Amidst the seasonal buzz of larger basket sizes, catering orders and holiday products, co-ops are also welcoming new customers in droves. According to FMI’s 2023 Holiday Season Shopping Trend Report, 18% of grocery customers plan to shop at different food stores for the December holidays this year. Many of these customers are new to the co-op — the member-owners of the future — and they are driven by a desire to explore something beyond the mundane, eager to embrace local, organic and fair-trade goodness. It’s our time to shine, and with careful attention to the customer experience, we will.

Consider the following comments from real customers who chose to make their first visit to the co-op in the evening hours:

Three items with sale signs rang out wrong at checkout. The cashier had to call multiple people to get the right prices and I held up the line forever. It was embarrassing.

It was close to closing time when we went and staff were cleaning and removing things so it felt like we were getting in their way.

I was hoping to get a drink from the juice bar. I stood there for a while, walked around the juice bar to see if there were hours posted but found none. An employee walked right past me but never acknowledged my presence. I approached him and he said he worked in a different department. Not helpful.

Data from NCG’s Customer Experience (CX) program shows that overall customer satisfaction with co-ops is at its lowest during the evening hours. The evenings are also when co-ops are visited by a significantly higher percentage of non-member customers, as shown in Figure 1 below.

Younger demographics are also more likely to shop at co-ops in the evenings. Customers between the ages of 18 and 34 are twice as likely to shop at co-ops in the evenings as compared to the mornings — while the opposite is true for customers ages 65 and over, as illustrated in Figure 2 below.

Is your co-op presenting the best version of itself in the evenings?

The data clearly show that evenings present the greatest opportunity to ensure return visits from the member-owners of the future. At many co-ops, management and administrative presence dwindles in the evening hours, leading to a concentration of staff with longer tenure, institutional knowledge, and decision-making authority in the daytime. As a co-op leader, it is your role to empower staff working in the evenings to go above and beyond to delight customers. Consider the following opportunities to improve customer experience.

Are evening staff aware of the critical role they play in delighting customers?

By proximity, daytime staff tend to have more engagement with management and administrative staff. Evening staff can sometimes feel like they are out there on their own. Take great care to engage with evening staff at a deeper level. A quick hand-off conversation as you walk out the door isn’t enough. Evening staff are your co-op’s ambassadors for the member-owners of the future, and they need to be attuned to what’s happening throughout the co-op.

Are there areas of the co-op that appear deserted in the evenings?

While it’d be nice to keep the juice bar open until the store closes, it may not be realistic for your co-op. Perhaps it’s the cheese counter, sandwich counter, outdoor plants department or other areas. No matter the area of the store, it’s critical to take great care to keep up the appearance of daytime-only offerings in the evening hours. Consider lighting, filling empty spaces with readily available grab-and-go options, adequate signage pointing customers to alternatives, and clearly posted hours of operation. Ensure that staff in other departments know enough about unstaffed areas to provide basic and helpful customer service.

Are staff empowered to sample on the spot?

With the knowledge that a higher percentage of potential newcomers try the co-op in the evenings, consider making on-the-spot sampling a focus for evening staff. Is a customer asking questions about a new product on the shelf? Encourage staff to bust it open and delight the customer with an on-the-spot sampling event! This can be fun and engaging for staff and customers alike, so long as you provide clear guidance, including a framework for house-charging, and readily available tools to convert those open products into passive demos.

Do you know what it’s like to be a new co-op customer visiting your store in the evening?

Take frequent walks in the shoes of new customers to keep a fresh perspective. Retail Readiness Store Walks are a perfect framework for this exercise, and NCG has plug-and-play resources ready to help you get started or enhance your current practice. Be sure to walk outside, take 30 seconds to shake off your manager vibe, and walk back into the co-op wearing the shoes of a customer visiting for the first time. Make it a point to perform these walks at times when customer satisfaction is at its lowest, likely in the evenings. Include evening staff in your walks as a tool for training, empowering and raising awareness of key areas of opportunity.

By embracing the importance of the customer experience during the evening hours, and engaging with evening staff at a deeper level, co-ops can elevate customer satisfaction and ensure that co-op newbies do indeed become your co-op’s proud member-owners of the future. Track your co-op’s performance on key drivers of the customer experience at different times of the day with NCG’s Customer Experience (CX) Program. Learn more here.