After reopening stores, how can retailers help their staff move to become customer-centric rather than product-centric, as Thomas Husson, Senior VP Analyst at Forrester suggests, (quoting Marc Cuban, Director of Customer Experience and Marketing at Volkswagen). “To become customer-centric instead of product-centric, you must put customers first. To achieve excellent customer service, employees must embrace the brand on a daily basis.”
In the immediate term, all staff like cashiers, order pickers and store managers must be rewarded and appreciated. The strong social role of e-commerce websites managers has unexpectedly emerged during the crisis. As part of the unavoidable restructuring caused by several months of closure, retailers are keen to retain their in-store sales force.