Do Customer Service and Productivity Belong in the Same Sentence?

Do customers get in the way of your team’s productivity? Do customers think you are ignoring them, so the team can get more work done? The answer to both is the same: yes. For many retailers, especially bigger box types where there is always a lot of work, a lot of customers, and not a lot of payroll hours available to handle both, this can be a real challenge. The reality of current-world retailing is that store employees are asked to do a lot with very limited resources. Few retailers are not squeezing store payroll tight, especially as wage rates increase, other margins are pressured from cost increases, and sales are inconsistent. It begs the question, how can you balance between providing a positive customer experience and still get tasks completed?

Balancing between customers and tasks is not a new challenge for store associates or the store leadership team. I faced this as far back as I can remember in a more than thirty-year career in retail. It is easy to say, “the customer always comes first,” until the manager is yelling at you (figuratively, of course) to get the assigned task completed. It doesn’t matter whether you are working product from the backroom or setting a planogram, it is work that can take you away from serving customers.

Mindset

Having a mindset of service is a critical first set. In most cases, the tasks you are completing are in an effort to better serve your customers. Full, clean, signed shelves are the best sales tool any retailer has. Empty shelves will one hundred percent result in reduced sales. If a customer cannot see it, they will not buy it. Keeping that product organized is also a way to make shopping easier for your customers. Many of these assigned tasks, that ‘block’ us from serving the customer, are, in fact, serving the customers. However, that is only a portion of the perspective. From a customer standpoint, they expect the shelves to be full and easy to shop. How you do that is not their problem. When they need assistance, they want assistance. Again, that has to become part of the mindset you have when working with your team. It is not a first or second process; serving the customer should always be a priority, and it can be worked around the activities you are completing.

Realistic Expectations

Mindset and expectations go hand in hand. Resources are limited, you already know that. Believing that everything will get done in the same way, within the same time, with or without customers, is a fallacy. If you are asking your team to service customers while getting other work done, then the reality is it will not happen at the same pace as when completing those tasks without customers present. Build that into your planning. Hoping that it can all happen the same way, with different circumstances, is where many managers get into trouble and find themselves falling behind. Plan the schedule according to what you expect the situation to be. Communicate those expectations to the team involved. This will lead to better service provided to customers, and reduce the frustration you and your team have about balancing the two.

Observing and Coaching

Observations and providing feedback is not only for customer interactions. Take time to observe and understand how team members balance the workload with providing service. You can even do this when there are no customers. Productivity is about efficiency and practice. In your leadership role, helping people identify improvements in their efficiency can go a long way in making them more successful in all elements of their role. Taking steps around a retail store is one of the most expensive things that happens every day. If you are continually walking back and forth from the front of the store to the back because of something you forgot, or you placed what you were working on someplace away from where it needs to be, then a lot of extra time is added to any activity. These can be easily identified by dedicating time, as a leader, to observing and sharing your findings with your team. Coaching is one of the best ways to engage your team, and it’s not reserved only for customer interactions, or performance management.

So, do customer service and productivity belong in the same sentence? Absolutely. You need to be productive on how you manage your business, so you can provide better customer service. Having the right mindset and expectations for how they work symbiotically is part of your role as a leader. Coaching how to balance activities and service levels will help your team understand how they can be successful at both.

Efficiency fuels the Experience

I work with a great retail leader that often comes back to the quote above. It is true. The efficiencies you find in your day-to-day work will free up more time for you to provide a better service experience to your customers. With that, comes additional sales, which buys more labor hours to serve more customers and get more activities completed in the support of customers. It becomes a flywheel effect of turning productivity into a sales booster. You can make that happen with your team as well.

How do you coach your team on combining productivity and customer service?

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