Supermarket CX Improvement

CX is the New Super

The retail supermarket industry is fiercely competitive. With the homogeneity of products (and services), customer experience is a key differentiating factor. A pleasant and superior shopping experience can help build a loyal customer base. With consistency in experience delivered by a supermarket store, customers are more likely to return and recommend it to others. This can be a slow process but with long-term benefits of higher sales with stability and a fastened customer base.

People do not have the time and enthusiasm to invest in trying different supermarket stores. If the required value propositions are delivered, they prefer to stick to such stores provided consistency is maintained in them. Some of these values are accessibility to the store, in-store navigation, quick checkout, extensive range of merchandise, discounts, knowledgeable and helpful employees, etc.

Supermarket stores are not just a place for buying groceries and provisions which is already a mundane task. It is also a place for emotional and social experiences making people seek things beyond the obvious when they go shopping at supermarkets. This gives the element of experience a significant weightage in supermarket value propositions.

Supermarket CX has emerged as a strategic manoeuvre to give customers shopping experiences that are beyond the obvious. In the process, it also helps overcome many marketing challenges. This blog highlights 10 essentials to improve the quality of customer experience in supermarkets.

Decent Servicescape

Servicescape denotes the physical environment in which a service process is executed or services are offered and delivered. It is a very wide concept encompassing a plethora of tangible and intangible stimuli affecting customer experience. What makes the concept of servicescape more complex is that it not only includes what is real but also perceived experiences. For example, a bad odour is something real. If it makes some customers walk out of the store is a form of perceptive response. Of course, different customers may react differently to minor inconveniences. Some may choose to bring it to the notice of the store employees/manager if any such incident is of an unexpected nature. However, repeated failures in supermarket servicescape do not go well with customers thereof. This shows how important servicescape is to customer experience.

Some of the key focus areas in supermarket servicescape are:

• Wide aisles for easy navigation with shopping carts (part of supermarket layout planning)
• Obstruction-free navigation (part of supermarket inventory management)
• Strategic placement of products to encourage exploration
• Use of supermarket planogram
• Use of clear and distinct signages for objectivity in navigation and finding sections
• Comfortably bright and even lighting
• Maintaining comfortable temperature, air circulation
• Selective music (not strictly necessary)
• Pleasant scents (primarily to cut off any deviation from the normal)
• Easily accessible help and support
• Spotless cleanliness and hygiene
• First-Aid with trained staff

Supermarket Layout Planning

The layout of a supermarket store has a huge influence on the quality of customer experience it is able to deliver. While a well-planned layout helps deliver a superior shopping experience, a flawed one does the contrary. Pardon the exaggeration but think of a poor store layout as playing football on a cricket ground or vice versa. A well-planned supermarket layout allows smooth navigation giving customers a more relaxed environment for strolling and exploring. Dedicated sections with signages and banners lend navigational certainty to customers. Spacious aisles and sufficient empty spaces reduce congestion. Layout planning also makes it possible to incorporate elements to induce buying. For example, certain product categories do find buyers when placed in proximity to checkout counters or alongside the checkout queues. These could be off-routine items which people usually do not expect in supermarkets or likely evade their shopping lists. These items often come whispering ‘You did not know or maybe you forgot but you are missing me’. Personalised items or recommendations do superbly here. Other elements of layout planning like safety and security, strategic positioning of entry and exit points, design and décor, ventilation, etc. also play a vital role in shaping customer experience directly or indirectly, individually or collectively.

Knowledgeable and Helpful Staff

Supermarkets cannot afford to lose customers because of poor staff management. As experienced supermarket business consultants with an edge in customer experience management, we often witness businesses not emphasising strategic HRM or not taking it up professionally. Of all, frontline employees play a crucial role in shaping customer experience. In this age of internet and information, customers expect sales staff to be able to respond to their specific queries. Exhibiting a lack of interest or keenness as a part of service is something that does not go well with present-day customers. How employees talk, how they receive, how they dress, how welcoming they are, and their body language – everything matters.

For employees’ performance to have a positive influence on customer experience, supermarket stores must invest in building a strong HR department and align it strategically with their business and marketing requirements. Here, we are not talking about amassing a team but strategies, policies, and procedures to govern staffing operations. For example, CX objectives may require the inclusion of specific skills and experience in defining recruitment. The same goes for customer experience training. Professional training programs designed to meet the requirements of modern-day retail help equip employees with updated and relevant knowledge and skills. Supermarket business owners should also realise that frontline retail operations are extremely hectic and monotonous and paying for extra hours is not the solution. Job rotations and shift-based working (may also be mandated by law) are highly recommended.

Easy Navigation

Easy navigation helps improve customer experience in supermarkets in numerous ways. The idea is to make the in-store customer journey smooth and objective for customers. When it is hard for customers to find products/brands wandering through the aisles, shopping becomes a time-consuming and unsettling experience. Clear and organised navigation allows customers to quickly move to the right aisles and shelves. To be able to complete shopping lists quickly also enhances the possibility of exploring other products and services. This could result in additional purchases and higher sales. Improved navigation in supermarkets also reduces the dependence on employees who then can focus on more qualitative functions like personalisation and recommendations.

