You go to great lengths to hire the best. You peruse resumes, interview, and train. You invest a lot in your employees and for good reason. The team you hire acts as your brand’s face to the customer. If they don’t perform well, your store doesn’t perform well.
Customers Notice When Your Employees Are Not Happy
Customers aren’t naïve to the retail work environment. Your buyer knows your employees are under pressure to reduce wait times, but that doesn’t mean he’s sympathetic to long queues. Your buyers are the ones putting pressure on your employees to work through the lines faster while still providing exceptional customer service.
30% of customers also said they felt more like a burden to the clerk when they approached the checkout line with a large cart, according to a recent study by Harris Poll for Digimarc. 61% of customers also said they felt like the staff focused more on the transaction instead of the customer’s happiness levels.
These statistics are staggering, but fortunately, there is something you can do about it. For your employees to love working for you, you need to actively work to make their jobs easier. Here are a few ways you can accomplish this goal.
Related Post: The 5 Retail Apparel Stores People Love to Work For
Update Your Store’s Layout
The way you position your store has a direct impact on your customer’s perception. If the lines look long, weaving around line markers, you’re more likely to see frustrated customers approaching the cash register, rather than happy ones. That weighs on your employees too.
Rearranging your store to minimize the appearance of lines is an easy way to ease the burden on your employees to rush through transactions and keep your customers happier.
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Give Them the Right Technology
There is a lot of technology available today. From AlertTech’s fitting room technology used to manage queues better, to plenty of point-of-service check out tools, there’s no excuse for poor queue management.
Equip your employees to tackle long lines effectively by giving them the right tools.
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Create a Better Buying Experience
In an experiment done by Houston International Airport, managers found that giving customers something to do while they waited was better than having them stand around idly.
Create an experience for your customers while they checkout. Offer impulse items to peruse, or magazines to read. Even putting a mirror near the checkout line will distract your customers from their wait. The more you can do to ease the burden on your employees, the happier they’ll be.
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Takeaways
Your employees play an important role in upholding the brand image you work so hard to portray. Giving them the tools they need to happily serve customers, even in the face of busy times, will pay off for you in the long run.
Learn more about the risks of not managing your queues. Download our ebook,”What is Your Queue Costing You? Queue Management for Modern Retailers” to learn more.
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