Customers know when your staff aren’t happy
In retail, it is of course hugely important to make sure that your customers are likely to want to return to your store again and again – and hopefully, even recommend the outlet to their friends and family.
There are many things that you need to try and be aware of and in charge of if you are going to keep that going strong, and one of the major things is the morale and happiness of your employees. Customers know instinctively and immediately if the employees in a retail store are not happy, and it immediately makes for a much less enjoyable experience for everyone. Therefore, keeping your employees happy is likely to be particularly important, and something which you should look into as best as you can.
In this article, we will discuss some of the things that you need to be aware of if you want your employees to enjoy their work as well as possible.
Pay & benefits
Clearly, you are always going to have to provide the right kind of pay and benefits for your employees, as if you don’t do that you will find that it results in staff who are nowhere near as happy.
If you are paying them well, however, and offering much in the way of benefits, then you will find that you can much more effectively expect them to enjoy their work and to work hard while they are there. This is clearly hugely important, and it is also important for another reason. Namely, that the better you pay your staff, the happier they are in their roles, which in turn means that the experience for the customer is considerably improved as well.
By giving your employees generous pay, you are also improving the experience for the customers, and thereby ensuring that you can expect them to come back for more.
Safety & security
As with any kind of workplace setting, there is the need to make sure that you are looking after your employees as well as possible. This is something that you need to think about at all times, and you will probably find that there are many regulations that you need to work in line with as well.
The safer and more secure you can make the workplace, the happier and more fulfilled the staff will be, so this is definitely worth bearing in mind as best as you can. As long as you manage to keep them safe, they will be more likely to be happy and the customer will certainly pick up on that.
It is helpful in particular to think about the specific safety issues you are likely to come across in retail settings. The most common safety problem in retail is slips, trips and falls, so you need to think about providing equipment for any of your staff who are going to be working at heights.
You will find that mobile steps promote safety when working at heights and are a strong addition to your safety equipment and that you will benefit from training your staff how to work at heights too. Similarly, ensuring that they know what to do if there is a spillage – another common retail issue – will mean that they can remain much safer at all times. The safer your employees are, the better.
Better atmosphere
One of the biggest concerns is also going to be the nature of the atmosphere in the store that you are operating. The more that you can provide a decent atmosphere, the more likely it is that you will be able to keep your employees happy, and that will soon translate over to the experience that your customers have as well.
There are many ways to improve a bad atmosphere, whether that is by simply engaging with the other people there in a happier way yourself, or ensuring that you are focused on keeping the decor as enjoyable as possible. However you do it, it is a good idea to make sure that you are focused on this, as it will invariably lead to happier staff and better business on the whole. You will also find that it enables you to feel happier and enjoy your job all the more as well, which is certainly something you might be glad for.
As you can see, the link between employee happiness and customer satisfaction is strong and important. The more that you look after one, the more that the other will benefit, so make sure that you are focusing on this as best as you can.