For a retailer, it is vital to maximise every square metre of floor space. Delivering the very best customer experience makes a measurable difference to sales. SO it is only natural for a retailer to invest in their customer facing areas.
The same holds true beyond the sales floor. Providing a high quality space for employees to take a break, grab a drink or enjoy their lunch can bring a real benefit to the business. Such facilities provide valuable downtime, giving people a moment to de-stress, take a breath and prepare for the rest of their day. Clean and fresh food prep areas encourage a healthy diet. And a quality space for staff allows for social interaction, building relationships and teams that work better together.
The benefits of making a great retail experience for staff
From a bottom line perspective, providing quality staff facilities can increase sales, customer loyalty and productivity. Employees feel more valued, and the improvement in customer service increases sales. That feeling of valued also results in better staff retention; high staff turnover is an overhead which staff facilities can play a real role in reducing. This is why staff facilities are not a cost but an investment that can deliver a real return.
For one of our customers, an iconic international fashion brand, providing excellent staff facilities is an important part of their retail operation. They identified three of their locations within retail developments in the UK in need of a fresh update to their staff areas. One call to Store Maintenance later and their facilities update project was underway.
The project itself presented several significant hurdles. Chief amongst these was minimise disruption to both customers and staff at each location. As they are all open seven days, and draw large visitor numbers, it was vital to keep any disturbance to customers, staff and other retailers to the absolute minimum. There was also a strict deadline in place to complete the project – little more than 5 weeks in fact.
These factors could quickly become a headache for other contractors. But for our national network of highly skilled professionals, delivering refreshed staff facilities was achieved to standard and in just 3 weeks – well within the agreed timescales. For our customer, their staff had new rest areas featuring updated storage and tiling. All done with barely a customer even noticing as they browsed the latest collections.
If you’re interested in making a great retail experience for staff in your locations, Store Maintenance has the knowledge and resources to make it happen. So contact us today to discuss how we can make your back office and sales spaces amazing places to use.
