Are you serving your customers?

In any economic downturn, there’s bound to be companies that adjust their employee count to their current business realities.

We see this in almost every industry… granted, some are more suited for such employment swings than others.

But in the world of retail, we see too many reactions that appear to be knee-jerk or short-term, and it is these that cause some pretty difficult long-term pains.  I’ve long advocated the concept of staffing to your customer traffic but how can retailers do this when they are letting go of staff?  My suggestion is to not let go of the staff, rather, to focus on customer service and helping your customers buy.

Letting go of customer-facing staff can be a slippery slope as less people to serve your customers means longer wait times for customers, increased frustration for customers, and of course, significantly increased shopping cart abandonment.  This leads to lower sales at the cash registers.

The Mystery Shopping Providers Association recently published some pretty alarming stats about wait times.  They claim that the average wait time for service in a specialty store is 5 minutes and 38 seconds. Discount stores which are traditionally known for lower customer service came in at 6 minutes and 26 seconds… almost a full minute more!

These numbers are alarming as they indicate a problem for retailers which WILL be evident in their bottom line numbers.

For retailers looking to pump up sales this holiday season, especially given the economic mood and the consumer’s propensity to spend, the best thing to do is ensure you have staff, ready to help customers when they are in the store and ready to buy.  Of course, this is a balancing act so that you’re not overstaffed or understaffed, and this is precisely where a  well configured and implemented labor scheduling system comes in to play.

By balancing labor with customer traffic, retailers can expect to see a reduction in labor as a percentage of sales, as well as an uptick in top line sales, as customers that are well serviced tend to buy, and buy more.

This holiday season, what are you doing to set yourself apart from the competition?