In a market that is growing as fast as the Indian Luxury and Premium, retailers are scrambling to keep up with a rapid expansion of their store estate.
No longer confined to just the Metros, store openings are being found in tier 2 cities too, all of which is placing a huge strain on the teams responsible for finding the right locations, fitting out the interiors, and recruiting the staff.
It’s no wonder that each store opening feels like the end of a process rather than the beginning of the journey, but the sighs of relief will soon be overtaken by worried mutterings as store performance is slow to take off, or even declines over the next few months.
Growth can mean only one thing: you lose control over what happens in store because you personally cannot be across so many locations at once.
Whilst the recruitment of the teams required to open a functioning store might be over, with the basic operational training that is required to achieve this, the in-store customer experience and service excellence training should not be put on the ‘To Do’ list as something to get around to in the future.
By then it could be too late!
In our experience there are 3 critical steps to ensure a successful new store opening and long-term growth.
Invest in soft skills training for your customer-facing team
About 2-3 weeks after you open a new store you will need to start the soft skills training that you won’t have had time to do beforehand. By doing this soon after opening, you will be able to achieve a consistent quality of service and a seamless way of communicating with customers, regardless of which store you might be in. This avoids any new customers having a bad experience that negatively impacts your store before you’ve really got going. The WAY your team works is as important as HOW operationally efficient the store is.
New stores are (hopefully!) busy stores, so training needs to fit in with the retail schedule. You should plan for a maximum of 2 hours per training session. Some of our clients opt for an early morning session, whilst others prefer the end of day. Decide what suits you, and who you want to train, and then make sure you have a bespoke training plan that focuses on practical skills that can be used immediately with customers.
Conduct regular retail audits (‘Mystery Shopper’ style)
Retail Audits help you stay in control as the retail estate grows.
If you really want to know what’s going on in each of your stores, either as a regular review or a one-off assessment, you need to bring in external specialists who can conduct Mystery Shopper retail audits. They will see the store and the team from the customer’s view, and have the experience to report back to the brand owner using their professional knowledge and expertise.
Things have moved on from the ‘clipboard’ style audit, that frankly was anything but ‘Mystery’! We have a team of experienced professionals who regularly shop in Premium and Luxury stores and have been trained to look for examples of good and bad service, and store presentation. We use our software platform to create bespoke questionnaires and can even provide trendlines for each store over time to focus in on certain areas where improvement was needed. As training specialists, we can highlight where additional training is needed, and even create modules to deliver this quickly.
Regularly survey your staff
Some of the best retailers rely on ideas and comments from their in-store teams to create innovative services and remove unhelpful barriers to delivering positive and memorable customer experiences. One of the most effective way to uncover these gems is to conduct regular staff surveys.
These can be conducted online, via apps, and without being too long, can provide retail owners with insights on a variety of topics, from confidence and satisfaction in working conditions and development opportunities, to sharing of Best Practice and ideas for improvements that can achieve cost savings, as well as service excellence.
The intelligent analysis and reporting of the data is critical, so pick a professional partner to help you understand what’s going on with your staff, and what it takes to keep them motivated and updated with skills.
Most importantly, you need to Reset your Mindset.
Audits, Surveys, and skills training are investments in your long-term growth, not a cost. Growth is never FOC (Free of Cost)!
Talk to us about how we can help you manage growth, so that your 100th store offers as good service and customer experience as your 1st.
Message us via our Contact Form or send a WhatsApp message to +91 99306 22232 to set up an exploratory, no obligation call.
Photo by Hasibullah Sahil on Unsplash
Comments