Leveraging Customer Experience in the Retail Sector. Case study by John D Hudson

John. D. Hudson

This case study is an extract from The Customer Experience Playbook by Jonathan Daniels. The full book can be purchased here. With retailing, a lot goes under the basic definition of this subject which is the process of making a profit by selling consumer goods or services to customers through multiple channels of distribution. Excellent managerial skills which include being able to communicate effectively, learn, strategize as well as commit are needed here for a business to thrive in this highly competitive industry.

Challenge:

John D. Hudson who works for an excellent store manager experiences a situation where the larger branch of the store he works for is experiencing discontinued service excellence mainly because of the store struggling to keep invested team members and growing base of loyal and engaged customers.

The Approach:

With such a challenge, the retail store added quality team members in terms of members being trained to offer high standards of customer-oriented service as this is a perfect recipe for service success to the managers/leaders having a well-connected leadership. The solution taken to this challenge was holistic as it was implemented starting from the manager/ supervisor of the store.

More so, as part of the approach, CX-Centric would use in this scenario is, we take it that a retail store manager must have strong knowledge of customer experience principles, human-centered design principles, design thinking tools, and techniques as this results in the organization crafting strategies and goals which are tailor-made to fit the organization’s employees and target audience hence a recipe for service success. A manager/supervisor must also be willing to learn, engage and adapt to the needs and expectations of all the main stakeholders (e.g customers and employees) of the establishment. More so, to achieve service success, as CX-Centric we put much more emphasis on a manager to synthesize the Customer Experience across all touchpoints (online, in-store, etc) as this helps elevate Customer Loyalty.

Results Achieved:

The retail store saw a 55% increase in its market share which meant the store became more reputable in its industry of operation and this increase in market share also created room to make the much-needed profits for the store. The store touchpoints improved and the communication internally improved as well which leading to more collaborative handling of tasks within the store. Employees also got to get a clear understanding of what is expected of them, the organisation’s sought after goals thus allowing for a clear and understandable working structure to be put in place.