>>Grocers are turning into bank managers and destroying customer experience says author Colin Shaw
Grocers at the turn of the century were naturals when it came to customer experience, offering a personal service and an insight into every cheese, meat or fish that they sold.
So why do supermarkets now treat customers like transactions?
At a time when 95% of business leaders see customer experience as the next competitive battleground for companies, and when competition in the market has been heightened by the ‘pile ’em high, sell ’em cheap’ attitude of Wal-Mart with its presence in this country through Asda, and the merger of Morrisons with Safeway, retailers have been making the same mistakes as the banks did in the 1990s.
Of course, it is said to be all in the name of convenience, but one has to ask, particularly when many chains have had a disappointing recent performance, whom does this convenience actually serve?
In the banking industry, thousands of jobs were cut in the 1990s when cash machines, the net and phone banking services were deemed to be the death knell for the high-street bank.
Yet, despite the fact that by 2002 a fifth of all branches that were open in 1995 had closed, a Mintel report last year showed that customers still want to see a face to the people managing their money.
Despite this example, it seems that the grocery sector has made the same mistake, moving from shopkeeping and personal service towards impersonal self-service, with self-checkouts and marshalled queues distancing retailer from customer.
Will this make big grocers faceless in a multi-channel world?
Yes it will, and the danger of the path supermarkets are going down is that they are encouraging customers to use the internet instead of coming into the store, or scan their own goods rather than be greeted by a member of staff at the checkout.
Eventually the only touch point the customer will have with grocers will be over the web site and the delivery of groceries will be the only human contact.
In light of this how will the supermarket chains differentiate themselves? The answer is through proven models of best-practice customer experience. In my view customer-facing organisations such as food retailers go through a number of stages: from having a naïve model to a transactional one, then
an enlighted one and finally reaching the nirvana of natural.
Those supermarkets that fall into what I would call the natural category see the shop as an ideal place for staging demonstrations to draw customers into their store. Sainsbury advertising icon Jamie Oliver provides a personal touch on the television screen, so why does the retailer use impersonal self-scanning points in its Local stores? Its shoppers may well be disappointed by such an impersonal service in-store, treated as they are in the manner of transactions.
In too many customer experiences today - and supermarkets are guiltier than most - people do not even say one word.
I come back to my original question - for whom is this supposed to be convenient?
The lessening need for staff and the cost saving this represents to the grocer indicates that this is an example of inside-out thinking - doing what suits themselves, not the customer. So while grocers may look to their competition to judge their next move, they need to remember they are not just competing with each other but with foodservice outlets and the growing ranks of gastropubs that are accommodating the increasing trend of eating out.
The US tipping culture that has gradually worked its way across the Atlantic has driven UK restaurants to revolutionise the customer experience so their employees are able to benefit from this trend.
It is this example that food retailers need to follow - considering emotions and senses, and becoming naturals at their craft once again.
Grocers at the turn of the century were naturals when it came to customer experience, offering a personal service and an insight into every cheese, meat or fish that they sold.
So why do supermarkets now treat customers like transactions?
At a time when 95% of business leaders see customer experience as the next competitive battleground for companies, and when competition in the market has been heightened by the ‘pile ’em high, sell ’em cheap’ attitude of Wal-Mart with its presence in this country through Asda, and the merger of Morrisons with Safeway, retailers have been making the same mistakes as the banks did in the 1990s.
Of course, it is said to be all in the name of convenience, but one has to ask, particularly when many chains have had a disappointing recent performance, whom does this convenience actually serve?
In the banking industry, thousands of jobs were cut in the 1990s when cash machines, the net and phone banking services were deemed to be the death knell for the high-street bank.
Yet, despite the fact that by 2002 a fifth of all branches that were open in 1995 had closed, a Mintel report last year showed that customers still want to see a face to the people managing their money.
Despite this example, it seems that the grocery sector has made the same mistake, moving from shopkeeping and personal service towards impersonal self-service, with self-checkouts and marshalled queues distancing retailer from customer.
Will this make big grocers faceless in a multi-channel world?
Yes it will, and the danger of the path supermarkets are going down is that they are encouraging customers to use the internet instead of coming into the store, or scan their own goods rather than be greeted by a member of staff at the checkout.
Eventually the only touch point the customer will have with grocers will be over the web site and the delivery of groceries will be the only human contact.
In light of this how will the supermarket chains differentiate themselves? The answer is through proven models of best-practice customer experience. In my view customer-facing organisations such as food retailers go through a number of stages: from having a naïve model to a transactional one, then
an enlighted one and finally reaching the nirvana of natural.
Those supermarkets that fall into what I would call the natural category see the shop as an ideal place for staging demonstrations to draw customers into their store. Sainsbury advertising icon Jamie Oliver provides a personal touch on the television screen, so why does the retailer use impersonal self-scanning points in its Local stores? Its shoppers may well be disappointed by such an impersonal service in-store, treated as they are in the manner of transactions.
In too many customer experiences today - and supermarkets are guiltier than most - people do not even say one word.
I come back to my original question - for whom is this supposed to be convenient?
The lessening need for staff and the cost saving this represents to the grocer indicates that this is an example of inside-out thinking - doing what suits themselves, not the customer. So while grocers may look to their competition to judge their next move, they need to remember they are not just competing with each other but with foodservice outlets and the growing ranks of gastropubs that are accommodating the increasing trend of eating out.
The US tipping culture that has gradually worked its way across the Atlantic has driven UK restaurants to revolutionise the customer experience so their employees are able to benefit from this trend.
It is this example that food retailers need to follow - considering emotions and senses, and becoming naturals at their craft once again.
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