Retailer at a Turning Point
The Challenge:
A Fortune 50 retailer sought a plan to improve performance. Over the prior five years, stock price had stagnated as sales growth slowed, lagging behind the client’s biggest competitor. Customer service and store environment, formerly industry-leading, had slipped, contributing to market share loss.
The Results:
Client shifted focus to reinvest in store environment, customer service, employee morale and supply chain.
- Invested over $2 billion over the course of a year in their 2,000 stores, doubling spending on maintenance and increasing store staffing levels, even at the expense of short-term results. Brought in more store associates with specialized skills.
- Streamlined store manager metrics from 35 to 8 measures to allow greater focus on improving service, morale and inventory management.
- Implemented customer service incentives for their 350,000 associates. Voice of the Customer survey scores increased on all metrics and associate attrition declined.
- Committed to multi-year investment in the supply chain and inventory management.
- Divested non-core business to refocus on retail.
- Client pulled ahead and stayed ahead of competition on “comparable store sales growth” and stock price growth.
Setili & Associates brought new insight … They were critical in helping us define five key strategic priorities to become more successful long term. We started seeing an impact on the stores right away. – Brandon Hayes, Manager, Strategic Bus. Development
How We Did It:
Worked with internal team to identify and evaluate strategic options, assessing the investment required and likely impact on short-term and long-term results.
- Identified top customer satisfaction drivers via market research.
- Assessed competitor capabilities and strategy.
- Benchmarked vs. other retailers to identify strategic options and to identify elements of successful turnarounds.
- Assessed store performance metrics and interviewed store managers to identify highest-impact actions.
- Prioritized store maintenance and renovation needs
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