As a European living abroad and traveling between countries and cultures made me realize many years back, customer service means in different cultures different things. In the era of Digital Transformation, it comes down to the point that we need to bridge the gap between online and in-store customer experience.

I must admit, when I came the first time to America, 25 years ago, I finally experienced what it means, customer experience. Nowhere in the world customer experience is more cultivated than in the United States. If you go to a restaurant and order your food and drinks you know that the staff lives from the tip money. They do everything to give the customer a unique unforgettable experience which makes them shine.

But also the department stores don’t lose out, companies like Wal Mart invest into the proper training of their staff and try to unify the way the team talks to the store visitor.

Now with digital transformation and all the online capabilities, we can gain from our online analytics and knowledge we gain from all our clients. It is getting more interesting to target the audience even more profiled and with the exact language of their needs.

Of course, the traditional department stores are under pressure because we can nearly buy everything online. We have the span of 1 second to convince the in-store visitor to purchase now and not later online to a maybe cheaper price. Is there one advantage of an in-store experience that can make a big difference? Customer service, according to an infographic by SMS Store Traffic.

In a three-step plan, the infographic looks into customer service to increase the in-store customer experience.

Did you know …
… a 5% increase in customer retention can improve a companies profitability by 75%.
… 95% of consumers talk about poor customer service experiences with other people

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This should not surprise us but should make us think how powerful word of mouth is. To avoid this experience make your in-store team ready. It takes more than a 1-day briefing when they start their new job. Weekly/monthly meetings with your team and talking about customer experience is essential. Create a customer service roadmap, tackle the approach, where the customer gets information, how to tackle the service for information about the brand and when will be done. Keep the customer informed about the progress.

Confident is key, your staff should be on the edge of product knowledge or find the champion in-store very quick. Never forget the tone plays the music, staff should always stay in good mood and honesty shall let them shine. Having the proper in-store processes in place which are easy to understand and transparent helps them to actually deliver the in-store customer experience for customer service.

Never forget one point. When people decide to walk into your store than the expect humanity and not submitting online to a machine. Even if the hope raises high with the recent seen humanoid robot Sophia who seems to be close to what we can humanize robot ideal for customer service.

The potential customer walks through the door, now it is about to shine with your consumer friendly customer service. See the good summary about in-store customer experience in the below graph.