Retailers - Are You Spending Your Budget on Marketing, Yet Your Customer Experience Sucks? What's the Point?

All too often a retail experience leaves us with a feeling of overwhelm and insignificance after we have just paid for a product / service with the expectation of something positive - instead:

• Staff noise!  Staff shouting at each other across the tills or the floor
• Cashiers more interested in their friend packing the customer's bags than in the customer themselves
• Items being swiped and payments processed like the customer is invisible
• The feeling of being completely ignored by rude and disinterested staff supported by incorrect or missing shelf talkers

Ask yourself if any of these are your own hot buttons as a consumer when YOU are out shopping?

These are some of mine, and I thought maybe it’s just me until we did a survey and found pretty much everyone is moaning about the same thing. Yet, we are all shopping in YOUR stores.

A brand can have the most phenomenal positioning, shop fittings, promotions and product mix, but what is it ACTUALLY like to be your Customer?

Many Retailers have sensational bylines - "We Care...Customers are the centre of everything we do..."   The question is:  Do your staff even know what is plastered on your boardroom wall and the promises you share on your website and social media platforms?  Probably not.  So how can we be disappointed when they don't deliver on that?

Our experience is that many businesses fall into the trap of having the perfectly scripted, beautifully designed presentations on their CX strategy, their values, their brand promises, but then do not translate their strategy into something that the staff own and deliver to their customers.   We know this, we are your customers - we understand as our experiences with your brands are delivered through what we see, hear and feel.

Don't get me wrong, I am not being the Prophet of Doom on all things service related (it is my passion), but one also cannot adopt Poly Anna positivity and be blinded by Board Strategy where everyone thinks that they've covered all the blocks, but are actually oblivious to the realities of risk and missed opportunities on the ground where the revenue is banked.

There is a common theme about service delivery currently in South Africa where daily we hear people moaning about “how bad the service is in this country”.

Staff need to understand their SIGNIFICANCE and that the way they behave (good and bad) affects the brand and customer purchase decision. Staff need to be reminded that they are not merely there to breathe in oxygen, breathe out carbon dioxide, “yack” to their mates and collect a salary.

Truth is, having trained over 170 000 staff, we know that in the current climate (more now than ever before), the staff are feeling under appreciated, are battling with the consequences of Covid (masks, hygiene requirements, short hours, people around them losing their jobs, personal safety) and what was highlighted in the most part, is that they feel they get very little recognition, support, motivation or training.  Let's be honest, would you want to perform like an Energiser bunny under those circumstances?

“At least they should be grateful they have a job” some scoff - you are right they should.  The question is, what is the cost of that approach to your business?  Too many businesses are spending massive amounts of budget on marketing to attract customers and then gifting those same customers to their competitors with disconnected engagement.  What is the point? 

Customer support is evident through their feet as they visit and their wallets as they spend.  If you are not growing your customer base right now the question should be why?

We know that these 4 things can shift your business by at least 10% over the first 90 days if focused on:

• Actively collecting your customer feedback real-time in store and not waiting to hear from extremists on social media.  Treating every single customer as a mystery shopper.
• Creating customer significance by responding to anyone that might not be happy but has valuable feedback in the moment.
• Having an agile staff recognition programme based on customer feedback to create a culture of celebrating the delivery of exceptional customer experience and service excellence.  Share the wins.
• Leveraging your footfall in store to drive loyalty and build a POPI compliant database to market to increasing revenue.

It’s time to do your brand proud and ensure that your investment delivers the returns.  Ensure your staff know their significance and deliver a customer experience with passion and pride in your brand.  Make both your customers and staff feel safe, valued, engaged and appreciated for doing business with you. I can guarantee this is how you grow your bottom line.  If anything this pandemic has taught us, it is that creating a sustainable business is critical to us all.

Peach Piche

CEO - Fresh Eyes Customer Retention Specialists