Where retail leaders see room for improvement

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Leaders of retail outlets see customer interaction as a major deficiency among their staff. However, a report noted outdated training methods as a key issue.

A new report from frontline training platform eduMe found that 83 per cent of leaders in retail and hospitality are not confident in their employees’ ability to interact with customers.

The study further found that the leaders’ top challenges are employee turnover, customer experience, and sales. They’re also concerned about supply and demand, lack of leadership, keeping employees goal-oriented, inflation, cost of goods and labour, employees not retaining information or not caring and employees being afraid to engage with customers.

In the October issue of CARS magazine, aftermarket business coach Alan Beech explored issues his training class came across when posing as tire shoppers are local outlets. The results mirror the findings in this study.

“The retail and hospitality industries are facing a number of challenges,” said eduMe CEO and founder Jacob Waern, “but to see a lack of confidence around customer service and customer experience abilities so keenly felt, especially when 93 per cent of leaders report they are spending considerable time training employees, shows the stark need for a shake-up in the methods being used to provide these employees with skills and knowledge.”

The study further highlighted outdated training methods. The vast majority (92 per cent) reported that they utilize face-to-face training or desktop-based learning. These are processes that take time away from customers and are delivered in a way that lowers engagement, relevance and accessibility, the company said.

“Businesses need to invest in better employee training systems and processes in order to ensure that their frontline teams are equipped to provide the best possible service,” Waern said.

He highlighted more exciting forms of training that bring higher impact to employees, especially options that give employees “access to information and training on their mobile device, in exciting short forms like ‘TikTok for learning’ as we’ve been described, has been immeasurable in bringing notable improvements in customer service, and importantly, business metrics like retention.”