Hopefully, everyone has caught their breath coming off the Fourth of July holiday; early indications are that demand was strong, people were on the move, and engagement made its return.
The past 18 months have created work stresses like never seen before, and time and resources were stretched thin even as in-store customer engagement largely went out the window for a full year.
It’s no surprise that, in times of intense demand, engagement is often the first casualty. In my long retail career, it was always the case that when we were shorthanded – or there was an unexpected surge in business – the number of meaningful interactions between customers and store personnel decreased considerably.
When everyone had their heads down, focused on getting the job done, it was easy to forego the chance to listen to and understand what each customer was dealing with and what they needed. A missed opportunity, every time.
What happens if that approach becomes the norm? Failing to make those conversations a priority can have a long-lasting and detrimental impact at a time when the need for customer engagement is greater than ever.
Face of the brand
Store-level team members in many ways are the face of the brand. They are the ones the customer knows, so investments in those team members also count as investments in the development of greater trust and loyalty among your shoppers.
The intel those team members offer is critical to understanding at a micro level what customers care about at that store and department. The overall company strategy must be carried out, but there is a nuance to managing through shopper expectations and also being attentive to a store, a team, a department, an individual and the needs of each.
So what do store-level team members bring to the table? In a word … everything.
Sources of (good) information
Consumers today know it all … yet most actually know nothing when it comes to food and the supply chain. That may sound harsh or even disrespectful, but the fact is most consumers don’t learn whatever they know from the right places.
Customer engagement has a price tag on it; it can be cheap, or it can be very expensive. As a very wise man once told me, there’s a cost for the check that you don’t write – meaning that, when it comes to customer engagement, if an investment in time is made up front, it is a much lesser cost than what will be incurred in the long run trying to earn the trust of customers.
Ambassadors at your service
Think of store-level team members as ambassadors of the company brand. When they are empowered through active and meaningful conversation and engagement by company leadership, they become influencers who actively promote the brand, its biggest cheerleaders.
Engaging your store-level team members creates a force that money can’t buy.
Engaging your store-level team members
When visiting stores, take time to hear from not just the managerial team, but also seek out two or three associates and ask them a few questions about their experience with customers that day or week.
Offer each person a couple of ideas on how to handle a tough question from a customer without compromising company policy while being as transparent as possible.
Empower the team to, if they do not know the answer to a customer question, track down someone who can provide an answer. The “I don’t know” answer must be removed from the lexicon of retail vocabulary. “Let me find out for you” is an infinitely better alternative.
Remind associates to make eye contact with customers with confidence when addressing them; a shrug of the shoulder or nod of the head is too passive if improving customer engagement is truly a goal. Always practice what you preach; the best way to lose a team is to say one thing and do something else.
Make it a point to walk with an associate and speak to a few customers. Imagine the impact that action makes on the associate and the customer alike. The associate will be on cloud nine, feeling valued and full of purpose, and in the process customers will have been provided a differentiated experience that will be lasting in their minds.
Engagement will win the day
We used to say when I was in retail: “We are going to win the day.” The same can be said for engagement. Whether it is employee- or customer-focused, having a robust engagement strategy will help you to win the day!
This column is part of a series by Joe Watson, who spent 30-plus years as the director of produce for Rouses Markets and was named Produce Retailer of the Year and to The Packer 25 in 2014. Joe now serves as a vice president of member engagement and as the retail and foodservice subject matter expert for PMA.