This is a rallying cry for retail

Rapid, global change requires decisive and empathetic action — from an industry that knows a thing or two about evolving with the times.

By Annie Conderacci and Lara Wagner

For years, we’ve heard rumblings predicting retail’s continued, steady decline. Now retail faces a new and swift-moving challenge in the immediate and long-term impacts of COVID-19. A recent announcement by Coresight Research’s CEO suggests there may be close to 15,000 store closures in 2020 — a record high, largely related to the pandemic.

Is coronavirus the death of retail? Not necessarily.

Within this moment of rapid change, retailers are reaching out to their customers when tensions are high and, often, without the interpersonal connection of a brick-and-mortar store. Where storefronts and warehouses remain open to deliver essential services, there’s added urgency to create safe, healthy working environments for employees.

This challenge presents the retail industry with an opportunity to rally — responding and evolving for the next generation of customers.

Today, we capture ways retailers can protect their people, customers, and brand — in that order — so that they can better weather any retail storms.

Take regular, frequent actions to ensure employee health and safety

For those retailers deemed as essential businesses like grocery stores and pharmacies, store employees are essential for providing customers the critical items they need to sustain a quarantine.

• Check in. Ask employees and managers regularly for feedback on what operational changes can be made to support their health and safety.
• Protect, protect, protect. Enact any reasonable changes that you can to ensure that employees feel safe and healthy. This is vital for their retention, productivity, and ability to provide good customer service. For example, some retailers have gone cashless to avoid hand-to-hand contamination. Others are switching entirely to delivery or curbside pick-up models. Employers like Walmart, Amazon, and Instacart are issuing additional personal protective materials and health kits to employees.
• Make staying home when sick a no-brainer. Add flexibility to schedules to allow workers to share shifts and incentivize a healthy workforce. Consider hazard pay or bonuses for employees who are working during this time. Extend sick time to those who stay home when they are sick or are acting as caretakers.

Now is the time to prioritize the well-being of your people — it’s both the ethical thing to do, as well as necessary for efforts to protect your customers and your brand, which we’ll get into next.

Make it easy (or even easier) to do business with your company

Now is the time to invest in your customer’s eCommerce, mobile, or social media experience. This is important whether your storefronts remain open to the public or not; with more workers telecommuting and reducing shopping trips, they have more time to interact with your brand virtually.

Photo by PhotoMIX Ltd. from Pexels

• Meet your customers where they are — online. At the end of March 2020, RMS and Yottaa reported that 94% of US-based consumers believe that online shopping will be “essential” at this time, with a majority saying that they would not go to a brick-and-mortar store unless “absolutely necessary.” PowerReviews noted that conversions “doubled” in the month of March, though traffic remains steady. A distinct online voice will differentiate you from competitors, and also make it easy for customers to repeat business.
• Self-service is king. Make it easy for customers to find key information on your digital platforms. You want those FAQs readily available, in line-of-sight, so that customers can find information they want quickly. Banner capabilities should make it easy to see how your brand is responding to COVID-19 — for example, free shipping/discounts, delays, CEO messages, community efforts/donations.
• Front-line contact centers are your “new” sales associates. With brick-and-mortar stores temporarily out of play, contact center employees are the faces of your company — and they need your support more than ever. Create regular feedback loops to ensure you’re hearing what they’re hearing. Review and clearly articulate points of escalation. Create a clearly defined owner for specialized response to help fast-track customers in need. Further supplement customer service by utilizing more sophisticated and realistic customer service bots.

Reach out — with empathy

By now, you’ve received countless emails from tons of companies that you transacted with in the last 15 years, outlining their responses to the coronavirus.

Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels

Before you send a similar email (or another), ask yourself: If you haven’t contacted your customers in years, what are the reasons you are reaching out now? You need to reassure customers, but don’t rush to associate your brand with a pandemic without considering what you’re communicating and why.

Whether your storefront operations remain open or not, yes, you need to respond — but balance the sense of urgency with a healthy dose of caution and always anchor back to your mission.

• Streamline your response. Keep messages short, sincere, attention-grabbing, and give customers a reason to shop with you again. Don’t get lost in the sea of spam emails from faceless executives that never get opened.
• Focus on what your brand can uniquely say or do in response to this situation. Don’t just “update” your customers on what you’re doing; if they do come back, it won’t be because you’re cleaning your surfaces better than you used to (which might only make customers wonder about the conditions the last time they were in your store). Communications and brand actions should always double back to your mission.
• Focus on creating valuable experiences for your customer, within the given circumstances. Consumers are (rightfully) wary of anything that seems opportunistic, so don’t force an inauthentic experience that doesn’t fit; share what’s meaningful. Offering coupons or promotions may alleviate some financial stress and build good will for the future. Virtual learning opportunities, like webinars or community meet-ups, can energize people in difficult times.
• Lead with empathy, always. Check, check, and triple-check that your brand actions make sense in light of sensitive personal, local, and global circumstances. Everything you communicate right now (even if it isn’t directly tied to COVID-19!) arrives at your customer’s doorstep during a time of elevated stress. Create or refresh a crisis marketing plan for your social media and branded content. And keep the larger context in mind, always, even for seemingly innocuous actions.

Your messaging should focus on how your brand is working to connect people, alleviate stress, and support the broader community — and your offerings should all work together towards those goals.

This will be a time of rapid change. The very real, very human consequences of COVID-19 are, rightly, on everyone’s minds — the need to protect and support our loved ones, community, and the front-line of response.

For the retail community, there’s challenge and opportunity. Leaders can rally by setting clear priorities and taking swift action to weather this and future storms.

Slalom Customer Insight is created by industry leaders and practitioners from Slalom, a modern consulting firm focused on strategy, technology, and business transformation.

Annie Conderacci is a project and operations manager who has led change management, HR, and talent development initiatives for organizations across sales and finance — with an emphasis on humor and creative solutioning. Connect with her at annie.conderacci@slalom.com.

Lara Wagner is a brand strategist and storyteller who connects dots between an organization’s unique knowledge capital, its thought leaders, and its marketing strategy. Reach out to her at lara.wagner@slalom.com.