Frontline training experts eduMe identify significant disconnects in the challenges felt by the retail and hospitality industries in 2023 and the measures being taken to address them
eduMe, the leading frontline training platform for the retail and hospitality industries, today released a new report that found that 83% of leaders in these sectors are not confident in their employees’ ability to interact with customers.
The report, titled ‘Navigating Business Challenges in Retail and Hospitality: Insights and Strategies for 2024’ surveyed over 300 retail and hospitality business leaders in the United States.
The report found that employee turnover, customer experience, and sales are the top three challenges facing retail and hospitality businesses today. Leaders are also concerned about supply and demand, lack of leadership, keeping employees goal-oriented, inflation, cost of goods and labor, employees not retaining information or not caring, and employees being afraid to engage with customers.
eduMe CEO and founder Jacob Waern said: “The retail and hospitality industries are facing a number of challenges, but to see a lack of confidence around customer service and customer experience abilities so keenly felt, especially when 93% of leaders report they are spending considerable time training employees, shows the stark need for a shake up in the methods being used to provide these employees with skills and knowledge.”
The report also found the proliferation of ‘traditional’ and outdated methods being used in these frontline industries. Some 92% still make majority use of face-to-face training, or desktop based learning. All systems that require time away from customers – and delivered in a way that lowers engagement, relevance and accessibility.
Waern continued: “Businesses need to invest in better employee training systems and processes in order to ensure that their frontline teams are equipped to provide the best possible service. We work with a number of companies that have large frontline workforces and the impact they’ve seen when employees have access to information and training on their mobile device, in exciting short forms like ‘TikTok for learning’ as we’ve been described, has been immeasurable in bringing notable improvements in customer service, and importantly, business metrics like retention.”
Another challenge highlighted was the lack of accessibility. Though 24% thought better accessibility to training would improve the outcome of training initiatives, 62% do not currently embed training into HR systems like Workday and communications tools like Microsoft Teams, that they report employees are accessing daily.
Despite the challenges, leaders are committed to upskilling employees, and understand the integral part they play in providing better customer experiences, stating “employees that go above and beyond” as a bigger influence on CX, greater than even product quality or price.
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