Behind the scenes
Caring and calm: Patrick’s recipe for success in retail
by Catherine Barth
Retail: no two days are alike
24.8.2020
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Thomas Kunz
Our 11 shops reopened three months ago. Is everything back to normal? Not really. We're doing an interim review with Daniel Lehmann.
A smiling Daniel Lehmann welcomes me for the interview. And with good reason: the last few weeks have been a resounding success. 2020 will be a year of highs and lows, particularly for the retail sector. The story began with shop closures. Retail employees helped out wherever they could: in the Wohlen warehouse or in customer service, as callers, mailers or product experts. After two months of confinement, the reopening was imminent. The shops had to be adapted to the coronavirus guidelines. To this end, Plexiglas panels, floor markings and other protective equipment were organised to ensure a safe working and visiting environment. The shops reopened on 11 May. The shops have now been open for three months and the number of visitors continues to rise. Reason enough to ask Daniel Lehmann, our Mr Retail, his opinion on the current situation.
Dani, we've been back in our shops for three months now. Is everything back to normal?
Daniel Lehmann: No, I wouldn't say that. But we're happy to be back at the front and running our branches. Customers are coming back. We took our precautions, with a rather limited number of visitors and strict security measures. But now life is slowly returning to normal. In terms of sales, we're already back to pre-corona levels and slightly up on 2019.
What is the situation in the shops today with regard to protective measures?
At the beginning, we had above-average protective measures in place, which we were able to relax fairly quickly to reach the current level. We have visors, partitions between customers and employees, and we respect distance rules. In Zurich, for example, we always have 9 checkouts open instead of the usual 12. This is the only way we can respect the protection concept. Our customers appreciate this and are satisfied with our precautionary measures.
Searching for goods, returning them, reporting a problem. These are the needs of customers
What are customers' current needs? What do customers expect from you in the shop?
As expected, the number of customer service cases is above average: returns, warranty requests and complaints of all kinds. The number of express withdrawals is on the rise. Sales, advice and subscription requests are trending down. Our customers are probably used to getting information from our website. Simply put: "Search for goods, return them, report a problem. These are the needs of customers.
How do customers behave in the shop?
Exemplary. Where they have to wear masks, they wear masks. In general, they pay by card more often than usual. Sometimes they form queues themselves, where the rules of distance are also respected. People seem to have got used to it. I could almost say that our customers have become coronavirus professionals.
Different cantons, different rules for coronavirus. Are the different regulations a problem for retail?
No, not at all. We monitor the situation in the various cantons and can react flexibly to new cantonal regulations in the different shops. In Geneva and Lausanne, for example, masks must be worn in all public places. In our shops, employees and customers alike wear masks. It works very well. Geneva is a pleasant branch anyway, and this is reflected in terms of growth: from May to August, we have around 40% more tickets than last year. We're also seeing a slight trend in shops where parking spaces are available. The number of customers is increasing, which is probably linked to the preference for cars during this pandemic period. Shops in the big cities are benefiting less. In Zurich, we feel that people are teleworking. We miss our customers in the Westpark and com.West. Dear Zurich employees: we miss you! You're welcome to come and pick up your favourite products from us!
Dear Zurich employees: we miss you!
How do we react to virus-related absences in the shop?
In retail, we're pretty flexible. We work with different scenarios. It's possible that an entire team or just part of it may have to be quarantined. In such cases, we might ask employees from other branches to move to other shops. In order to be able to actively support customer service during the critical phase, we took on a few extra employees in May and June. This enabled us to use many experienced employees as mailers and callers in customer service. These colleagues will return to retail by the end of August.
What's next? What are your forecasts for the rest of the year?
We need to rearm ourselves for the Christmas business. There will be even more people in the shops, and we need to make sure we stick to the concept of protection. We also need to remain flexible. In the event of a second or third wave, we may have to close some shops and use our workforce again where we need it. We also have to follow cantonal guidelines, which can change overnight. In retail, you never know what's going to happen the next day. You never really know what's going to happen. We are currently in the process of optimising our counters so that we can use as many tills as possible. Of course, we will strictly adhere to hygiene and distance measures to ensure that customers and our staff always feel comfortable and safe. This is our top priority. We really hope that we won't have to close any shops; we'll do everything in our power to avoid it. My whole team contributes to this every day. So I have one thing to say: a big thank you to everyone!
Dani, thank you for your answers!
David Kübler
Communications Manager
david.kuebler@digitecgalaxus.chI'm a communicator and songwriter with a passion for good food, lovely people, adventure and activities involving mountains and water.
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