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The Few That Make A Difference
September 12, 2008
The headline of an article in a recent issue of a newspaper stated “Many firms push training aside”. The first paragraph of the article stated that employee training can help retailers improve their customer service, but few companies invest the time and money necessary in those efforts.
An executive for the Unifi Network, which released the study that was quoted, stated, “We were really pretty stunned and amazed by the insights regarding retail”. The study found that 41% of retail customers studied were satisfied which the shopping experience. Does that mean that 59% were dissatisfied with the retail experience? Not necessarily. Does that mean that the 41% were “WOWED” by the experience? Not necessarily. What it does mean to me however is that 59% of the people surveyed found that the retail experience was not an experience at all. It was a simple buy sell exchange of money for merchandise. The other 41% were simply satisfied. The retailers did not provide the type of customer service or “experience” that would cause a customer to come back and shop with that particular retailer over and over again.
The article gave three reasons why they felt customer satisfaction was so low. 1) The tight labor market has caused retailers to relax there hiring practices. 2) Busy managers don’t think they have enough time to carefully train new hires 3) Many retailers are simply paying lip service to the concept of customer service.
Again many retailers are pushing training aside, where the few good retailers are focusing on very aggressive training and very aggressive retention. When the economy is strong and people are spending freely you might be able to gloss over average customer service. Today and into the future you cannot make excuses for poor or mediocre customer service and expect to be a well-positioned retailer. Are you one of the few that will flourish in the future or one of the many?
www.iastraining.com
Posted by Brad Huisken on September 12, 2008 | Comments (0)
