Customer Service in Retail Stores

8 min readDec 13, 2023

Retail Customer Service in 2023

Customer service in retail stores was always important but with new technologies and the arrival of eCommerce, it has assumed new dimensions and complexities. Customer service is nothing, but the assistance provided to customers in stores to facilitate their shopping journey and enhance the quality of their experience. It not just helps customers in finding and making the right purchases but also adds value to their experience.

Traditionally, customers’ shopping journeys in retail used to be cute. You go, you ask, you get, you pay, and you leave. The number of such traditional stores is significantly dropping especially in the urban and semi-urban regions. And today’s new-age stores are different. They are bigger in size. They come in the format of departmental stores or supermarkets of varying degrees. Customers have different expectations of services which they compare with that provided by leading eCommerce brands. Customers want an easy and digitally powered shopping experience. This has necessitated the introduction of technology in retail stores.

In this blog, we will see 12 areas retailers should work on to improve customer service in their stores or outlets.

Don’t Overdo

As retail and eCommerce consultants, we always maintain that there should not be an overdose of smiles and magnetism in retail stores. Most customers do not appreciate it. So not even for a second should that kind of effort reflect in staff behaviour. The need to go out of way is thin here. Help when help is sought and keep it approachable. Trying to achieve exceptional customer service is always an overstatement. In trying not to overdo things, retailers should bear in mind to also not appear rude or uncaring towards customers’ needs.

Be Proactive

When you are proactive in customer support and service, you are talking about observing, analysing, anticipating, and taking steps in customers’ shopping journeys and experiences. Here, you anticipate the pain points and requirements of buyers in their shopping process. But how can it be applied? Here are six effective solutions:

· Conduct surveys

· Ask for feedback (like eCommerce brands do), devise ways to implement good ones

· Use analytics to derive insights for purposes like clustered personalisation

· Reach out to inform customers about discounts, offers and alerts

· Build a digital presence on Google and relevant social media platforms

· Develop SOPs for retail customer service processes (SOPs for customer support in retail)

#3 Omnichannel Support

Today, customers expect retail stores to have support systems that can be accessed both physically and digitally. Imagine a restaurant that also delivers via food delivery service platforms. Now if a customer has any doubt regarding an item on the menu or the information provided about it, how will they get it resolved? What if there is no way to contact the restaurant over the platform? The customer will look for that restaurant on Google or any other search engine to find a phone number to talk to the restaurant. If the restaurant does not have a business listing or if no contact number is provided, the customer may consider ordering from another restaurant. It is a straight loss of an order. So, as a retailer, you should make sure that your customer support mechanism is linked to all channels.

Be Sincere and Transparent

As a retail brand, always be sincere and transparent in the required and relevant ways. This is the same as what we expect of fellow humans. So, when it comes to terms and conditions, policies and promotional details, or any other information that should come to the knowledge of your customers, it must be communicated to them with full accuracy and on time. If customers at any point in their shopping journey, they might feel dejected. Repeat it a few more times and you might end up denting brand loyalty for long.

Provide Alternatives without Pushing

Sometimes when we visit a retail store we may not get the products or brands that we are looking for. It can also get difficult for us to look for alternatives. In such cases, it is helpful if we get some form of assistance from the store employees. Many present-day retail stores like department stores or supermarkets realise the importance of this particular service feature in their stores. This counts as a good experience for customers provided the efforts do not seem exaggerated. Also, to be able to do this effectively, employees must have sound knowledge of products and what is inside them.

#6 Product Knowledge

Having sound product knowledge is vital for retail staff because it helps them not just better understand the products, they are selling but also provide better customer service. When your team on the floor has a good understanding of the products on the shelves, they can respond to customer queries more accurately and confidently. This helps customers finalise buying decisions and also expedites their shopping journey. This has a profound meaning in the customer shopping journey as it reduces the need for product research and customers have better chances of completing their purchases in one go. Yes, merchandising and availability also must support this goal.

Staff Hiring and Training

Strategic hiring is important for all businesses because they help ensure that employees come with specific knowledge and skills and a desired level of passion and inclination towards the profession or line of work. Retail is no exception. Training helps to upgrade their skills and keep them updated and relevant to business requirements. Being in the right job with the required training helps employees provide better customer service, better represent the brand, well, better respond to customer queries, provide complex information about products in a simple manner, and win the trust of customers.

