Comment: Seamless customer service is key to retail loyalty

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For retailers, these are times of continuing dramatic change. Happily, another constant factor is the quality of the people we employ.

For retailers, these are times of continuing dramatic change. Happily, another constant factor is the quality of the people we employ. We are in an era where products have become commoditised and it’s as easy to shop from the sofa as it is in a store. Therefore, it is vital that our customers should feel valued, not least where they have taken the time to come to our stores.

Getting service right is easier said than done. Many retail employees are on part-time or flexible hours and, in the case of multiple retailers, the workforce is geographically spread. Yet our store-based colleagues are the face of our brand. If they are not the best possible ambassadors for our businesses, then who will be?

Our BrightHouse stores are at the heart of the communities we serve. So we actively recruit our store-based staff from these local communities. Moreover, some 30% of our colleagues are former customers, which really helps them to relate to the aspirations and requirements of our shoppers.

This gives us a strong foundation for positive service. However, if we simply tried to get our store-based colleagues to behave like robots, we would never succeed in providing customers with the individual service that we want to stand out for.

And that is where leadership comes in. We encourage all our managers to see leadership as less about just managing colleagues, and more about empowering them. Effective leadership includes trusting your people. By doing so you’re more likely to foster positive attitudes and genuine confidence throughout the teams.

When you empower colleagues, you open up fresh horizons for achievement. Every quarter, we hold what we call our Customer Champion Awards. I am frequently amazed by the diverse ways in which our colleagues go the extra mile for our customers - not because we tell them to, but because they feel it is the right thing to do.

Take the example of the deputy manager of one of our stores, responding to a customer call. The customer had discovered the Wii she’d bought for her child’s birthday wasn’t working. The deputy manager used his own initiative. Instead of driving straight home after work, he diverted to deliver a working replacement to the customer. The outcome was a delighted child and delighted parents.

That sort of behaviour isn’t learnt on any training course. But we believe that, with a model whereby our customers visit stores frequently, we should empower colleagues to deliver service excellence week after week. Our colleagues certainly develop a personal connection with the customer which, historically, was the preserve of independent stores.

UK retailing has numerous practitioners of service excellence, from independent retailers to multiples. Two leading examples are John Lewis and Pets at Home. Their service levels are high, although the precise form of that offer does vary.

What doesn’t vary, is the impact of a business exceeding customers’ expectations at every touch point - from the assistant in-store, from the delivery driver, or from the call centre. In today’s multichannel world, seamless service excellence gives the best possible chance of winning that most precious asset - customers’ loyalty.