Question

CASE PROBLEM: Motivating the Store Associates at Customer Haven Customer Haven is a chain of 734 discount department stores located in 28 states as well as three Canadian provinces. CEO Beth frequently thinks about how store managers and department supervisors can motivate store associates to provide a better experience for customers. She recognizes that their customer base does not expect the same level of service they might receive at traditional department stores or at boutiques. Nevertheless, she sees room for improvement in the motivation of store associates to provide a better experience for customers. At a recent meeting of her top-management team, Beth said, “As I tour a sampling of our stores, I see a lot of room for improvement in how we deal with customers directly and indirectly. I see a lot of merchandise thrown on the floor by customers and just left there by our associates. I see our associates walking around the store, carrying out their chores, who seem too busy to ever look at a customer. I hardly ever see a store associate look at a customer who seems confused and say to that customer, ‘How can I help you?'” Glenn, the director of merchandising, said to Beth, “What are you proposing Customer Haven do to motivate our store associates to a higher level of customer service?” Beth responded, “Let's get modern. We will engage our workers by talking about advancement opportunities and how they can grow professionally. We will throw the occasional store party or picnic. As hundreds of studies on management and workplace

Answer 1

1.

I agree with Ashley on this matter. Most of the workers are earning minimum wage and are struggling to meet their basic needs. In this situation, providing career counseling may not be the most appropriate way to motivate them. We need to follow Maslow’s Hierarchy in this instance and make sure that we are able to provide them incentives that are tied with the customer support or customer satisfaction. Thus, to answer this question, the store management must focus on providing the basic needs before doing any other program to motivate the employees.

2.

I think every store faces challenges with their store employees when it comes to motivation. One of the key reasons for this is that in stores such as Wal-Mart, K-mart, or Target the store employees are not often tied with an incentive scheme for the sales or customer service quality score. As a result, the employees often have very low motivation to help customers or to make a sale. This is why I think they bigger departmental stores face similar problem as well.

3.

At the current situation, we have established that the employees at the store would first need to meet their basic needs. In such instance the best approach is to collect customer feedback on employees who assisted them. If an employee has done well in a given month, he/she can be provided cash rewards.