New Survey Suggests Post-Covid Customers Unhappy with In-Store Experiences

There’s been a lot of talk lately in marketing circles about Customer Experience (CX). It’s no coincidence that this field, which studies consumer behavior and responses throughout the customer journey, is the new retail buzzword. A new survey by Theatro finds that consumers enjoy their in-store shopping experience less now than they did before Covid, INSTORE Magazine reports.

What’s behind this new wave of customer dissatisfaction? The labor shortage has a lot to do with it. 64% reported being unhappy with staff training and 60% complained about understaffed stores. With customers having become acclimated to fast and easy shopping online, it’s going to take a lot more to give them a satisfying in-store experience than it did before the pandemic.

But shopping in-person has a number of benefits over shopping online, including getting to see or try out the product before buying, leaving the store with a product rather than waiting days to weeks to receive it, and getting advice from an expert salesperson. While there’s not much retailers can do about the tight job market, they could put more effort into training salespeople to be more knowledgeable and patient with customers.