Recent economic forecasts indicate slower growth than anticipated for the remainder of 2010, but not in all sectors or for all companies. Companies who have focused on customer satisfaction have shown higher sales and investment returns. As the competitive retail marketplace enters the fourth quarter and the critical holiday shopping season, it will be crucial for sales associates to drive increased sales by providing positive customer experiences. Today PreVisor, the global leader in employment assessments and talent measurement solutions that connect employment decisions to business results, introduced a new Retail Sales and Service solution to identify sales associates who are engaged, knowledgeable, and responsive to customer needs.
In retail sales, success has been linked to the customer experience, said Caroline Paxman, Chief Customer Officer of PreVisor. “We know that happy customers spend more, evangelize the brand and repeat their business. Finding sales associates who are more likely to deliver a positive customer experience impacts the top and bottom line of every business in a very meaningful way.”
Findings reported by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) showed that by the end of 2009 those stocks that did well in the ACSI increased 75% from the previous year, while companies with declining ACSI scores rose only 22% over the same period, which was less than the 26% gain of the S&P 500. These numbers show the measurable impact that more satisfied customers can have.
Ms. Paxman explained, “To find the right people to deliver a customer ‘wow’ experience begins with engaging candidates during the application process. Our Retail Sales and Service Effectiveness simulation is designed to measure a candidate’s ability to sell and service customers by presenting multiple 3D computer-animated scenarios that show representative service interactions between customers and the ‘virtual’ candidate. It is engaging hi-tech combined with assessment science which has been shown to yield accurate and highly predictive results.”
“In fact, a luxury goods retailer found that high scoring candidates using PreVisor’s Retail Sales and Service solution sold 26% more per month than those with lower scores. These results can quickly have a very dramatic impact when you consider the total number of associates hired across all of a retailer’s locations,” added Ms. Paxman.
The Retail Sales and Service solution also includes the award-winning Global Personality Inventory® - Adaptive (GPI-Adaptive) as a component. This personality assessment incorporates computer adaptive technology (CAT) that automatically adjusts to the candidate’s level of a particular personality trait by asking questions based on the candidate’s previous responses. The result is a more accurate, more secure, and often shorter assessment that helps predict a candidate’s ability to perform well in the job.
For more information on the PreVisor Retail Sales and Service solution, please contact an account representative at 800-367-2509.