Securing the Dedication of Employees

Employees are human and they too get exhausted towards the end of the day. This affects the quality of effort they put into their jobs. So, it would not be the right thing to blame employees for lack of dedication after working for those long 6–8 hours. Some of the ideal solutions to overcome this problem are:

· Job allocation as per existing knowledge, skills and abilities

· Optimised workload for every employee

· Shift-based working

· Creation of facilities for rest and refreshment

· Overtime allowance for extra hours (subject to regulatory norms)

· Adjustment to personal requirements (e.g. staying far away)

#9 The use of the right technologies

One of the most powerful creations in the world’s fintech industry is India’s UPI system. It is a mobile-based payment system in which payments can be made using QR codes and a UPI-based payment smartphone application. The receiver of the amount is allotted a QR code and customers can make the payment by scanning the QR code within the UPI app on their smartphones. The number and value of transactions that take place every day over UPI in India are astonishing. Both retailers and customers in India have tremendously benefitted from UPI. The point here is to highlight the need to have the ‘right’ technology.

Handling Refunds and Returns

How a retail store handles its returns and refund processes is an important area affecting customer experience. Managing returns & refunds is a part of customer service and should not be seen as an exception. It carries a big impact on customer loyalty and retention.

To have a smooth and easy return and refund process for your customers, your retail store must have suitable operations planning. Your employees must know the procedures and the operational standards to be maintained.

If you do not map and define these processes in advance, there is a strong possibility of missing both operational and strategic standards. You will need — process, talent, and technology for smooth return and refund processes. Retail SOPs take care of the process-related aspects.

Parking Assistance

Parking nowadays is a luxury. But if your store has even a small parking lot, do consider manning that space to help your customers be able to park their vehicles easily. If you do this, it adjoins the efforts you have invested so far in bringing customers to your stores. And if you do not do this, the opposite becomes true. The previous experiences, the digital marketing campaigns, the promotional texts, and all other preceding efforts get an undesirable jolt. The most interesting thing is that you may not even ever get to know if some customers returned because they could not find a proper parking space or assistance in parking.

#12 Merchandising and Inventory Management — a distant but impactful element

It is obvious that if goods are not available, customers will make that purchase from somewhere else. If it happens too many times with too many products, they might change their shopping destination as well. Also, even your trained and capable employees would not be able to offer alternative products if your merchandising and inventory do not support it. One bad element in the shopping journey is capable of triggering negative emotions. Not having the required products in the required packaging sizes or the absence of alternative solutions is capable of disturbing the shopping journey and experience of customers.

Situations like these can be avoided if you have developed and are maintaining a robust inventory management system. The use of software and automation has helped businesses in this area. But even to make a digital solution work, you must know and define the strategic and operational requirements of your retail business. This is where SOPs make its grand entry. They provide the information required to identify the right software solution.

Traditionally, customers’ shopping journeys in retail used to be cute. The case with today’s new-age stores is different. Customers have expectations influenced by eCommerce and other retail giants. Most customers do not appreciate overdoes. And yet retailers must proactively anticipate the pain points and requirements of buyers in their shopping process. In doing so, retailers must consider that customers expect retail stores to have support systems that can be accessed both physically and digitally. And when it comes to support and communications, the need to be sincere and transparent in the required and relevant ways will never go out of the books. This is also reflected when your team on the floor has a good understanding of the products on the shelves and they are able to respond to customer queries more accurately and confidently. This takes us to the importance of planned hiring and training in retail. But even the best employees get exhausted when they work for too long — a problem that can be addressed by various measures like optimised workload, shift-based working, refreshment facilities, etc. Undoubtedly, technology has a bigger and more prevalent role to play in customer service in retail.

If you have any queries related to customer services in retail or to speak to one of our retail consultants, please visit our website and drop us a message.

FAQs

How to handle returns and refunds in retail business?

Returns and refund processes carry a big impact on customer loyalty and retention. To have a smooth and easy return and refund process for your customers, your retail store must have suitable operations planning. Your employees must know the procedures and the operational standards to be maintained.

How can technology help in retail customer service?

There are many technologies which retailers around the world are using to offer and deliver superior customer services. Having a presence on popular smartphone telecommunication apps is a simple example of how retail stores can better communicate with their customers and share information without the customers having to visit their stores.

How to sustain the routine productivity of employees in retail?

Employees are human and they too get exhausted towards the end of the day. This affects the quality of effort they put into their jobs. Some of the ideal solutions to overcome this problem are: