Word of mouth is the invisible thread that weaves trust and rapport into decision-making. Rooted in authentic connection, it turns casual conversations into powerful endorsements. A Nielsen study reveals that 89% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising.

In the past twelve months, 82,035 customers shopping at 133 unique co-op locations participated in NCG’s Customer Experience (CX) Program, and were asked a simple question:

How likely are you to recommend {food co-op name} to others?

On average, 75% of customers report that they are highly likely to recommend their co-op to others. Those “others” might be friends, family, neighbors, coworkers — all your co-op’s member-owners of the future!

At the Willimantic Food Co-op, an impressive 92% of customers are highly likely to recommend the co-op, the strongest score in the country. The lowest-performing co-ops on this metric hover in the 50% range.

Let’s take a moment to celebrate the ten co-ops with customers most enthusiastic about recommending in 2024:

If you’re anything like me, your initial thought is: What do all these co-ops have in common? First, let’s look at what they do not have in common. These co-ops are diverse in terms of:

• Store size, ranging from 2,100 to over 15,000 retail square feet
• Annual sales volume, spanning from about $5M to nearly $30M
• Location, spanning from southern California to northern New Hampshire
• Market conditions, including population density and level of competition

Now, let’s talk about what these top performers do have in common. You might be surprised to find out that the two data points that stick out the most — what CX data shows is causing customers to be so enthusiastic about spreading that powerful word-of-mouth love — are all about bringing it back to the basics of retail excellence.

It all starts with a friendly greeting

Customers at these top-performing co-ops are proactively greeted (before checkout) an average of 66% of the time. That may not sound like a high number, but it’s 16 percentage points ahead of the typical co-op and 24 points ahead of bottom performers. At the Medford Food Co-op, the strongest in the co-op system on this metric, an impressive 78% of customers are greeted proactively.

A friendly greeting sets the tone. It affirms that staff are available, opens the door to conversation and connection — and encourages customers to ask questions rather than resorting to the dreaded head-down Google search in the aisle, leading to an Amazon product page with one-click-to-purchase. 

Proactive greetings aren’t a small thing — they are a core point of differentiation and must be treated as such — especially in an industry with a rapidly growing share of minimal-to-no-service retailers and discount chains.

Co-ops that prioritize human connection create an experience worth talking about.

The right products are in stock at the right times

At these co-ops, an average of 65% of customers are highly satisfied with product availability. That’s nine points ahead of the average and 18 points ahead of bottom performers.

Customer feedback affirms product availability is by far the top driver of satisfaction. What are top-performers on product availability satisfaction doing differently?

• They maintain day-to-day consistency, with product availability satisfaction fluctuating only five points by day of the week, as compared to an 11-point fluctuation by day at the average co-op, and a 24 point-fluctuation by day at the lowest performers.
• They follow best practices for out-of-stock prevention and service recovery, available on NCG’s Operations Preferred Practices page. Among these best practices is a simple but beloved and deeply impactful tactic: physically counting out-of-stocks daily, to track and closely manage improvement. Find a ready-to-use template at the link above.

Supplier issues are something we all face, but it’s worth noting that the top ten listed above pull from six different UNFI distribution centers, and all work with different local and regional vendors, confirming that the power is in our hands.

Recommendations = Sales Growth

Finally, drumroll please… these ten co-op locations averaged an impressive 10.1% sales growth in 2024 — nearly double the 5.4% achieved at the average co-op — and are off to an even more impressive start to 2025. That’s the invisible thread of word of mouth in action!

Word of mouth doesn’t happen by chance. It’s built through consistent, outstanding customer experiences. 

The Retail Readiness Store Walk is perhaps the strongest tool in our collective toolbelt to ensure a consistent and outstanding customer experience. It’s a thorough and conscientious tour through the retail space twice a day to ensure a store is ready to meet customer needs. Said another way, Retail Readiness Store Walks are what the day-to-day grind of earning word of mouth looks like.

Resources

To help kickstart this practice at your co-op, NCG has created a Retail Readiness checklist to use while conducting store walks, in addition to a set of instructions and a Frequently Asked Questions sheet.

Contact your co-op’s Strategic Development Manager to discuss your Customer Experience data and the implementation of NCG tools, like the Retail Readiness Store Walk. 

If your co-op isn’t already participating in the Customer Experience (CX) Program, contact Benchmarking Program Manager Alex Mytelka to get involved.