How COVID-19 altered the customer experience of an art supply store and how I used user experience methodologies to adapt to our new normal.
Context
This case study focuses on an art supply store that has been in business in Vancouver (BC), since the late 1970’s. Its goal of catering to the local fine artists of Vancouver had remained the same since its inception.
In 2020 I led a team that redesigned the customer experience while in-store which led to a 15% growth in sales and increased customer satisfaction.
The positive outcome of this endeavor was brought about through a new, more targeted staff approach to their interactions. By giving our shoppers a personalized customer experience my team and I cultivated a culture of trust and loyalty that helped to create new business and revive business that had previously been lost to online retailers.
Problem Space
March 2020 (better known as the onset of COVID-19 in Canada) was the catalyst that began this project. Everyone was in a new world of lockdowns and fear about what would happen next.
Most retailers were closing their doors, not allowing customers to shop in efforts to protect them and store staff. The art supply store followed suit, most staff were laid off and only a group of 4 of us were kept on to run phone and online orders. I was placed in charge of this team and adapting became our new normal. We were changing our processes almost daily, trying to keep up with the number of orders we were receiving as people turned to creative outlets for their newly found free time at home.
Operations continued this way until June 2020, when more staff were hired back and we opened our doors to the public with limited capacity. To abide by provincial restrictions we would only have 5/6 people shopping in store at one time meaning lineups were a new part of our customers shopping experience. We were living in the new world which was leaving our staff and customers more on edge and anxious than ever before.
Considering all of the new limitations we were working with it was clear that our existing pre-covid systems were no longer a match for our needs.
In my role as the customer experience coordinator I knew it was for me to take the lead in our stakeholder collaboration in order to adapt to your new needs.
Ideation & Action
As in any new venture, it took several rounds of iteration to create the most effective customer experience.
Round 1
As of June 202 we could not yet increase the number of customers allowed in at one time but in order to deal with the 20+ people waiting at any one time we tried to impose a time limit to try and ensure that everyone got an equal shopping experience.
This unfortunately did not go to plan. Our expectations of who would shop with us did not align with the customers we had coming to the store.
Our professional customers knew the store as well as any staff. They could run in, grab their items and be out in under 2 minutes.
Other customers, perhaps our more amateur artists, needed time and help in their selection. These folks were the ones most affected by the time limit. They felt increased pressure to pick something and leave. It was feedback from this group of customers that really showed us that this system was not a fit for what we needed.
Round 2
Out next try was introducing a greeter position which involved one staff member checking people in while they were in our line up, giving them their estimated waiting time and seeing if they had any specific items they wanted to get that staff could perhaps grab for them meaning they could skip the line and go straight to the check out.
The greeter role worked well, it let us identify people that were there with specific items in mind and also helped us to prepare floor staff for the needs of the incoming customers. The information that the greeter got was invaluable. It allowed for better pairing between customer needs and staff expertise.
The one downside of the greeter position was the work and emotional load it put on that staff member. Some staff excelled and others shied away from the position, wanting to create the best experience possible for our customers. I tended to position the staff who enjoyed and excelled at the role to be the person stationed there.
This in turn caused those staff to feel overworked and stressed leading to more and more staff not fully engaging with the role.
I was in a dilemma, our sales had been consistently above our projections since the introduction of the greeter role. Customers really enjoyed feeling a connection with staff as soon as they joined the que. The greeter role also really decongested the line up of customers waiting to shop with us.
The con was the feelings of overwork and stress my staff were feeling while stationed there.
Easing of Restrictions
In January or 2021, I was working with my leadership team, trying to brainstorm and problem solve when finally the province of BC increased capacity limits meaning a large part of the greeter role- counting customers and allowing more in- was rendered obsolete.
My team and I were cautiously optimistic about the situation we found ourselves in regarding COVID restrictions and decided to give the greeter role a break, allowing our system flows to return to nearly the same as precovid. Things were going ok, our customers were re-acclimating to our new new normal and staff were returning to their friendly approach to their customer interactions.
Over the next couple of weeks I started to see our average dollar amount per sale start to trend downwards, this was of course very concerning.
Design Thinking Workshop
At this point, the leadership team and I got together to assess the changes, any external factors outside or our control that could be affecting our sales but most importantly what internal factors were within our control that could influence our average dollar sale.
Through our design thinking workshop, we examined the pros and cons of all of our experimenting and found that having that initial greeter person was what had helped to boost our sales so much. But this raised the question; what does that role look like in a post COVID restriction world?
Taking the pros from the role and figuring out ways to alleviate the stress for staff was our main goal, this led me to creating the new version to the greeter role.
This position stations a staff member at the front of the store so they can greet everyone as they enter and see if they need help with anything from staff. In order to help staff feel more stimulated and help really create a creative, welcoming environment for customers, the staff member at the greeter station would also be testing featured products.
Results
The engagement the greeter has with the majority of customers has turned passive shoppers into active participants with products.
The initial diagnostic conversation the greeter has with customers at this station has meant that customers and staff can get help quicker and in a more meaningful way.
I have trained all staff to ask open ended questions like;
What brings you in today?
What projects are you working on?
How can we help you today?
Which shows our customer that we really care about their needs and wants.
Proof Points
Since the introduction of the greeter role our rating on Google Reviews and Yelp have increased from 4.5 to 4.85 and 4.2 to 4.8 respectively.
Our average dollar amount has increased by 10% and our overall sales have increased by 12%.
Learning Outcomes
This experience really taught me a lot about adapting with purpose.
Iteration is key to progress, one must use trial and error in order to improve and build in creating something better.
But a key point that was really proven to me during this project is that reflection is key to an effective iteration cycle. You need to take time and examine what was successful dn what still requires work, while also bearing in mind was was successful in past iterations to incorporate anything from the past that might once again be of benefit to your system or product.