CHALLENGE: The challenge is to reduce the pain points of customers in a saree retail store particularly  in context to customer in-store experience and after sales experience.  Many customers have to wait  for a long time and inferior sales service were continuously leading to decrease in sales.

SELECTION: I have along with my workforce, few key customers, cold leads and family members  brainstormed on the entire journey of a consumer right from thinking about buying a saree to the end  point of finally wearing the newly bought one. Journey mapping of the consumer will help to  determine the key factors that play a highly influential role in making a purchase and those which  cause inconvenience and confusion in the buying decision.

APPLICATION: While brainstorming on the customer journey and mind mapping the diverse customer  cohorts, I went ahead with rapid experimentation process based on the insights gathered and idea  generated. The male sales team was changed to women sales team and these were trained in engaging  with the customers right from the moment of entering the store. Understanding their requirements  and based on the same giving suggestions. Focusing on the reactions of the customer on each item  displayed and in the different type it is displayed and accordingly modifying the sales approach in real  time.

INSIGHT: Rapidly testing each and every customers response to the new female staff and the active  engagement and vivid display of items with different sales approaches made it clear that women  customers feel more comfortable in talking with another women rather than a male salesperson.  When comfortability of the customer is established, it leads to gaining her confidence and trust to  provide the best saree for her. A saree which resonates with her personality. Women customers were  also open to make small talks in between which helped to reduce the idle time of customers.

APPROACH: The team did many experiments with different customers for a 3-week period through  changing the workforce from male to female and training them to engage with customers actively and  continuously revamping their sales approach based on the reactions of customers. This led to a  significant 20% increase in sales on in the 3 week experimentation phase. We immediately  implemented the same and realized  increase in customer lifetime value, ultimately generating more  revenue.

