Labour Shortages Tank Customer Experience – It doesn’t have to be this way
A clean store – inside and out – is essential to create an enjoyable customer experience resulting in higher in-store sales.
Inconvenient. Difficult. Unsatisfactory.
These are words that many of us could use to describe service industry experiences over the past couple of years. For those that have taken to travel, the words might be even a little more critical.
There are plenty of challenges that retailers especially are contending with and plenty of exceptional retailers who have not succumbed to such troubles. Supply chain is one obvious problem and the other is a shortage of labour.
According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly two-thirds of small business owners say that hiring challenges are affecting their ability to operate at full ability. Without the usual number of staff on hand at any given retail shift, some things might be dropped from the task list like cleaning, maintenance and training.
But these tasks are critical to delivering a superb customer experience.
However, with the right balance of supplies and training, retailers can ensure their locations are clean, sanitary and most important to customers, convenient, easy and beyond satisfactory.
The forecourt often creates the first and last impression
Tidy Stores Signal Clean Conditions
Petrol stations are the only retail locations where the price of their most popular good is displayed on a 30-foot-tall LED sign for the world to see. Customers are notorious for shopping for petrol on price, but to make a strong profit, getting those customers from the forecourt into the convenience store is key.
Starting from the outside, stores should be inviting. A tidy, clean store exterior suggests that the bathrooms are clean, the food is fresh, and the space is safe. The good news is that the percentage of customers going inside the store from the forecourt is growing, up from 35% in 2015 to 52% in 2020, according to a NACS consumer fuels survey.
Even with the growth of in-store traffic, this still means that for about half of a store’s customers, their only customer experience with the brand is at the pumps, which is generally last on the list of things attended to by employees. Even when the forecourt isn’t the customers’ only experience, it is nearly always the first and last impression of the retailer.
Superior Cleaning Products and Training Produce Noticeable Results
Financially speaking, most retailers spend more on cleaning than they realize.
Companies typically track supply purchases, but on average these expenses add up to just 17% of their True Cost of CleanTM. The other 83% of cost comes from the labour required to complete the cleaning. With labour short, it is more important than ever to provide the right tools for the difficult job of removing diesel stains and cleaning dispensers.
Providing a consistently clean customer experience at the pumps is hard, but worth the effort to get started, saving both time and money in the end. With the right products and training, sites can stay clean with just 10-20 minutes of daily cleaning and spend only €50 of monthly chemical cost. CAF’s carefully formulated cleaning products save 70% over the typical cleaning supply cost because less product is needed to ensure a quick and effective cleaning. Further, when employees are properly trained and tasks are strategically scheduled, labour hours spent cleaning are reduced and efficiency is improved.
CAF supports over 35,000 petrol locations globally to provide proven products and ongoing operational support. Retailers like Circle K, Maxol and Moya share their success in leveraging inviting forecourts to grow their business.
Demonstrate to fuel customers that your store is just as impressive inside as out. Customers will reward you with their wallet when they feel cared for and safe.
To try the cleaning products during CAF’s RISK FREE Promotion, click here.
About CAF
CAF is the industry leader in supplying innovative cleaning products and solutions that help stores differentiate from the competition by providing a 5-star customer experience at the pumps. In addition to superior cleaning products, CAF also provides training and ongoing execution support to over 30,000 sites in North America and Europe. CAF saves retailers time and money — improving the customer experience while they fuel and driving inside sales. Simply put: clean stores sell more. Visit www.mycaf.com for more information as well as full product descriptions.
