Customer service desks have been a popular component for front end design in food co-ops over the past decade, but as labor becomes more expensive and productivity goals increase, is the work done at your customer service station achieving the co-op’s customer experience objectives?

Ask yourself these questions as you evaluate how well your customer service desk is welcoming shoppers:

• Are the services offered here unique to this station, or can they be done in your check-out lanes?
• Is your customer service desk staffed every hour the store is open? What message does it send to customers when it’s not staffed?
• Are those staffing the service desk actively engaging and welcoming all shoppers as they enter your store?
• Besides welcoming customers, what other tasks are your customer service staff doing during all hours of operation? If the work is primarily computer-based, can that be done more effectively in a back office?
• Does the station act as a physical barrier to keep customers away from staff?
• Is the station inviting? When shoppers use customer services, do they get the answers they are seeking, or are they simply referred to other store staff? What processes could streamline that experience for the customer?
• Is the station cluttered or, worse, used for storage? Consider how it looks from the customer viewpoint.
• Could the space dedicated to your service desk be generating extra sales? Our typical food co-op is less than 25% of the size of a conventional grocery store; every square foot is precious.

Open Harvest Co-op in Lincoln, Nebraska, has just such a customer service “fort,” located between the front door and the check-outs. And even though they built a customer service desk, Open Harvest has never had a dedicated customer service staff; those responsibilities belong to the front end staff. Currently cashiers need to call greetings to customers over the unstaffed service desk as they enter the store.

During a central corridor development team assessment at Open Harvest in February 2018, the team pointed out that the customer service station primarily functions as a front end office, housing files and office supplies that don’t enhance the customer experience. It’s the first thing that shoppers encounter as they enter the co-op, and it hijacks the opportunity to thrill shoppers with fresh product and great deals.

After that assessment, Open Harvest’s General Manager Amy Tabor contracted with a store designer to reimagine the front of the store. Within the new design, removing the customer service “fortress” not only creates room for a vestibule with air lock to protect from the volatile Nebraska weather, but also increases dining area seating from 8 to 24, and greets shoppers with fresh produce and opportunities for big merchandising displays that show off the best of what Open Harvest has to offer. The co-op is finalizing its planning phase and hopes to launch this project as part of a small remodel project by mid-2019.

Think about the space your customer service desk occupies, and consider the value it could have for shoppers and your co-op. Would it serve better as a place for case stacks, produce fresh deals, or an additional checkout lane? The answer will be as unique as your co-op. If the customer service desk is sitting unused and packed full of stuff as a storage spot, then it is wasted real estate that could be deployed in another way to delight customers and boost sales.