Customer Case: Rizzo Group

Maria Ryott, HR Manager at Rizzo Group, shares her experiences and how they, with the help of Evercate, ensure all their employees always have the right knowledge to deliver truly excellent customer service.

"For us, it is important that everyone who works in store, whether they work full-time or only occasionally, can easily and efficiently absorb the latest information or training, in order to help customers in the best possible way," she says.

Rizzo Group, formerly Venue Retail Group, has gone through a tough period over the past year. They have come through a reconstruction and a reorganisation in the midst of an ongoing pandemic and are now rolling out a new store concept.

The new Rizzo means that a total of 101 stores are to be refitted according to the new concept by March 2021. This also includes the group's Accent stores being renamed to Rizzo, while the stores in Norway continue to be called Morris.

The new concept is about offering a broader lifestyle-oriented selection of shoes and accessories such as jewellery, watches, bags and safety equipment across various price ranges. A new sustainability approach has also been introduced, where you can, for example, rent a suitcase when needed instead of having to buy one that mostly collects dust in the storage room. But how do you implement such a large change across so many stores? And what is the key to achieving positive results?

"We are in the middle of rolling out our new concept right now, a task that has involved a huge amount of work but has also been incredibly enjoyable. To make these changes, it has been essential that the suppliers we choose to work with are also fast. We cannot afford to get stuck in drawn-out processes," says Maria, and continues: "The fact that Evercate was responsive to our needs and that we could get started so quickly, from the initial dialogue to the introduction of the first courses, was incredibly important to us."

With digital courses in Evercate, they see the opportunity to create motivated and engaged employees in the stores. The welcome package for each new Rizzo store includes both valuable brand information and customer care training.

"A challenge for us is that we are implementing several changes at the same time. Our employees need to familiarise themselves with and embrace the new concept while also starting to sell more products they are not used to. So far, we have focused our training on this. Going forward, we see that introduction to new brands, care instructions and automation of, for example, necessary safety training could be relevant," says Maria.

In retail, it is often difficult to find times to reach employees with information when they are scheduled to work in the store. It is also common to have staff who only work extra on weekends or evenings.

"Our employees cannot access the intranet from home and do not have time to check email on the computer at work. That is why they have appreciated the convenience of Evercate and how easy it is to access content via mobile when it suits them," says Maria, and continues:

"Our training developers feel the same way. Working in Evercate is fast and easy. Getting a training course out to our store employees is no problem. From the moment we finish the training, it takes just one click."

Rizzo's work in Evercate has only just begun. The training initiative has been quick to roll out, and both employees and store managers are pleased with how smoothly it works. This, combined with the fact that Rizzo's new concept will soon be in all stores and that we are hopefully approaching the end of the pandemic, makes the outlook for the future hopeful.

"It has been good to carry out our major transformation work now – with refurbishments and getting employees to embrace our new concept, so that when Corona is over, we stand ready to welcome customers in the very best way."