Twice a year, SMG, the vendor-partner for NCG’s Customer Experience Program, analyzes our collective program results and provides us with insights on how we can improve customer satisfaction as a system. These insights may be useful even if you don’t currently participate in the Customer Experience (CX) Program. Our last insights presentation was in February, evaluating survey results from August 2021 through November 2021. Here are three actionable opportunities SMG identified.

Focus on Cleanliness of Store

The percentage of customers indicating they were highly satisfied with Overall Satisfaction (OSAT) declined from 76% in December 2020 to 75% in December 2021. This was driven largely by declining satisfaction in Cleanliness of Store. During the pandemic, co-ops earned high satisfaction with Cleanliness of Store, the result of steps co-ops took to reduce transmission of COVID-19. Now, customer satisfaction with Cleanliness of Store is returning to pre-pandemic levels, and NCG as a system is trending below the industry average.

When reviewing customer comments related to cleanliness, we found that only 4% were in reference to masks and hygiene. The vast majority of comments were about general cleanliness of the store’s environment, such as bathrooms, bulk bins, entryways and floors.

“The restroom could have been cleaner — especially the floor, which looked dirty. The room smelled awful. The toilet had not flushed in a while and did not flush. I mentioned this to a staff member.”

“Bulk foods messy for most visits.”

Breaking down results by day-of week and time-of-day revealed that customers were least likely to be highly satisfied with Cleanliness of Store on Sunday mornings and during evening hours throughout the week (8pm to close).

By focusing on improving systems and processes related to cleaning and store conditioning we can improve our scores related to both Cleanliness of Store and Overall Satisfaction.

Focus on Availability of Product — Especially in Bakery

Availability of Product is the biggest driver of Overall Satisfaction, and remains our biggest opportunity. Only 55% of shoppers indicated they were highly satisfied with Availability of Product. Satisfaction scores were lowest during evening hours (5pm to close), and on Sunday and Tuesday mornings.

The lowest scoring department was Bakery, with only 52% of shoppers indicating they were highly satisfied with Availability of Product. This was followed by Wellness, Meat & Seafood and Produce, which all scored 53%. The highest scores were in Grocery, Beer & Wine and Prepared Foods, with 54% of customers indicating high satisfaction with product availability in those departments.

“…The only thing I was not satisfied about was and is the bakery. The bread is great but there are not enough high end bakery products. The choices are too limited and a lot of the available products just aren’t that appealing.”

“…Cost of premade food continues to increase while the availability of certain products, particularly baked goods I have historically enjoyed are no longer available, e.g., scones, oaties, etc.”          

While we can’t help vendor or distributer out-of-stocks, we can work on production schedules and quantities (in bakery and deli) and ordering and restocking processes in other departments to improve scores. And again, Availability of Products is the biggest driver of Overall Satisfaction, so by improving our performance in Availability of Product, we can improve satisfaction with the customer experience overall.

Focus on Friendliness of Staff and Availabiliy of Staff

Recruiting and retaining staff was a challenge for all retailers in 2021, and we see this reflected in the declining percentage of customers reporting high satisfaction with Availability of Staff. Generally, satisfaction with Availability of Staff scores was higher in the Eastern Corridor and among smaller sized co-ops. Wine and Beer departments earned the highest shopper satisfaction with Availability of Staff, but also the lowest visit frequency. By contrast, Produce and Grocery departments are the two most visited departments, but they scored near the bottom (63%) in terms of satisfaction with Availability of Staff

“…My main concern as previously stressed is making sure all employees are checking in and engaging with customers. I go in the checkout cashiers are helpful. However, on the floor it is hard to find staff and few people actually help out are reach out to people.”

If you are still struggling with staffing issues, you might want to focus on the other key service metric: Friendliness of Staff. To be clear, we aren’t underperforming in Friendliness of Staff. In fact, our average customer satisfaction with Friendliness of Staff as a system was 80% from June 2021 through November. But we can still soften shopper dissatisfaction with Availability of Staff by focusing on friendliness, and the simplest and most effective way to improve customer perception of Friendliness of Staff is to make sure they are greeted by someone other than a cashier.

“I would like to see more staff on the floor answering questions. I would like staff to look up more often from their tasks to greet and offer help.”

We want to recognize the co-ops with the highest satisfaction scores in Friendliness of Staff: Willimantic (93% of shoppers highly satisfied), Weaver Street Market’s Chapel Hill location (92%), Littleton Food Co-op (92%), Grain Train’s Boyne City location (92%) and Berkshire (91%).

Key Takeaways

• Shoppers are paying more attention to the cleanliness levels of the store as a whole and are less focused on pandemic measures. Be sure to regularly maintain bathrooms, bulk bins, entryways and floors throughout the day to help increase customer satisfaction, especially during evening hours.
• Our biggest opportunity remains in Availability of Product. Focus on production schedules and quantities to improve scores in Bakery. In other departments, focus on ordering and stocking systems to improve scores.
• Sundays present an opportunity to improve on “Cleanliness of Store” and “Availability of Product” scores.
• Ensure that you have staff available during peak hours to offer assistance to shoppers when needed.

If you are interested in learning more about the CX program, visit https://www.ncg.coop/programs/retail-technology/customer-experience-cx-program.

Thanks to Dave Olson, Senior Director of Retail Support, for sharing his expertise and contributing to this article.