Navigate the Christmas madness with past lessons

MAT WYLIE PREPARES RETAILERS FOR THE CHRISTMAS RUSH WITH FINDINGS FROM A CUSTOMER RADAR SURVEY CONDUCTED LAST CHRISTMAS. IT’S TIME FOR VISIBILITY AND RESPONSIVENESS.

IT’S THAT TIME again. Consumers are waking up from their ten-month hibernation and brushing the dust off their wallets, ready to spend it all in a few manic weeks.

Time to hire extra staff, open the store up late and embrace the madness that is Christmas – a make or break time for retailers.

WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?

For those of you who are already feeling a bit overwhelmed by the Christmas rush, here’s a quick refresher on why it’s so important.

For most businesses, between a quarter and a third of annual revenue is earned in the six weeks leading up to December. Consumers are busy and stressed – they crave convenience and simplicity and will be ruthless in their expectations, given the heightened competition.

You’ll likely be bringing in new, inexperienced staff, who have to be trained and motivated, or become a walking liability on the shop floor amidst the Christmas rush.

There are presents too, but those come afterwards.

LESSONS FROM 2016

Over the six months leading into last Christmas, Customer Radar took an in-depth look at a range of our retail customers, and how the busy period impacted their businesses.

Here’s a quick overview of the key findings from nearly 250,000 pieces of feedback:

• Christmas kicks off midNovember. Our data shows that virtually overnight, shoppers wake up and begin frequenting stores in mid-November, with numbers close to doubling. • Christmas shoppers give

feedback. We know the busy season has started when our customers’ feedback levels spike – and spike they do, with average daily responses increasing from 800, to more than 1600 in mid-November.

• NPS takes a hit. Humans focus more on negatives, and this rings true with Christmas feedback – a five percent decrease in NPS (Net Promoter Score) was seen on average across the retail industry customers we looked at, with a particularly sharp drop mid-December. • Your staff cause most of the issues. Typical feedback comments over Christmas focus on the human element of business – service, timeliness, helpfulness and friendliness. • We’re underestimating weekdays. Proportionately, weekdays saw higher levels of feedback, bigger drops in NPS, and more negative comments regarding service and wait times. If you’re reading these trends and getting cold sweats, never fear. There are a few key actions that can be taken now, to mitigate the damage over the next few weeks, and even turn this Christmas into a win for your business.

VISIBILITY AND RESPONSIVENESS ARE CRUCIAL

On the surface, these trends from 2016 don’t bode well for the coming season. However, two weapons are at your disposal, which if used well, can defeat the Christmas negativity.

These are visibility, and responsiveness.

Firstly, it’s crucial to have genuine insight into what’s going wrong in your business. Negative feedback will occur over the coming months – that’s a given – but what’s not certain is whether you’ll know enough to do anything about it.

It’s one thing to have a customer complain about staff looking like they don’t want to be at work, and for this complaint to be swept under the rug by the staff or store involved.

It’s another thing entirely to actively ask for feedback (whether via your receipts, app, in person or otherwise) and let customers know that you care about what they think.

Secondly, it’s key to be committed to responsiveness. It’s not enough to simply gather feedback and have visibility, if you’re not going to take action and prevent issues from happening again. An ethos of being customercentric, and responding to all feedback immediately can be the difference between a customer being turned into a happy champion of your brand, or a grumpy detractor on social media.

Ensure that your management team is committed to building a fence at the top of the cliff, rather than bumbling away at the bottom.

Christmas 2017 is in your hands. Regardless of how you choose to act over the next few months, there will be winners and losers. Commit to gathering feedback with strong visibility and a culture of responsiveness, and your business can be amongst the winners.