What Is Wrong With Customer Experience in the Indian Retail Industry?

There is no doubt that the growth of e-commerce has affected the traditional brick-and-mortar retail industry. Retailers in India haven't begun closing physical stores at the scale seen in the US, but there is no denying that a significant chunk of retail business has moved online. And it is not just better discounts that are attracting customers to e-commerce. Increasingly, Indian customers are shopping online without even comparing prices — because of the convenience and the customer experience.

Yet it is surprising to see how little importance is paid to customer experience by Indian offline retailers. Most retailers, with the exception of a few large chains, get just an "Okay" ranking for customer experience. At smaller retail chains and traditional retailers, the experience is sometimes worse. On the whole, retailers in India have either improved customer experience only marginally or have failed to do so entirely.

Poorly Designed CRM and Loyalty Schemes

Most retailers have some form of membership or loyalty scheme where points are added according to purchase. Some send updates to members by email or message. However, very few use this platform to understand what the customer is actually interested in and proactively give them reasons to buy. There is no attempt to use available data to better understand and serve the customer. There is no distinction between regular, high-ticket customers and others. This phenomenon is strangely widespread — from supermarkets to fashion to high-end luxury retail.

An Unclear Understanding of Omni-Channel Retailing

Many Indian retailers have e-commerce-enabled websites, but these websites operate independently of their offline stores. There is no synergy between the online and offline businesses — they end up competing with each other. Omni-channel retailing is about fusing the offline and online experience to create seamless shopping. Without this, you are fighting yourself.

Multinational Brand, Local Customer Experience

Liberalisation brought a number of well-known international brands into India, mostly as franchises. While the products available match those in other countries, in most cases the customer experience does not. Franchisees lay emphasis on building the brand and improving sales, and improving customer experience can take a back seat. Additionally, shopping behaviour and cultural expectations in India differ — and policies made elsewhere cannot always be directly transplanted here.

Employee Turnover

Offering a good customer experience critically hinges on frontline salespersons. Proper recruitment and training is crucial. Yet increasing opportunities elsewhere, poor pay, and poor working conditions have increased labour turnover in Indian retail. This directly affects the quality of customer service.

Culture

Last but not the least, there is an attitude amongst some customers in India to look down on those who serve them. Salespersons cannot always be blamed if they struggle to provide great service to customers who treat them poorly. Managements need to handle such situations with both firmness on customer relations and compassion for employees.