Market research conducted by mystery shopping company Service Integrity has revealed clothing retailers have worse customer service skills than any other industry.
The report asked mystery shoppers to rate 73,774 shops and collated 2,634,275 rows of data throughout 2011. Results found that while the specialty retailer sector recorded the best customer service with an average industry score of 86 per cent, clothing retailers scored the lowest of all industries, with a 70 per cent average.
In particular, the study found that while businesses are excelling in hard measurements, such as visual merchandising and tidiness, soft skills, such as understanding customer needs needed work.
In the retail clothing sector, 'closing the sale' proved to be one of the worst performing areas, with the average score standing at just 60.6 percent.
Across all industries, the lowest scoring categories were negotiation, product demonstration, the sales process, cross-selling and follow up.
Service Integrity director Steven Di Pietro said the research results suggest retailers are spending too much time on appearances and not enough time on improving overall customer service in stores.
“In light of the strong growth in online shopping and the subsequent decline in retail sales, businesses should be prioritising customer service, which would in-turn increase revenue,”he said.
“Our research proves businesses across the board are investing too much time in cleaning stores and ensuring staff are well-presented, when really they should be directing their efforts at improving the sales process, or perfecting product knowledge.”