Mary Portas' recent campaign to "wage war on poor service in Great Britain" in Channel 4's Secret Shopper has certainly established customer service on retailers' agendas, but for me it also reinforces the crucial role employees play in delivering an exceptional customer experience.
Staff who are passionate about what they do and who choose to give their best will deliver a great experience. Many companies focus on enhancing their employees' knowledge and skills of the products or services they are offering, in order to turn them into better customer service representatives. However, the icing on the cake is the intangible element that actually makes for successful customer interaction - employee engagement. Attitude is something that cannot be taught and so it is often fatally overlooked by employers as, traditionally, organisations are used to teaching people to do things.
Portas' theory is that there is a lack of service culture nowadays and she presents some pretty damning video evidence - staff planning to phone in sick as they are so bored, employees with little or no product knowledge, who provide no eye contact and can't be bothered to talk to customers and who stand by the till talking to their friends all day rather than serving. The workers we see are under-motivated and ill-equipped to know where to start with even the most basic of standards - and retailers are not giving enough support to frontline when it comes to service.
Employers can only achieve engagement by tapping into their employees' emotions and getting them charged up about the product or service they are offering. A good place to start is by understanding the fundamentals of the customer experience - what it looks and feels like for the people who are learning how to deliver it.
Staff should also be allowed to share their own passion for the products, rather than using prescriptive sales methods. By giving 'a little piece of me' and bringing their personality to the role, employees and customers will get more out of the whole interaction.
To use a real-life example: in Secret Shopper, we see Portas getting to work on fashion chain Pilot, where training consists of a set of rules stuck to the toilet door. The company's MD is happy with his profits, but has never met most of the front-line employees responsible for delivering the customer experience. Portas fires up the shop floor team to deliver better service, teaching them her golden rules of service and including them in her plans to make the changing rooms more fun and fashion-focused. By focusing on the employee, these simple changes delivered an immediate uplift in the customer experience - the customers felt special, the staff were having fun and were more motivated to continue doing a great job as a result. Crucially, the changes had an immediate, sustainable impact on the store's takings.
We work closely with leading retailers to provide valuable insight into how customers are feeling and what matters most to them, which can be very different to the brand's perception. This enables the retailer to identify areas for staff training and development and reinforce brand values. With employees educated and motivated to perform, they can deliver the experience that drives customer satisfaction and profitability.
There is no formula for making the customer experience happen, but allowing every level of a workforce to help shape the way it can be delivered leads to a well-developed solution. More importantly, each individual feels valued and empowered, making them more inclined to perform and help the customer.
Ian Luxford (pictured) is learning services director at performance improvement company, Grass Roots
