Retailers 'missing sales opportunities' in Gulf – survey

CUSTOMER SERVICES: New survey says retailers are 'missing sales opportunities'. (Getty Images)

A new customer services survey of the retail sector in the Gulf States reveals that one in four customers are unwilling to repeat or recommend a visit to outlets they've visited, based on the service they received.

The survey - 'Are You Being Served' - carried out by performance improvement specialists, Grass Roots, examined retail outlets in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE and measured customer satisfaction levels based on visits by mystery shoppers.

Due to the substandard service received, 23 percent of shoppers said they would not return to the outlet they visited. However, outlets were manned by polite and friendly staff, with 83 percent of staff being judged as helpful.

Despite the positive attitude real knowledge was found to be lacking, with 40 percent of staff either not recommending or guiding customers to a relevant product or service.

Moreover, 34 percent of staff did not ask any questions to establish details about what the customer needed, while 41 percent did not check that the customer had what they wanted or needed.

Some 94 percent of shoppers reported a clean and tidy environment though. Shoppers also found efficient speed of service to match the physical environment with 71 percent saying they were served within three minutes.

UAE sales staff were found to have the most positive attitude in the Gulf; 96 percent judged to be polite and 93 percent to be helpful.

However, sales staff could have been be more attentive to shoppers' needs, given 21 percent did not ask further questions to establish customer requirements, while 31 percent failed to check to see that customers were satisfied with the response/service given.

That said, 82 percent of shoppers said they would recommend the outlet to friends or family, coming second to Bahrain with 84%.

Across the sectors surveyed, each state was found to have its own particular challenges:

Gulf retailers were at their weakest when dealing with the fundamentals of the sales process i.e. product knowledge and meeting customer needs. Even though the UAE led its peers, only 75% of its sales staff guided a customer toward a suitable product.

Qatar logged the lowest scores throughout the survey, most notably for cluttered outlets and poor product knowledge, however, this did not put Qatar shoppers off, given 78% reported that they would make a future visit. But this does raise questions about the levels of service that customers in Qatar expect.

Saudi Arabia saw low scores when it came to interaction with customers; whilst this may be explained by cultural sensitivities, it is worth noting that 60% of the mystery shoppers in Saudi Arabia were men.

Kuwait, which achieved an average score in many performance sectors of the survey, ranked surprisingly low when it came to shoppers visiting the outlets again. Only 66% of Kuwaiti consumers said they would return - the lowest score in the region.

Bahrain, which also received average scores for performance throughout the report, scored higher than might be expected when it came to repeat visits - 82% were happy to return.

Mark Spicer, Operations Director, Grass Roots, commented, "With nearly one third of Gulf shoppers saying they would not return to or recommend the outlet, the implications in terms of lost sales opportunities are alarming, especially at this time when a massive increase in retail outlets has coincided with an economic downturn.

''Gulf retailers need to invest in understanding the current needs of their customers and to train and engage staff to create a smarter workforce or else they will continue losing the war for repeat custom."

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READERS' COMMENTS

Retailers 'missing sales opportunities' in Gulf – survey
Posted by hombil, Muscat, Oman on Sunday 10 May 2009 at 10:46 UAE time


Interesting survey, but surprisingly Oman was left out from the survey? Oman is fast expanding in Modern Trade segment and it would have been worthwhile to see how Oman is faring in the area of customer service, etc.

As a consumer, I feel that in Oman too the retailers need to roll up their socks to improve customer service. While most sales persons are found friendly, they lack product knowledge; do not make effort to understand the customer needs and many a times have a language barrier, which adds to the confusion/frustration amongst the customers, resulting in walking out of an outlet.

Unfortunately, most employers in the gulf do not "invest" in their employees towards training in product knowledge and customer service.

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