Revamp store operations and talent

In a retail world focused on omnichannel strategies, product and service innovations, IT investments and technology-enabled stores of the future, winning retailers are taking a new look at their store labor models and budgets. Store associates represent one of the biggest contributors to the success or failure of brick-and-mortar stores. In many ways, they’re a retailer’s most powerful asset.

Survey after survey reveals that customer service in stores is the top factor affecting customer advocacy. Across retail sectors, a store associate’s availability, knowledge, advice, assistance and friendliness exert a stronger influence on a shopper’s likelihood to recommend a retailer to friends or acquaintances than product assortment, shopping environment and even price. On the flip side, poor service is a major contributor to customer defection. When RETAIL CAPITAL  & Company recently surveyed shoppers on the subject, more than 25% of their top frustrations were due to bad experiences with sales associates.

Companies that successfully transform their store labor operations for retailing’s new realities benefit from a three-step process :

1. They invest to clearly understand what matters to their customers
2. They zero-base their store labor model (activities, processes and organization)
3. They mobilize for change at the front line