Customer case: Rizzo Group

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Maria Ryott, HR Manager at Rizzo Group, shares her experience and how, with the help of Evercate, they make sure all their employees always have the right knowledge to provide a really good customer service.

"For us, it's important that everyone working in the store, whether full-time or just 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 undergone a steel bath over the past year. It has gone through a restructuring and reorganisation amid the current pandemic and is now rolling out a new store concept.

The new Rizzo will see a total of 101 stores rebranded under the new concept by March 2021, including the renaming of the group's Accent stores to Rizzo, while the stores in Norway will continue to be called Morris.

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

"We're in the middle of rolling out our new concept right now, which has been a lot of work but also a lot of fun. To make these changes has required that the suppliers we choose to work with are also quick. We can't afford to get bogged down in lengthy processes," says Maria and continues, "The fact that Evercate was responsive to our needs and that we were able to get up and running so quickly, from initiating a dialogue to introducing 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.

"One challenge for us is that we are implementing several changes at the same time. Our employees need to get used to the new concept and at the same time start selling more products that they are not used to. So far, we have focused our training around this. In the future, we see that introductions to new brands, care advice and automation of, for example, necessary safety training may be relevant," says Maria.

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

"Our employees can't access the intranet from home and don't have time to check their emails on their computers at work. That's why they've appreciated the flexibility of Evercate and the fact that you can easily access the content via your mobile at your convenience," Maria says and continues:

"This also applies to those of us who have worked on the training. Working in Evercate is quick and easy. Having a training course then reach our shop assistants is no problem. From the moment we finish the training, it's a click away."

Rizzo's work in Evercate has only just begun. The training initiative has been rolling out quickly and both employees and store managers are pleased with how smoothly it is working. This, coupled with the fact that Rizzo's new concept will soon be in all stores and that we are hopefully nearing the end of the pandemic, means that the outlook for the future is hopeful.

"It's been good to do our big transition work now - with refurbishments and getting staff to embrace our new concept, so that when Corona is over we're ready to welcome customers in the very best way."