As COVID-19 continues to have an impact on the world and in our communities, it is important to understand your customers’ shopping experience. The CX Survey gives us a window into customer perceptions and insight into changes that can be made. Although the customer experience may look a bit different these days, there are still ways we can maintain and improve what is within our control. After meeting with our vendor, SMG, and hearing our current high-level insights data, we’ve narrowed down the three most important insights — and found examples — that you can implement to ensure that you are providing the best service possible during these unprecedented times.

The top three key divers of overall satisfaction after COVID-19 were:

• Availability of products
• Cleanliness of store
• Checkout experience

With that in mind, we recommend the following strategies to help drive overall satisfaction.

Strategy 1: Prioritize cleanliness. Your shoppers are taking notice.

While cleanliness has always been important to shoppers, recent data suggests that when COVID-19 hit, cleanliness became a bigger influence on overall satisfaction than it was previously. Co-ops responded swiftly by implementing new disinfecting and distancing measures. Shoppers noticed: Almost 90% of the comments about cleanliness were positive and “topbox” scores for cleanliness at co-ops far surpassed the competition. In the week of March 1, 8% of respondents’ comments mentioned cleanliness. In the week of April 26, 20% did.

“I was impressed to see the partitions at the checkout counter and my checker sanitizing the card reader and pen.” – Shopper comment from Willy Street Co-op (East)

As the new safety measures became normalized throughout March and April, cleanliness scores were less of a driver of overall satisfaction, but industry data shows that shoppers feel safest at grocery stores compared to other retail operations because of the precautionary measures being used. Remember: It’s important to make sure that your cleaning practices are visible. Your shoppers want to see that employees are washing their hands and sanitizing surfaces frequently. It matters to them!

Strategy 2: Reduce out of stocks as much as possible and provide signage. 

Reducing out of stocks has been an important focus for improving the customer experience for some time now. Among respondents who report being dissatisfied with a department, poor product availability is a common cause. This is especially true in meat and seafood, where over 50% of the dissatisfied respondents cite out of stocks as the cause.

Along with this, availability of products are mentioned frequently regarding bulk as well, with a common theme of out of stocks being mentioned in this department.

“I wanted to purchase green lentils and almost all the bulk bean/lentil bins were empty… There were no signs up about this. I know people have probably stockpiled because of the Coronavirus scare, but some information would have been very helpful.” – Shopper comment from Willy Street Co-op (West)

When possible, we encourage co-ops to look for alternatives to slot when an item is likely to be unavailable for a while, or use signage that provides information for when that item is expected to be available again and recommends alternatives. Many customers understand that product availability can be poor at a time like this, but keeping your shoppers informed is crucial to maintaining trust.

Strategy 3: Focus on your checkout experience, both speed of checkout and friendliness of staff.

Speed of checkout is always important, with shoppers becoming frustrated when there are three or more people in line. This is especially important for shoppers now: While some shoppers may be more forgiving of longer lines during a pandemic, many want to complete their shopping in as little time as possible to reduce the risk of exposure.  

Thankfully, 98% of shoppers indicate they felt welcomed when shopping at their co-op. There is always room for improvement: For shoppers who did not feel welcome, staff friendliness is the top reason, followed by not being acknowledged. However, knowing that we are able to make so many customers feel welcomed during such a challenging and stressful time is worth celebrating!

“I always can find what I’m looking for at this store. When the check-out lines were long, they provided extra cashier for faster check out. Everyone is friendly and welcoming at the store.” – Shopper comment from GrainTrain (Petoskey)

Opening up an additional lane, having baggers called in to help bag, or even having the cashier acknowledge that they will be with them in a moment, are all great ways to help customers feel supported and respected. Customers are grateful when their co-op is going above and beyond to meet their needs.