The Retailer Summer Edition 2022

THE RE TA I L ER

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NEWS FROM THE BRC

ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A CEO?

Stephen Hewett Global Partner ICG, Partner of BRC Learning

B ecome a Retail Customer Enabled Organisation (CEO). In these difficult times, retailers have two clear imperatives: First, reduce costs and reflect that in their value propositions. Second, keep profitable customers and, ideally, grow them. These are simple things to say, but much harder to accomplish. How can you reduce costs at pace without compromising customer retention? There are so many blunt cost-cutting initiatives that fail tomeet the needs of customers unintentionally. Are you satisfying the needs of your customers to a remarkable degree? Getting to know your customers' needs and wants is crucial: • Asking customers about their needs isn't enough • Don't rely solely on headline metrics or simple surveys to measure your performance • Customers often provide valuable and actionable feedback that is largely neglected and underused • In order to respond to (and ideally antic ipate) the needs and wants of customers, retail leaders need to fully digest the millions of words shared by customers about their experiences.

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Why a ‘Value Exchange’? 'Value exchange' is often forgotten in the rush to worship at the altar of customer centricity. Formost organisations, the customer is a means to achieve their own goals, whether altruistic or profitable. Speden Lewis, the founder of John Lewis in the UK, did not created John Lewis for the benefit of its customers, but rather for the partners who own it. To deliver a good and meaningful life to those partners (the workers), it was important to take care of the customer. In CEO, the concept of a 'value exchange' is essential. It usually refers to con sumers exchanging their data for something. While the principle is sound, I believe it should not be restricted to data, but include goods and services. The exchange being the customer giving the organisation financial, loyalty and advocacy support. Why move from CX to CEO? The main difference between CX and CEO is that CX assumes that your organisation is broken, and you need to go through significant change to put the customer at the centre.Whilst good in principle, the problem is it also most never gets implemented because: • It costs too much • It takes too long - ROI is often outside the term of the current management team • It disrupts BAU, making the customer experience worse, certainly in the short-term

A Customer Enabled (CEO) organisation actively seeks permis sion from its customers to engage in a value exchange, where both parties feel that the experience was positive.”

If youwant to knowyour customers' needs and wants, and howwell your teams are delivering them, and what needs to be improved, there are powerful ways to do so: • Feedback informed by emotion is what it's all about. • Knowledge of Basic Customer Needs and highlighting those that will have the greatest impact on an organisation. • Discover the real experience behind the mass of data and percentages - what drives satisfaction with the experience? • How can front-line teams deliver the basics that customers need? • Fully digest the millions of words rou tinely shared by customers and turn this largely neglected and underused source of data into valuable and actionable information. • Understand what drives success and importantly where specifically to focus your resources to enable and grow your business. • Gain valuable insight to enable better decisions about strategic direction. But you also need to change the underlying premise under which you are operating. The days of customer centricity are gone.

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Retail Leaders need to think about delivering a better customer experi ence through a ‘Customer Enabled’ organisation.”