{"id":30280,"date":"2019-03-11T08:00:20","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T15:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/industry\/blog\/?p=30280"},"modified":"2023-05-31T16:44:18","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T23:44:18","slug":"building-a-culture-of-employee-empowerment-in-retail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/industry\/blog\/retail\/2019\/03\/11\/building-a-culture-of-employee-empowerment-in-retail\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a culture of employee empowerment in retail"},"content":{"rendered":"

[msce_cta layout=”image_center” align=”center” linktype=”blue” imageurl=”https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/industry\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Industry-Blog-AB-Test-Images_Retail_R3-B.png” linkurl=”http:\/\/download.microsoft.com\/download\/B\/7\/1\/B712F629-E606-4997-8B98-98F00B9CB29D\/Transforming_Customer_Service_Through_Empowered_Employees.pdf?wt.mc_id=AID723257_QSG_SCL_327290″ linkscreenreadertext=”Download the e-book now” linktext=”Download the e-book now” imageid=”30679″ ][\/msce_cta]<\/p>\n

Firstline employees are central to the retail customer experience, so establishing a culture of employee empowerment is transformative to how customers engage with your retail brand.<\/p>\n

When the retail firstline isn\u2019t empowered with the tools, information, and insights they need, customers and employees become frustrated together and resort to using platforms and resources beyond the brand’s control. This leads to employees seeking ad hoc information and using suboptimal systems and consumer-grade apps on their personal devices, and customers expanding their search to sources that may lead them to competitors.<\/p>\n

In addition, firstline employees are spread across locations with variable exposure to corporate messages, and they don\u2019t always connect with the company\u2019s culture and goals. Technology can help magnify and measure the impact of efforts to remedy this issue, providing both an amplifier and a microphone\u2014an amplifier to share messages, inspiration, training, and insights, and a microphone to measure employee engagement, sentiment, knowledge, and capability.<\/p>\n

An empowered firstline will contribute in more meaningful ways to the ideal of a frictionless customer experience\u2014one that deepens the customer\u2013employee relationship, unlocking new value.\u00a0 A few examples include:<\/p>\n