Content shop associates are essential to providing an exceptional customer experience
Whether you work in retail or another service industry, it’s likely that you’ve heard the well-known saying, ‘the customer is always right.’ The saying “Le client n’a jamais tort,” which is loosely translated as ‘the customer is never wrong’, is credited to Swiss hotelier César Ritz, known for the Ritz in Paris and the Carlton in London.
Ritz’s coining of this idea in the late 1800s was revolutionary, as consumer protection was minimal and the prevailing retail-consumer philosophy appeared to be the caveat ‘buyer beware.’ Fortunately, the retail standard has evolved over the past 150 years, and consumer rights and protections have become one of the key elements of retail in the 21st century.
What has changed
Although customer experience remains crucial for success in modern retail, a common misunderstanding of the slogan equates it to ‘do whatever the customer asks.’ However, in the increasingly opaque and blended realm of physical and digital commerce, the phrase may pertain more to the effort of comprehending each customer’s underlying points of friction and delivering a unique brand experience at every touchpoint.
While it is known that the main aim is customer service, the strategy for providing a distinctive, high-end service may be the most difficult aspect of retail to solve. This is because it involves all aspects of the business, from sourcing and procurement to supply chain and warehouse strategies, as well as customer communications and point-of-sale experience.
A frictionless, physical experience across all retail touch points serves as the modern equivalent of past shop windows for brands, but a key (and frequently neglected) aspect of providing an excellent customer experience is the performance of store associates. Thus, the greater the engagement and satisfaction of store associates, the better their customer service will be and the more satisfied customers will be in the end.
The role of the associate As shopper numbers returning to brick-and-mortar shops bounce back to pre-pandemic levels, it is often the store associates who distinguish between a mediocre and a memorable brand experience. Therefore, equipping them with the necessary tools, software, and precise customer (and inventory) data to provide that ‘A1′ customer experience is crucial in today’s intensely competitive retail landscape.
Below are four crucial domains that retailers can concentrate on to develop distinctive customer experiences via more content, involved store staff, and cohesive retail systems.
1. The checkout is a crucial area for retailers, and it is important to understand the changing demographic and regional preferences of customers by offering choices in both payment and checkout options. Providing optimized checkout processes and rapid scanning with locally cached item and price data enables ultra-fast transactions. This allows customers to quickly get on their way once they are ready to check out, enhancing the efficiency and smoothness of the store associates’ work as well.
2. As a store associate, having to deal with an awkward point-of-sale application can be incredibly frustrating. An intuitive, modern, and polished user interface featuring easy navigation, straightforward information, and a familiar cart and checkout process is advantageous for the associate, as it enables them to concentrate on the customer rather than the application.
3. In times when consumers cannot abide any downtime, it is crucial to have rock-solid stability through native offline support. This server-edgeless approach ensures that store associates can keep serving customers seamlessly, even during network outages or moments of system instability.
4. In the case of dealing with customers, one can never know too much. Store associates can personalize every in-store interaction and make each customer feel unique by leveraging robust customer engagement tools to understand a customer’s cross-channel purchasing history and preferences. This also contributes to a more satisfying and seamless experience for the associates themselves.