Omnichannel
How retail associate happiness plays into customer, employee experiences
Savvy retailers are implementing strategies that engage employees and end burdensome tasks, boosting both service levels and associate happiness. These retailers reap the rewards of better retention, greater loyalty and increased revenue.
October 18, 2023 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com
There's a saying, 'when momma is happy everyone's happy.'
In the retail customer experience world there's a version of the saying: 'When the store associate is happy the customers are happy.'
That's because, when it comes to enhancing and improving the retail customer experience, it's not just about the customer.
The store associate's experience is just as important as the customer's, and the happiness quotient is equal for both.
In fact, research from MIT and Gallup reveal a direct link between a positive employee experience and improved customer satisfaction, as well as improved company operations and profits.
The simple truth is that retailers that deploy operating models and CX strategies that include the store associate experience will reap greater benefits than a retailer that does not take that approach.
The benefits, as the research revealed, range from happier customers and happier workers to more money and better operations. This requires strategies that engage, inspire and end burdensome store worker tasks.
To gain insight on how retailers can create, develop and implement those strategies RetailCustomerExperience reached out in an email interview to Catherine Malkova, corporate VP, professional services retail lead, Americas at NCR Voyix.
Q. Do you think most retailers understand the connection between how a store associate's happiness plays into the customer's customer experience?
A. Retailers are starting to understand the connection between how a store associate's happiness plays into the customer's experience and are starting to act. After all, associates are the face of a retailer, and it's tough to deliver excellent customer and brand experience with disengaged employees.
The happiness of retail employees plays a critical role in customer experience. For example, separate research from MIT and Gallup has found a direct link between a positive employee experience and improved customer satisfaction, as well as improved company operations and profits. Retailers deploying operating models with employee experience in mind are the ones who will see these benefits. This means implementing strategies that engage, inspire, end burdensome tasks and boost both service levels and associate happiness.
Q. Are there any quick, on-the-cheap approaches retailers can implement while working on a more detailed strategy to boost the happiness of retail employees?
A. Some inexpensive/free approaches retailers can and likely have applied include:
- Maintaining a positive work environment in which employees are praised for a job well done rather than pointing out their shortcomings.
- Empowering employees to make suggestions for improvements and then letting them lead the charge. Replace a "this is how we've always done it" with their ideas for improving the employee and customer experience to show open-mindedness and willingness to change.
- Offering rewards like an extra day of paid vacation and spot bonuses.
- Providing better work-life balance by offering more flexible schedules and shift swap opportunities.
Of course, these simple approaches should only be a small part of retailers' bid to improve the employee experience. The most significant enhancements lie in improving store technology to enable employees to be more efficient in their roles.
Q. One challenge with boosting the happiness of a store associate is the turnover aspect in retail staffing — does boosting the happiness factor help stop that churn and increase the employee's loyalty?
A. Employee happiness breeds loyalty in employees that ultimately reduces churn. You could even say happy employees and happy customers are two sides of the same coin. But successfully engaging the former to influence the latter is not easy. Gallup recently reported employee engagement has dropped steadily across all industries since the pandemic. Full- and part-time engagement went from 36% in 2020 to 34% in 2021 to 32% in 2022. Specifically, engagement fell due to:
- Unclear expectations.
- Lack of mission or company purpose.
- Few opportunities for growth or to do what employees do best.
- Not feeling cared about at work.
- When workplace needs aren't being met, employees start to suffer.
To keep them happy and reduce churn, listen to what would improve their workplace experience and act upon it. And keep in mind Virgin Group Founder Richard Branson's famous saying: "Take care of your employees and they'll take care of your business." That's because prioritizing your workforce's welfare is vital to your company's success.
Q. From your interaction with retailers can you share some examples of what works and what doesn't?
A. What works well: retailers who have upgraded their retail technology to enable associates to perform their jobs and serve customers better. Savvy retailers are implementing strategies that engage employees and end burdensome tasks, boosting both service levels and associate happiness. These retailers are reaping the rewards of better retention, greater loyalty and increased revenue.
For example, nobody wants to work with disjointed, legacy systems. Employees expect the tech they use on the job to be as intuitive as their mobile devices. For example, fully automating the in-store edge unleashes associates to focus on front-of-store consumer engagement. Further, unifying transaction and customer data for a single view of the consumer drives relevant, personalized offers and experiences – improving customer, associate and brand experience.
Additionally successes lie in investing in self-checkout to enable consumers who prefer this method to self-serve, while liberating teams to focus on helping customers in the aisles and on tackling other duties.
For loyalty programs, retailers who are using the latest programs are also allowing associates to greet customers by name, as well as make suggestions and up sell based on past purchase history.
Ultimately, replacing legacy store and other digital technologies with modern ones is helping employees utilize technology nearly as easily as the technology they use in their personal lives, and it is freeing them up to take on less frustrating tasks than dealing with slow, outdated platforms.
What doesn't work well: as previously discussed, legacy technology and islands of technological innovation that remain unconnected are a recipe for employee frustration. And not only that but for the retailer itself, built-for-a-bygone-era legacy technology is inflexible and expensive and can limit their growth and ability to compete with forward-thinking retailers.
The retailers that will succeed tomorrow are those that will update their commerce platforms today to enable continued functionality and employee happiness.
About Judy Mottl
