Customer Loyalty

The key to retail success is loyal customers. Loyal customers beget repeat business, competitive differentiation and increased sales. But loyalty means keeping customers happy, and that is more difficult now than ever before.

Consumers are in a power position because they have so many shopping choices. They bring higher expectations to every shopping encounter: One instance of a salesperson offering less information than they can quickly find using their smartphones could mean losing their business forever.

A 2010 study by EURO RSCG Worldwide, titled “The New Consumer in the Era of Mindful Spending,” highlights this heightened level of consumer empowerment. It reports that 69 percent of consumers across seven countries (including the United States) said they are smarter about shopping than they were a few years ago, and 63 percent claim to be more demanding.

And retailers are getting the message. A February 2010 survey by Forrester Research, titled “The State of Customer Experience,” found 90 percent of retail executives think customer experience is very important or critical for their companies, and 80 percent are trying to use it as an area of differentiation.

Technology as supplement
Technology has been a cornerstone of many retailers’ strategies for enhancing a customer’s store experience and loyalty, similar in the way it has for employee productivity and risk management. But savvy retailers know technology can only supplement the most important factor driving customer experience: their people. Store associates can make or break the customer experience by delivering the right combination of skills, knowledge and guidance customers are seeking at the right time.

The goal is simple: Schedule the most productive people at the busiest times. And the benefits are profound. A June 2009 Forrester study, titled “Customer Experience Boosts Revenue,” found even modest increases in customer experience can boost revenues by hundreds of millions of dollars, on average, across industries. But many retailers are not doing it. Instead, managers go by gut feel, employee preferences or seniority. As a result, the most experienced, skilled employees end up working their preferred hours, which are often weekday mornings instead of busy Saturdays when their talents could be put to best use.

Retailers that are scheduling their most productive employees first and for more hours are reaping customer experience and bottom line benefits. In order to increase overall sales and customer satisfaction, these retailers are making the workforce part of the brand experience. Automated workforce management systems can help achieve this by identifying key operational demands, matching them against workforce attributes and scheduling best-fit employees at the times they could be most productive.

Getting started
Achieving the highest possible customer experience starts with scheduling your most productive people at your busiest times. Three basic steps can help you get started.

• Determine what skills, attributes and training are most in demand for specific shifts to fulfill your unique value proposition. Customer expectations may be fairly consistent throughout the week, or may change according to day or day part.

• Apply the same scrutiny to your workforce. What attributes signal the most productive, successful employees in your environment: Speed? Product training? The highest commissions? Speaking specific languages?

• Schedule your “best-fit” employees when their skills are most in demand — for example, scheduling the fastest grocery checkers weekdays between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., or the top salespeople in an apparel store at the times men are most likely to buy suits.

Undoubtedly, customer loyalty impacts the bottom line, and one of the best ways to enhance loyalty is by using your workforce more effectively. Associates are among every retailer’s most valuable and adaptable assets: They can truly be a lever that drives repeat business, competitive differentiation and increased sales. So ask yourself, are you using your workforce management solutions to their full potential?