KappAhl’s Buskerud Shopping Centre store scores highly with its customer interactions, day-to-day training and customer feedback.
“We are good at helping our customers,” explains Store Manager Elise Myhre Hoen.
She has been responsible for the store for four years, and over the past three and a half years, they have used Maze as a continuous improvement tool.
“We worked on customer service even before we started to use Maze, but now we are seeing very real results. This has not always been the case for the store. We scored low on customer experiences, but then changed the way we worked. We worked our way up, and now we are where we need to be. Our employees have great commitment and take ownership of their work. They are cheerful and good at helping customers,” says Hoen.
The store manager explains that they have a stable customer base at the store, with a good number of regular customers.
“We see a clear link between satisfied customers and good key figures”. Customer percentage, garments per customer and average purchases have all increased since we started using Maze. Satisfied customers definitely buy more. Or: Customers who have a positive shopping experience buy more,”.
After shopping in the store, five percent of customers (members of their customer loyalty club) receive an e-mail containing questions about how they experienced their visit to the store.Those who respond get NOK 50 off their next purchase.
“Our training and surveys give us energy and extra drive. Our employees want to see results. It is an enormously useful tool that everyone in the store uses,” says Hoen. Maze was initially used only by the store managers, but later rolled out to all store employees.
Feedback from customers is checked regularly. Both the store manager and employees check the app several times a day.
Multiple factors in the customer experience are measured on the basis of feedback from customers:
– additional sales, till
– additional sales, floor
– offer of help
“We also have many points that we can measure ourselves against. One thing that is good about the tool is that we adapt to the period we are in as well as always focusing on the three main points I mentioned,” says the store manager.
At the moment, KappAhl is running a campaign and focusing on an additional point: ‘Were you offered help in the changing room?’
“And on Saturdays we place extra emphasis on questions like: ‘Were you given a friendly welcome?’ All stores can choose to focus on their individual needs based on their own requirements and circumstances. Genius!” smiles Hoen.
She adds that there is also a competitive element between stores and Maze drives them to improve. The stores learn from each other. When something goes well, best practice is established and the experience is shared with the whole estate.
How Maze works – a short video explaining our app and Its advantages
When the store receives negative feedback from a customer, they discuss what happened and what can be done to avoid a repeat of the incident. They do not single out the employee involved, but instead work together constructively based on the feedback.
“Irrespective of how the store employees may experience the service encounter, the customer is always right,” emphasises the store manager.
Elise Myhre Hoen points out that running daily training sessions is important. She gives a peptalk every morning. In addition to using the Maze app, all store employees at the store in Krokstadelva are in a WhatsApp group where they communicate with each other. Every Monday, the store manager releases a video so she can communicate with all store employees.
Store employees being passive or engrossed in their mobiles is not unknown in the retail sector.
That is not the way things are at KappAhl.
“We don’t have time for that. We want to help our customers so we don’t use our mobiles in the store. We are result-orientated and focus on helping customers,” says Hoen. Those who do not fit into this culture, usually move on.
New employees start out on the shop floor and later work on the till and then merchandise. This is important in order to ensure that they are familiar with our range and are able to provide customers with the best advice possible. When there are two employees in a KappAhl store, one concentrates on the till and merchandise while the other is on the shop floor helping customers. This division of labour has proved key in driving additional revenue.
The most impactful part of your success and revenue as a retailer is your company culture. This is what all other positive effects come from. Yet, this is something many companies don’t talk about very often. Let’s look at why this should be a top priority, and how you can build a winning culture.
On the 14th of February, we facilitated an exclusive networking event where some of our most growth-minded Maze customers from the Nordics got together for an inspiring Meetup! Here are some of their biggest takeaways from the event.
Let’s look at some examples where investing in customer experience leads to increased conversions and hit rate, which in turn leads to profit for your stores.