Store Employees are on the Frontline
In this episode, “Store Employees are on the Frontline,” we discuss the issues and opportunities that exist when engaging more thoughtfully with store line employees during a health crisis.
When it comes to fashion retail during the Covid-19 pandemic, the conversation has centered mostly on the overall viability of a retailer and their strategies to overcome the decrease in brick and mortar shopping. And this makes sense, considering the onslaught of bankruptcies that were unleashed in the spring and the real concern these closings would have on employment and the overall economy.
However, for those companies that were in a strong enough position to avoid bankruptcy, their focus became two-fold: energize their online sales and re-open brick and mortar. And while the latter was welcomed in theory, in practice it meant store line employees at fashion retailers were put at the forefront of a health crisis, making them more vulnerable to Covid-19 itself, as well as front and center in the mask debate.
Here’s Christopher Lacy, former Director of Customer Experience, Learning and Development at Barneys New York and now an Assistant Professor at Parsons School of Design:
[Christopher] Prior to COVID-19. We were already seeing a peak of customer entitlement and how associates were treated in stores. Now that entitlement has an additional layer of not wanting to be told to wear a mask, not being told to socially distance; a myriad of other things, where you have a customer that is living in a stressful situation, a customer that's stressed about their proximity to another customer, a heightened sense of wanting to transact quickly. And retailers forgot that associates are also under the stress of remaining healthy, needing to work and also needing to provide exceptional service. So, retailers must be cognizant that the storeline employees are the internal customer. And corporate partners and by corporate partners, I mean head office, they're part of this retail ecosystem.
Additionally, in the rush to reopen, retailers didn’t really fully consider the operational shifts necessary, especially in relation to storeline employees, to ensure adequate customer service levels.
[Christopher] The implementation of most operations was set up to just get the store back on track and to get the store to generate sales. The problem is that most POS systems still require contact between customers and the payment solution generally used by retailers. You still have customers that are coming into contact with POS systems. You still have associates that are still trying to facilitate processing.
Christopher also points out that with new services such as curbside pick-up came other issues, such as fraud, that retailers were not prepared to deal with. And so with these changes that can have a real impact on business, it’s more important than ever for executives to be on the front line with their employees.
[Christopher] Now, during a pandemic, it isn't just about receiving feedback from storyline employees. At this point, if you have a store that's open, or you have multiple stores that are open, then every member of the executive team needs to commit to working in the store alongside the store team. Because feedback on his own during this time doesn't mean much, if you're not also experiencing what your team is experiencing. And it doesn't mean you're there every day. But at least two days out of a week, head office executives, including the buying team, including HR, need to be there in the store. They have to be, because you can't expect for your store associates and store line employees to go into the store, risk their health, generate sales, and you're working from home. That is unacceptable. And it is unacceptable to think you know what's happening in the business and apply principles from what happened previously to what's going on now. And the only way they will understand it is actually taking the time to be there alongside those store associates, looking at the operational processes, looking at how the customers are engaging with the associates, engaging with the product and moving forward.
And most importantly, Christopher says that executive teams and HR departments need to remember that this is “not business as usual,” and that the employee experience “evolves along with the customer experience.”
[Christopher] Yes, the company lost money, but so did the associate population. They are stressed about numbers. They're stressed about their sales. They're stressed about how to outreach to clients in an economically challenging situation. So, at that point, it's the responsibility of head office to be understanding and provide tools that can assist associates and stores during this time and not try to push for increases day over day, but rather taking a step back and looking at it from the month.
He adds this bit of advice to retail leadership:
[Christopher] Partner with store managers on how to protect the downside and making sure those store managers are looking farther out. We can't manage to the day like that anymore. We've really got to take a bird's eye view and go, what are we doing for the month? And that means there can't be the belittling emails asking why their business is trending behind or why they had a rough Friday.
Christopher points out that “Crises inform you the old system can no longer be maintained and that there is a need to change.” While the pandemic has certainly had an outsized negative effect on the retail industry, it could also serve as an opportunity for retailers to reset and refocus, beyond sales numbers. It’s a chance for them to rebuild trust between all constituents, the customers, the home office, and most specifically the store line employees who are central to the success of any retail business.