Why do you go out shopping? Push away the graphs and quantitative data and the truth will often come to the foreground: for the experience. Whether it’s having a sugar-laden coffee and a flick through a book in your local Waterstones or dragging your gloomy teenager out to grunt at a new pair of trainers, there are some things you just can’t do online. High street shopping is now social. And unless you are prepared to offer a disruptive service that differentiates between your business and a hurried Amazon order, your strategy isn’t going to work. So why are so many retailers firing their shop floor staff?
It’s 101 in any business plan: put your customers first. From choosing a store location to deciding what material to use for your napkins, you should be thinking about how your consumers will interact, perceive and experience your service. Having no one present on your store floor is not simply a cutback, it’s a cutback to the most crucial part of your business: the customer-facing experience. Your marketing agency, marketing team and logistics provider are all worth saving, but you should not see your shop floor workers as dispensable. Focus on your customer journey: what do they want from you?
I was alarmed to read in the Guardian this week that 175,000 high street jobs are predicted to go in Britain in 2019. When you foresee a storm ahead, in any industry, the immediate slash and burn begins at the bottom of the pyramid; the store assistants, the cashiers, the cleaners and the waiters.
I can see why. It’s easy to imagine that the people furthest away from your headquarters will have the least immediate impact. That you don’t really need three janitors in your pizza restaurant. That the photography graduate making a soy latte for your Croydon branch won’t really have any effect on your profit margin if you fire her. But you’ve made those decisions without thinking about the people who have to interact in those spaces and with those individuals. When you cut staff, without offering a customer-focused plan to deal with a smaller workforce, you are cutting the quality of service. And when you cut quality of service, you are giving a gift to your competitors, be those your high street neighbours or your online equivalents.
So don’t forget why your customer comes to you. Don’t forget the worth of a smile on an assistant’s face, the value of knowing the name of the man who makes your morning coffee, the necessity of a clean, clear table and the importance of a short queue. If you must make cutbacks – a reality of business in challenging times – then retrain your remaining staff so they can adapt to customer service roles that match an evolving, multichannel industry, ensuring that quality does not slip. Incentivise positive customer interactions and engage with customer feedback. Invest in ensuring that the service and experience consumers get is the best it can possibly be. Brand loyalty does not end with your product: it starts and finishes with your customer’s experience and journey.
But whatever you do, don’t panic-fire your front line. You need them more than you think.
