furniture, but not without paying for the privilege – I have dealt with disinterested staff, hidden charges and a convoluted, inconvenient process.

I don’t feel I am benefitting from IKEA’s ‘value’ pledge or that the company is what they claim – to be my ‘partner in better living’. I feel that they have let me down. I definitely did my part; I endured the airless maze for 3 hours on a Monday night, I paid my dues and I assembled the furniture myself (Thanks Dad). At this point in their vision to create better living for everyone, IKEA have fallen short on their part of the deal.

Brand Alignment:

So, how could my experience at IKEA have (a) been improved and (b) aligned seamlessly with their vision and values? I cannot fault the products they have sold me; they are indeed, modern and functional, and I bought them at rock bottom prices.

However, beyond the products, I struggled to see the ‘value’ aspect of IKEA’s vision; there were extra charges along the way that I wasn’t made aware of until it was too late. A more honest and transparent approach to pricing would definitely make my everyday life (and my wallet) better.

Apathetic staff might save money but it also erodes the customer experience. A training pogramme to energise the people within the business about the IKEA brand vision will equip staff with the tools, knowledge and enthusiasm to deliver it – even at 9.30pm.

Simplicity, as value is evident in IKEA’s products, but less so in the shopping experience. The maze-like layout seems unnecessary and time consuming. It would be great if IKEA could provide me with an option to by-pass the areas I didn’t need to visit and simply guide me to the area of the shop I want to be in, making my shopping trip less stressful and more convenient for me.

IKEA is a global institution, and a brand people still love… for now. Brands at a cossroads need to make careful decisions and, for this customer, they need to re-acquaint themselves with their brilliant brand vision and work out what it means for them in 2012. If they do this, they’ll once again become a genuinely loved experience.