The foundation of ease of navigation in a supermarket is already shaped in supermarket layout planning. There are a few standard supermarket store layout options like grid, racetrack, herringbone, free-flow, etc. Each option has its own distinct features and limitations. Hybrid layout is the most flexible as it allows businesses to tailor-make the layout of their stores. Supermarket owners should be extra careful about layout planning because it is more or less fixed for a longer time and retracting can be expensive by itself and also hamper business operations. Apart from layout planning, other important elements to improve navigation are the use of signages, landmarks, and technology. Proper signages help customers navigate through a store as a secondary measure. We are calling it secondary because in-store navigation should be easy enough to come by as intuitive. Tech-savvy customers may love smartphone apps that help them with navigation and other elements of their shopping requirements inside supermarkets.

Speedy Checkout

Long checkout on a routine basis demotivates in-store customers in retail. Customers would rather choose another store or buy online than spend unreasonable time in checkout queues. What is worse is customers can see the lack of effort on the part of a store’s management to improve the checkout speed. The imbroglio on the part of supermarket management is they may have idle resources during non-busy hours. However, that can be worked out by resource re-allocation. Checkout time is a crucial component of customer experience. It can also serve as a competitive advantage. There are numerous effective ways to improve checkout time in supermarket stores.

Additional staffing during peak hours is one of the foremost solutions to keep the lines moving. The use of analytics can help identify the peak business hours. However, it does not negate the need for modern POS systems. Without the use of technology, handling checkout operations may get overwhelming for existing staff. Another use of technology is offering digital payment options like UPI, mobile wallets, credit and debit cards, contactless payments, digital currencies (not crypto) and in-house loyalty programs to speed up the checkout process. Smartphone penetration and the quality of internet connectivity are two important considerations in implementing mobile-based payment solutions. Last but not least is enabling self-checkout options like scan-and-go. Self-checkout is yet to gain widespread popularity but many big retail supermarket brands are leading the way testing the effectiveness of different models and paving the way for new and smaller players.

Omnichannel

Smartphones or other internet-based tools and technologies are undeniable parts of our lives today. Fully or partially, it has engulfed our shopping activities too. From searching for products and services to getting them home-delivered for consumption/use, we take the digital route in one form or the other. This process is entirely digital in the case of eCommerce. Supermarket retailers cannot afford not to take part in this revolution. This is where they make the leap from their traditional brick-and-mortar paradigm to becoming an omnichannel enterprise. This is also where they establish a functional connection with customers who are increasingly making use of digital technologies for shopping and other lifestyle essentials.

The idea behind omnichannel is to deliver a seamless and unified shopping journey and experience to customers using the best of both worlds – physical and digital. While digital capabilities fulfil the voids of physical systems and make customer journeys more flexible and convenient, physical capabilities are needed for the tangible aspects of shopping (e.g. pick-up or delivery of physical products or talking to manual customer support). In omnichannel supermarket retailing, customers can complete their shopping journey quicker and more conveniently by utilising a combination of online and offline touchpoints that best serve their interests and prerogatives. For example, some customers may prefer having the flexibility of having a preference for setting order delivery hours over the app or website of the supermarket they are ordering from.

Personalisation of Rewards and Loyalty

On the surface, most of the loyalty programs appear like marketing gimmicks to make customers buy more. People can see through such attempts. Loyalty programs need to have out-of-the-ordinary features and elements to catch the attention of modern-day customers. Rewards like standard discounts are quite anticipated; the need is to go beyond these traditional benchmarks. Loyalty programs can include early access to new offers, new product launches, and new/value-added services. Personalised recommendations and offers are also effective. For example, visiting customers with babies or toddlers can be offered extra discounts on products belonging to such age groups. If membership schemes are available, the sign-up process should be simplified and highly automated post consent of customers and as per applicable laws. The same applies when it comes to the redemption of membership benefits. The idea is to move from the standardisation of benefits to the personalisation of benefits to build stronger brand connections with customers in unique ways. In running supermarket loyalty programs, retailers should be careful about not appearing as discriminatory to non-members or those who do not subscribe to loyalty programs or offers. Many retail supermarket stores make the mistake of prioritising customers only based on bill amounts or purchase volumes. A competitor with better personalisation programs is never far away from taking away market share.

Become Family-Friendly

Supermarkets can enhance the shopping experience of customer segments comprising parents and caretakers. It can be done by incorporating family-friendly elements in the shopping environment. Having supervised in-store play areas is a good starting point. Kids running around the store should be avoided at all costs. Wider aisle gaps help customers navigate with prams. Safety and warning sign boards should be placed at all relevant places. Efforts should be made to ensure that lower shelves are shielded to prevent kids from getting their hands on certain product categories like cleaners or sharp objects. The best option is to restrict their entry in such sections. Shopping carts with attached seats for kids are helpful for parents. Customers with kids should be prioritised in checkout queues. Assisted parking is crucial for customers coming with kids as kids tend to quickly open doors and jump out of vehicles. The same level of care and concern should also be maintained for senior citizens and differently-abled visitors. Adequate restrooms are a must. If space permits, a separate area for drinking water and refreshment facilities could also be maintained away from the main shopping zone. To maintain cleanliness and hygiene, eating and drinking in the main shopping zone should be strictly restricted. Adequate safety and security measures should be placed on priority (applicable under all circumstances).

