US Customer Service and Human Resources

Introduction

In specialty jewelry retailing, the level and quality of customer service is a key competitive factor as nearly every in-store transaction involves the sales associate taking a piece of jewelry or a watch out of a display case and presenting it to the potential customer. Therefore the ability to recruit, train and retain suitably qualified sales staff is important in determining sales, profitability and the rate of net store space growth. Consequently the US division has in place comprehensive recruitment, training and incentive programs and uses employee attitude and customer satisfaction surveys. A continual priority of the US division is to improve the quality of customer experiences in its existing stores, while providing sufficient staff that are well trained and with suitable experience to run the new stores being opened.

During fiscal 2009, training focused on product knowledge and developing selling skills appropriate for the more challenging market place. Enhanced in-store technology reduced administrative burdens and improved efficiency of store, district and regional management. Benefits were seen in compliance monitoring, store feedback and the ability to identify store and divisional level opportunities to enhance training. Further improvements to repair services, an important driver of footfall and customer confidence, were also implemented. Reflecting lower sales volumes, store staff hours were reduced, and divisional head office staffing levels were decreased through attrition.

During fiscal 2010, training sales staff on product knowledge and developing selling skills appropriate for the more challenging marketplace will remain a priority. Focus will also be on increasing the efficiency of in-store execution and aligning store staff hours to sales volume, subject to minimum staffing levels. In addition, at the start of fiscal 2010 a further reduction in staffing levels at the divisional head office was implemented

Customer satisfaction

Based on customer feedback, each store is benchmarked against others in its district, region and across the division using a customer satisfaction index covering 12 criteria. The scores are reported on a monthly basis, highlighting areas of good performance and those for improvement, and are one of the key performance indicators used to manage each store.

Training

Providing knowledgeable and responsive customer service is a priority, and is regarded by management as a key point of differentiation. It is believed that highly trained sales associates, with the necessary product knowledge to communicate the quality, attributes and competitive value of merchandise, are critical to the success of the business. Store staff also receive training on supply chain issues such as conflict diamonds and the environmental impact of gold mining.

Retail sales personnel are encouraged to become certified diamontologists by graduating from a comprehensive correspondence course provided by the Diamond Council of America. Some 60% of the division’s full time sales staff who have completed their probationary period are certified diamontologists or are training to become certified. All store managers are required to be so qualified, and there are over 5,000 certified diamontologists employed by the US division. Employees often continue their professional development through completion of further courses on gemstones and timepieces.

The US division’s substantial training and incentive programs, for all levels of store staff, are designed to play an important role in recruiting, educating and retaining qualified store staff. The preferred practice is to promote managers at all levels from within the business in order to maintain continuity and familiarity with the division’s procedures.

Goals and Incentives

All store employees are set daily performance standards and commit to goals. Sales commission based on individual and store performance is paid. Sales contests and incentive programs also reward the achievement of specific targets with travel or additional cash awards. Apart from sales-based incentives, bonuses are paid to store managers depending on store contribution and to district managers for the achievement of key performance objectives.

US head office bonuses are based on the performance of the division against predetermined annual profit targets and predefined objectives. Promotion and salary decisions for principally non-management head office personnel are based on performance against service level and productivity goals; for managers they are based on annual objectives and performance against individual job requirements.

Store Managers

Each store is led by a store manager who is responsible for various store level operations including overall sales and branch level variable costs; certain personnel matters such as recruitment and training; and customer service. Administrative matters, including purchasing, merchandising, payroll, preparation of training materials, credit operations and divisional operating procedures are consolidated at divisional level. This allows the store manager to focus on those tasks that can be best executed at a store level, while enabling the business to benefit from economies of scale in administration and to help ensure consistency of execution across all the stores.

Recruitment, Retention and Promotion

Although staff recruitment is primarily the responsibility of store and district managers, field recruiters support the hiring function.  The internet provides numerous opportunities to attract and recruit high caliber talent.

Management believes that the recruitment and retention of highly-qualified and well-trained staff in the US head office is essential to supporting the stores.  A comprehensive in-house curriculum, including leadership development, diversity coursework and mentoring programs, supplement specific job training and emphasizes the importance of the working partnership between stores and the head office.

A key motivator for all staff, and in particular for store based team members, is the division’s practice of internal promotion. It is a requirement that District Managers and Vice Presidents of Regional Operations have previously been a store manager within the division.