A new study from Square Root has revealed a significant lack of alignment between retail brands and store leadership.
The 2018 State of the Store report polled more than 1,300store and district managers in the U.S. and Canada across several retail categories, including apparel and footwear, electronics, luxury, sporting goods, home improvement, outlet, health and beauty, and more. Respondents reports an average Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) of -20%, revealing a lack of corporate alignment, miscommunication and outdated tools and technologies among store leadership.
Alignment was the key challenge cited by respondents. In fact, unhappy managers reported they are 150% less likely to feel aligned with their corporate team. One in five said they are more likely to get little feedback from managers and 21% said they struggle to understand key priorities.
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“Job dissatisfaction among retail field and store managers is alarmingly high,” said Chris Taylor, CEO of Square Root in a statement. “These folks are the front lines for both the customer experience and store execution, and the brand suffers when they feel unsupported and ill-equipped on the job. But with the right tools and actionable data, brands can empower their store leaders to execute the most impactful changes for their stores — improving customer experience and ensuring long-term success.”
Additional key takeaways include:
- One-third of unhappy store managers report they don’t have the right information available to fulfill in-store customer requests;
- 84% of district and store managers feel they have a direct impact when it comes to improving their store’s or territory’s performance;
- 82% of store managers agree that having more time on the floor to focus on the customer experience would positively impact their store’s performance; and
- 72% of store managers said they’re on the same page as the district manager, but more than 50% of DMs don’t feel the same way.
