Are you being served?

New research from Skillsmart Retail, the Sector Skills Council for Retail shows that nearly half of UK retail businesses (43.3%) believe that customer service could be improved across the country, indicating that they have a lot of work to do to

improve their customer service levels.

In light of this, customer service in the retail sector was the key discuss at this year’s annual Skillsmart Retail Employer Conference, which brought together over 100 major retailers including, ASOS, Argos, Debenhams, Harrods, House of Fraser, Ikea, John Lewis, M&S, Matalan,  Morrisons, O2, Superdrug and Westfield.

Headline speaker at the event, Nick Robertson, Co-founder and Chief Executive of ASOS said: “Being an online retailer does not mean you have less contact with customers. We get thousands of queries every day, which we must respond to quickly and correctly. We are constantly trying to improve our customer service by listening to customers about what we’re doing right and wrong.”

Anne Seaman, Chief Executive for Skillsmart Retail, added: “Today’s discerning customers are less likely to put up with bad service and could potentially tell thousands of people about it within moments on Facebook or Twitter, meaning even big brand retailers cannot afford to sit back and ignore customer service issues. It is in a retailer’s best interest to understand their customers and ensure they are doing everything possible to attract and keep them.”

Additionally, the conference highlighted that three quarters of people believe the UK needs to improve the quality of its customer service ahead of the Olympics, and that 83% believe good customer service during the Olympics will be important because it will show that Britain welcomes and looks after its visitors.

With the international spotlight focussed, retailers want to ensure that unpleasant shopping experiences don’t damage the UK’s reputation, and have launched a new training programmed called WorldHost, so that retailers can train their staff to a high spec. WorldHost is the only internationally proven, individually assessed, customer service training programme specifically tailored for the UK retail sector, and is in operation at Westfield Stratford City shopping centre, who have trained all their concierge staff using the programme.

 

Image/Video: Skillsmart Retail