Kari and I bought a stroller on Sunday.

We’ve been shopping for a stroller for quite a while.

I want to share our stroller-buying story with you.  I want to share our stroller-buying story with you because our story illustrates how you can effectively use social media in your business.

The story of two first-time stroller-buyers

This is our first child. Consequently, we have never bought a stroller before. Needless to say, when we started looking at strollers, we started off a bit confused. There are a tremendous number of stroller types available. It was mind-boggling.

We did a lot of internet research on strollers. We did most of this research before we ever walked into a store and actually pushed a stroller. We tried to identify the type of stroller that we needed, and they we checked out what strollers were available to us based on our needs and our budget. We looked at a ton of sites, and eventually identified a store in Richmond that had some of the strollers we had seen online. This store even had a test track so that you could try the strollers on different surfaces. Pretty cool.

Our first trip to the stroller store

The lady at at the stroller store was nice enough. She showed us some different strollers, their features, how they collapsed, and let us take them around the store. One thing that we didn’t like was the way that the salesperson worked. Like I said, she was nice enough, but she didn’t seem to really listen closely to our needs. Consequently, we spent a lot of time looking at one stroller, just to find out that it wouldn’t work with the car seat that we wanted, and we had to look at another stroller, instead.

We left the store only slightly less confused than when we walked in, but at least we had seen some strollers in person, and now had a much more completely picture of what we liked, and what we didn’t. We identified one of the strollers we saw as a potential winner, but wanted to do some more research on it.

Stroller research continues (the search for social proof)

When researching the stroller we had identified, we went looking for reviews. We didn’t particularly want reviews from places like Consumer Reports. We wanted reviews from people who had used or are using the stroller, or who know something about strollers.

In combing through reviews, we realized that it might be good to get reviews from people in our area. People that would use the stroller where we might actually use the stroller. People who were like us and whose experiences might be similar to our own.

In looking for reviews of the stroller that we liked, Kari came across a link to a video review of another stroller. Video reviews are cool, because you can see the stroller, how it looks, how it works, etc. The video review was done by Ellie of Tots on the Go. Not only was this a great video review, but after watching it, we discovered that Tots on the Go is located just outside Richmond, not far from us. BINGO!

Social media helps make the process easier

This is the actual video review that we found during our research:

One of the added benefits of a video review is not only seeing the product, but also seeing the reviewer. In this case, Ellie is the person reviewing the stroller. Ellie is the President of Tots on the Go. Basically, she runs the show. Cool.

What we liked about the video review was that Ellie not only did a great job of demonstrating the product, but she did so in a casual way, the way that we might do it. There obviously wasn’t any editing slight-of-hand being used. It was just her, a camera, and a stroller. We can dig it.

Another thing that we liked was that she identified a lot of the concerns we had about strollers. Specifically, she addressed the need to have something that will travel easily and has ample storage.

The final thing, and perhaps the most important, is that she made it clear she has actually used the stoller. She talks about having put her own kids in it, and how it worked for them. That is valuable stuff.

Another interesting thing that I happened to notice was that on the Youtube video comments, Ellie actually responded to someone’s question about the stroller. This meant that she wasn’t just posting these videos for kicks, she was listening to, and engaging with her customers there. That’s always a positive sign.

At the end of her video, Ellie mentioned their Tots on the Go Facebook Fan Page, and the fact that if we became fans of the page, we could receive a 10% discount. 10% discount for being a Facebook Fan?! DONE!

We had already planned a trip into Richmond, so we figured we would stop by her store and check out this new stroller she reviewed, since it seemed like it would be right up our alley.

Another stroller store trip

Tots on the Go has an interesting store policy. Since they do most of their business all over the country via the Internet, they don’t actually staff their physical location with regular hours. If you want to see the store, you have to make an appointment. Kari and I gave Ellie a call on pretty short notice, and she called back and said she would be happy to meet us.

When we met Ellie at the store, we told her our situation. We mentioned everything we needed, the strollers we had looked at before, and the stroller that she reviewed on the Youtube video. Ellie had both strollers in the store, so that was a major bonus, since it meant we could see them side by side and compare them.

Ellie does her thing

Ellie was awesome, absolutely awesome. The honest, engaging, intelligent person we saw on the Youtube video was exactly the same person who showed us the strollers in the store. One thing that she did that caught our attention, and was incredibly helpful, was that, after listening to what we needed, she immediately told us why each stroller wouldn’t work for us. She didn’t start by trying to show us all the bells and whistles, or dazzle us with features. She immediately identified pitfalls that we weren’t aware of, and made us aware of them.

What she did by helping us eliminate choices was huge for us. Granted, it meant that we had to consider new options, but it quickly allowed us to dismiss strollers that were just going to end up making us unhappy. Ellie listened to what we wanted, and we trusted her recommendations, because it was already obvious to us that she knew her stuff.

Not only did she know her stuff, but she let us find out things for ourselves. She even had her 5 year-old son come in and let us push him around so that we could feel the difference in certain strollers when they had actual weight in them. It also helped reinforce some of the shortcomings of certain strollers. Her son, Anthony, was a real trooper, letting strange people push him around in strollers in his Mom’s parking lot.

Ellie let us take the strollers outside, collapse them, open them, put them in our trunk, take them out, take the wheels off, whatever we needed to do to compare the strollers and make an informed decision, she was there to help us do it.

A satisfying decision

By the time it was all over with, we had spent more than an hour with Ellie and her family on a Sunday afternoon, and we bought a stroller. Since we were already Facebook Fans, we also got 10% off, which is huge when you are buying baby stuff. We also found out all about Ellie’s social media efforts with Tots on the Go. She has the Youtube videos, the Facebook page, a twitter account, and a blog on the website.

Ellie said that she has seen real benefit to her business from all of the social media efforts. As I told her, we found her on Youtube, and between the Youtube video, the Facebook page, and her helpful website, we knew we were in the right place.

All in all, we could not have been more pleased with our experience with Ellie and our stroller decision. Social media was a big part of that. We also know that now our decision has been made, we’ll be able to use social media to interact with others going through the same process, and we can help them, just as Ellie helped us. Needless to say, when we want to buy a stroller, or anything else baby-related, we’ll check with Ellie first to see if she sells it. If not, we’ll ask her who she recommends. Ellie has our trust, for sure.

The lesson for you (and a little homework)

Maybe you don’t sell strollers. Maybe you sell homes. That’s great. I do, too.

What I want you to do is consider our stroller story one more time. This time– replace the word “stroller” with the word “home.” Then, replace Ellie’s name with your own.

After you’ve done that, ask yourself how you can turn my stroller-buying story into your next client’s home-buying story.

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