Viewpoint
Why success in store human contact
depends on
Making human contact count in stores will lead to increased sales, believes Ali Athar, Chief Executive Officer of Itim.
The move towards centralised decision‐making over the past 50 years has punished both retailers and customers, trading effectiveness for efficiency. As decisions gradually migrated from stores to the head office, the number of people in stores and the skillsets that they had was reduced ‐ and so was the amount they were paid. The result has been that store staff turnover has increased, the quality and training of people has diminished, and service levels have dropped dramatically.
Today, customer service and “clienteling” has almost vanished, and many stores are no longer customer sanctuaries but product warehouses. Chain retailers inadvertently created a self‐defeating, self‐fulfilling prophecy, making themselves less appealing to customers. Less friendliness, less information and less service accompanied by higher prices are hardly a convincing purchase argument!
By reducing themselves to high cost service‐less product “vending machines”
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some retailers have made themselves vulnerable to non‐store purchase alternatives where price is the only meaningful differentiator.
There is little point in having staff in stores if the customer has to search the store for assistance. If their only purpose is to collect a payment, and they do not add value for a customer, then staff will merely add a premium to product prices.
The disadvantage of the online retailer, which is the lack of human contact as part of the shopping experience, is no longer a disadvantage when it is duplicated at the store level through lack of service, expertise and motivation.
It is tragic to think that some people believe it’s more pleasant and convenient to shop online rather than in stores. As a result, in‐store retailers have lost market share and margins because they have had to launch bigger promotions to lure customers back into their shops.
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The reality with some stores is that consumers have been so disappointed by their experience of in‐store shopping that they are happy to live with to the lack of human contact on the internet. This is why it is so important to create a superior shopping experience in store.
Retailers can only deliver the human contact that their customers want through staff. So is it not time to start making human contact count?
Contact:
Itim T: +44 (0) 207 598 7700
www.itim.com
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