Today's Retail Action Article, September 1st, 2010

Retailers Are Returning To Personalized Service

Big Box Retailers Understand The Value Of Custom Relationship, But Can They Deliver?

Retail Wire recently published an online article about how Wal Mart and Target are trying to return to a more personalized level of customer service. It turns out that customers are getting weary of the large and impersonal environment that these retailers offer. Customers expect more than a barren wasteland when it comes to service as they travel through the store, and untrained staff who cannot intelligently recommend buying options make sales progressively lower.

As customer service dwindled in the big box stores, consumers had a brief love affair with the notion of massive quantities of goods stacked to the rafters at low prices. If you knew what you wanted and how to get it off the shelf yourself, your needs were met!

However, customers still seek the classic five elements of a great experience: value, service, selection, convenience and ambiance. Although value in this current economy remains as the top priority, selection appears to be returning to second place, surpassing selection as a top component in a buying decision. This implies that customers are no longer dazzled by cold tower-like massive displays of product. They want good value and the want engagement. Customers want an intimate smaller environment that caters to their personal needs. Even an intimate environment with a cookie cutter approach to service won't impress them!

The big-box retailers are beginning to realize that the customer service pendulum is swing back and they're caught with massive store setups and business methods that just don't impress customers anymore. The days of massive tracts of merchandise with no employee to interact may be coming to an end.

Like huge ships at sea who take miles to turn around, smaller retailers in contrast are well positioned to make customer-centric service part of their business model. In fact, it's likely that you're there already or miles ahead of your behemoth competitors. You're closer to where you need to be, and you can make changes to your customer service standards virtually overnight. Training your employees to deliver new levels of customer service can also happen very quickly.

We all know what great customer service is, and as a smaller retailer you can deliver that tomorrow. Now you need to take it to the next level: personalized engagement. Today's consumer not only expects great service, they want it all about them. Personalized customer service takes us back to the glory days of retail where relationships were built between employees and customers. Greet your customers by name, and get to know who they are, what they like and what they've bought from you before. Good customer service offers a positive customer experience with the same dialogue and approach with every customer. Although it has merits, your new benchmark should be personalized engagement where your employees know each and every customer as intimately as possible. When you establish this type of relationship in a sea of impersonal big boxes, you'll change the landscape of retail and keep the new consumer coming back for a long time!

Take Action Today:

1) Revisit your customer service model and see how engaged your employees are with your customers.

2) Start a "get to know" campaign and customer service process where employees ask for customer names, interests and past purchase patterns. Get to know all about them!

3) Develop a new "personalized engagement" customer service model and start training staff to engage customers with a goal to build long term relationships.

4) Be a refreshing difference to the cold and impersonal big box retailers who consumers are now tired of.

retail, retailer, leadership, operations, sales, merchandise, global trends, global issues
customers, consumers, merchandise, selection, service, engagement