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NEWS

Imagine this scenario. At a leading textile retail company, the Merchandising Manager—responsible for designing in-store presentation materials—is approached by a regional coordinator working closely with the sales teams. The goal? Simplify operations on the shop floor.

The context is straightforward: each season (and there can be up to eight per year!), a lengthy PDF document spanning dozens of pages is sent to the stores. This guide outlines in precise detail how items should be displayed—on hangers, folded on tables, or showcased on mannequins. However, this massive document requires significant effort to decipher, as store teams must navigate to find specific information for each sub-department in spaces exceeding 2,000 square meters.

The coordinator proposes a simple, effective solution: make the document interactive by adding clickable links that allow direct access to the relevant section from a floor plan on the first page. Just one extra hour of work for the Merchandising Manager, but a monumental time-saver in the stores.

The response comes swiftly and bluntly:
“It would take me an hour; I don’t have the time.”

End of discussion.

A customer orientation Hindered by Everyday Details

And yet, this one hour declined by a support department translates into hundreds of hours lost on the shop floor. Sales teams, already under pressure, are left to cope with a complex document. The result? They burn out, their energy wanes, and their focus on customer satisfaction suffers.

This situation perfectly highlights a critical issue for all organizations: customer orientation isn’t solely about grand strategies or sweeping transformations. It’s built—or broken—by the everyday details.

In this case, it’s not about ill intent. The Merchandising Manager likely has their own constraints, objectives to meet, and a rigid framework that makes every adjustment challenging. But the consequence is clear: 1 hour “saved” in the back office costs 300 hours in-store—hours that could have been spent on what truly matters: the customer relationship.

What Are You Doing to Simplify Your Team’s Day-to-Day?

If every employee, regardless of their role, adopted a customer-focused perspective, how many hours, frustrations, and wasted efforts could be avoided? This reflection isn’t limited to one sector or company. It challenges all organizations to align efforts, from headquarters to the frontlines.

In your organization, does every department truly contribute to making life easier for those directly engaging with customers? And could this “minor detail” you might overlook actually be a powerful lever for improving employee engagement and customer satisfaction?