While merchants and their customers believe that superior customer service is extremely important, the two differ on the most important customer service elements, according to a new national survey conducted by the NRF Foundation, an arm of the National Retail Federation, and the American Express Co. According to the survey, all merchants believe that customer service is extremely important, and 55% believe they have become more committed to customer service. However, stores also acknowledge that their customers do not feel that merchant commitment has changed.
When asked what customers thought was important, many merchants overestimated the value of certain service elements. For example, while 61% of merchants thought customers would say it was extremely important for store employees to be well educated about the merchandise, only 52% of customers cited that factor as being very important. Additionally, 44% of merchants thought their customers would find it extremely important that employees get to know customers, while only 25% of customers saw it as extremely valuable. More than a third of merchants (35%) thought their customers would place a high importance on the quality of merchandise offered, though only one in five consumers felt quality was extremely important.
The result of these discrepancies in perception is that retailers put extra emphasis on customer service elements that are not as important to shoppers while underemphasizing others that are very important to their customers. Nearly three out of four customers (71%) are extremely concerned with accurate item prices, though only 58% of retailers thought accurate pricing was critically important to customers. While three out of four shoppers (73%) felt that it was extremely important that retailers not share information with other companies, only 59% of retailers saw this as important to shoppers. And while only 31% of retailers felt it was extremely important to customers that their stores were staffed with an adequate number of employees, 47% of customers thought that aspect was extremely important.
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