Supermarket SOPs

Even the best supermarket CX strategies fail to deliver the intended results when their execution is flawed. The quality of operations has a significant influence on delivering the intended customer experience in supermarkets. As a retailer, you should also think of it from the customer’s perspective. Imagine one of your delivery executives asking a customer to take a photo of the bill payment status screen on the customer’s phone at the time of home delivery. While some may allow, for others, it may be an outrageous ask for privacy reasons. The bill payment status normally gets notified almost in an instant to both the maker and recipient. There is no need to take a photograph. Such operational incidents take place because of loopholes in operations planning. If delivery executives have concerns about bill payment and personal responsibility, it should be addressed internally. In this example, a simple task of payment confirmation could be added to the supermarket SOPs in the form of internal communication between concerned teams. Upon automation, the payment status will be automatically reflected in the backend systems. SOPs help to define the required flow of work with adherence to specific operational standards to be maintained in the execution of a business process. The fallout of precision in operations planning eventually shows up externally – some of which may carry a significant bearing on customer experience.

Feedback Mechanism

Frontline employees or sales staff are those stakeholders in a supermarket store who deal directly with customers. They are the ones who get to know about the preferences of customers inside a store. They are the ones who get to respond to customer queries. They are the ones who get a first-hand experience of how customers respond to solutions offered. These insights are critical inputs for making many key decisions and improvements involving merchandising, services, servicescape, layout, offers, etc. Sales teams can flag recurring issues with products and/or services. For example, customers may highlight bakery products (say from a particular local brand) that do not have expiry dates printed on their packaging. Employees can note down such anomalies and bring them to the notice of the store manager. The same concern can then be communicated to the supplier in question. Employees can also highlight deficiencies in business processes in real-time. It creates the window of opportunity to rectify such process flaws and prevent any further unwanted repercussions on customer experience. Taking feedback from employees also helps enhance their motivation and morale which is great for their self-development as professionals. Being a part of the correction process also gives employees a practical understanding of field problems and helps them respond in a more knowledgeable and confident manner to customers in the future. So, this whole idea of embracing feedback from employees (and acting upon it) has tail-end effects on customer experience.

Quick Recap

Customer experience is the new super in retail and eCommerce. It is a strategic tactic to give customers shopping experiences that are beyond the known and expected while not deviating from the fundamentals. In the pursuit of improving CX in supermarket stores, ten essentials are highlighted in this blog.

The first requirement is a decent servicescape. It denotes the physical environment in which a service process is offered and delivered encompassing a wide range of elements comprising both tangible and intangible stimuli (real and perceived) influencing how and what customers feel towards a supermarket and furthering their shopping journeys. Next is supermarket layout planning. Done right, it gives customers a more relaxed environment for exploring the place via smooth navigation. Third comes the role of frontline employees. How they talk, how they dress, how welcoming they are, and their body language – everything matters. Securing smooth and objective movement throughout the store makes easy navigation a vital requirement for improving supermarket CX. After filling their trolleys (even if it is just one item), the next thing customers need is a speedy checkout. A customer spending 10 minutes to complete their shopping list and spending more than that in the checkout queue is something unsettling to them.

Omnichannel allows customers to complete their shopping journeys quicker and more conveniently by making use of a combination of both online and offline capabilities offered by supermarkets to the best of the former’s interests and prerogatives.

Rewards and loyalty initiatives like standard discounts are quite obvious; the need is to go beyond these traditional standards and offer features like early access and premium value-added services (compared to prevailing market standards).

The incorporation of family-friendly elements like play areas and shopping carts with attached seats for kids goes well with segments comprising parents and caretakers.

Employee feedback plays an indispensable role in gathering meaningful insights on improving customer experience.

Last but not least is how supermarkets manage to stick to these CX improvement strategies. The answer lies in supermarket SOP development and implementation.

Although technology and customer journey analytics have not been taken up separately in this blog these two are big facilitating factors in implementing any CX improvement initiative and improving customer experience management.

For enquiries on supermarket business consulting solutions or to speak to one of our expert supermarket business consultants, please drop us a message and we will reach out to you.

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Dive Deeper

Explore YRC Resource Library for more information on retail and ecommerce management challenges, solutions and more:

• Maximising Efficiency and Customer Satisfaction through Superior Functional Layout Design for Supermarkets
• Supermarket Layout / Grocery Store Layout Design Services
• How Can Supermarket Go Omnichannel? Omnichannel for Supermarket
• Reliance Gourmet Supermarket – “Freshpik” Case Study