The Key To Customer Engagement Success
By Erin Harris, Editor-In-Chief, Cell & Gene
Follow Me On Twitter @ErinHarris_1
There’s no question that in retail, turnover’s high and employee training takes time, money, and effort, but it behooves retailers to invest in their most valuable asset — the associate.
From sound hiring practices to the functional yet disruptive technologies that aid them in their role to improve the customer experience, the retail associate is still your strongest link to the customer — even in this modern, digital age of retailing. An informed, personable associate inside the brick-and-mortar store is crucial to the sale. Equip them with technology — and here’s the kicker — that they’re comfortable using, and you’ve set them up for customer engagement success. But even if associates are knowledgeable and friendly, it’s hard to create an environment where they can cater to the customer. Without the aid of task management and scheduling tools, traffic analytics, associate-facing mobile devices, to name just a few, even the most well-intentioned associate is mired in various and sundry things, which don’t always include assisting customers.
Ongoing operational issues performed by associates who don’t feel valued will affect the customer. As such, being innovative isn’t just about implementing the technologies that will ultimately make the shopper’s omni-channel journey easier. Being innovative also means assessing your policies and processes to evolve the stakeholders’ mindsets and to ensure the workforce is in a position to work smarter not harder. In an upcoming issue of Innovative Retail Technologies, you’ll hear from Todd Corley, founder and chief strategist at The TAPO Institute and author of FITCH PATH: A Cautionary Tale About A Moose, Millennials, Leadership, And Transparency. FITCH PATH examines the needs, wants, and expectations of the emerging workforce majority and offers solutions to help prepare today’s leaders and organizations for an inevitable reality. Corley is Abercrombie & Fitch’s former Chief Diversity Officer, and he has years of experience in helping retailers and businesses understand the importance fostering a tolerant and inclusive workforce and the impact that has on the brand. Corley’s work explains how iGens and Millennials have reshaped the workforce, the workplace, and what that means for all industries, retail included. Transparency is the new normal, and it directly impacts the customer.
Whether they’re iGens, Millennials, Gen-Xers, or Boomers, retail associates play a greater role and have a greater impact on sales and the customer experience than they ever had, simply because they need to have any-channel data at the ready. That’s no easy gig. And while not all associates make the grade, labor should not be viewed as an expense to be cut but rather an asset in which to invest.