We visited 20 shops to see how many people said hello.

The last few years have been particularly volatile for the retail sector.

First there was the pandemic, which started off badly for physical retail but then led to the record-breaking year of 2021. Instead, records were broken on an ongoing basis and aggressive investments were made in smarter marketing and even better customer clubs.

It is easy to think that the increase in sales was due to all this investment. But the truth is that it was more likely that money was pumped into the economy to keep it alive. The result was that consumers felt rich, and acted accordingly.

Here we are with high inflation, high interest rates and customers who don't come into the shops at all anymore. No matter how much money we continue to spend on smarter marketing and better customer clubs.

As many as 41% of all bankruptcies in Q1 2023 were in the retail sector.

But is it just the economy and inflation's fault?

Is it only because not as many customers enter the store that retail chains go out of business?

To find out, we at Evercate conducted a highly scientific experiment.

We went into 20 shops in the Mall of Scandinavia to see how many people greeted us.

It was early afternoon and fairly empty of other customers, but if all the staff were busy with a customer, we waited until they were free and had a proper chance.

How many say hello?

It turned out that in only eight of the 20 shops we entered, we received any kind of greeting from a member of staff. A full 12 out of 20, or 60%, did not even bother to say hello to their potential customers.

Of the stores we received a hello in, only half followed up with some kind of question to initiate a dialog. That's only four out of 20. 

Custitude has recently released the Customer Meeting Barometer where they tell us that a hello increases the chance of conversion by a whopping 6% (from 59% - 65%).

So the majority of these stores have millions to gain each year by simply saying hello to their customers. Not to mention what you have to gain by taking a more active role in the customer meeting. Because helping and guiding the customer provides an additional 23% increase in conversion up to 88%.

Take a minute and think about what a 29% increase in conversion, with your average receipt, would mean for your profitability?

Shops need to improve customer service

Of course, the macroeconomic situation makes it tougher for everyone, not least the shops. But there is a much bigger problem that we are not talking about.

The problem is that we have forgotten what retailing is all about. It's about selling things to the customers who come into the store. It's about the human encounter. It's about saying hello and helping customers find what they're looking for. And it's about giving customers something that at least resembles an experience. 

This is the strength of physical trade!

It's time to take a step back from all the fancy new systems and marketing services and go back to basics.

It's time to invest in the customer experience.

Make the customer meeting great again!

You know that customer interaction is important. Everyone knows it, but few work on it actively.

Saying it at the next conference may lead to staff saying hello for a week or so. But then you are back to square one again. 

What seems so simple on the surface, getting everyone to say hello, is actually a matter of replacing a habitual pattern of behavior with a new one. That's the nut you have to crack.

It is important to point out that this is not the fault of the store staff. Of course they have a certain responsibility in how they act, but it is basically a management issue. It's a systematic problem that needs a systematic solution.

The solution is change management

Change takes time, and change is hard. But they are also worth the effort, up to 29% increase in conversion rates to be precise.

It's not enough to say it at the next conference. It is not enough to send an email to the store email, update the staff handbook or delegate to the store manager and then cross it off the to-do list.

To succeed, we must work continuously from all sides (central, regional, store). We must work systematically and take one step at a time. We need to follow up that we are on the right path and that everyone is doing the right things all the time.

We need to engage and work with every individual (including the extra staff) in each store to get this right.

We help you create the right habits

To help you make sense of this, we've created a short guide on how your retailer can work to successfully break habitual patterns and replace them with something better.

Download the guide here

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