“Put the customer at the centre of your business”, they say. At Maze, we believe success starts with your employees. Without them there can be no customer satisfaction or retail growth.

As the retail industry continues its recovery after the disastrous pandemic period, in fashion or grocery for instance, brands need to focus even harder on converting visits into revenue and one-off buyers into raving fans who come back again and again. So how can these brands achieve this? Successful retailers demonstrate a clear strategy for growth, with the ability to put innovative technologies in the hands of their employees to reach their business goals. But not just any technology. Let’s face it, the last thing your staff needs is more data. They need to be empowered with the right information at the right moment, so they can deliver the right experience in-store.

So how do you give your employees the means to generate more revenue for your brand?

1. Feedback

Customer feedback is a treasure trove of insights about how shoppers experience your store, and what might make them want to come back and spend more… or stay away altogether. There’s no lack of feedback technology out there. But what really works is delivering instant feedback directly to store team members, using an app like Maze that also provides specific advice about what matters most to your customers. This way your staff can take control and improve future customer interactions.

2. Training

Empowered employees crave opportunities for continuous development. The Maze app automatically generates daily training tips for your staff that correlate directly with customer feedback. So they know exactly what to do to deliver a better store experience. And training is much more powerful if it can be accessed by your staff on their own terms, not imposed to them through day-long sessions that sap productivity.

3. Community

Retail staff tend to be a tech-savvy bunch, hooked on social media and receptive to quick messages. Using an app like Maze can be a game changer as it plays right into the way your employees use their phones outside of work. This makes it much more engaging for them. For instance Maze’s built-in social and gamification features encourage teams from different stores to communicate and compete with each other.

The retail industry has a lot to answer for when it comes to treating its employees fairly. But it’s evolving and many brands are now seeing their staff for who they are: the lifeblood of their business. The evidence showing the connection between employee engagement and business performance is stronger than ever. 

During a recent event, Heidi Engan from Gina Tricot stated that using Maze to improve in-store experience through higher staff engagement and better training led to a staggering increase of 168% in their Net Promoter Score. 

And it’s not just through frontline employees that retail brands can benefit from an app like Maze. Management also needs easy access to key insights and top-level trends that help them make decisions, beat the competition and grow the business. 
Having exactly the right information at your fingertips, at any time of the day, can be addictive. As Milan Hladil, strategy director at Albert, the 2nd largest grocery brand in the Czech Republic, put it: “back in 2009 when the iPhone launched, no one knew they needed a smart phone or what it did. Now you take it for granted that you just have to have one. Maze is like the iPhone in 2009. Now we have it, we cannot imagine life without it.”