For retailers, the first part of 2025 has proven to be anything but predictable. As consumer demands shift, and markets tighten, retailers need to find new ways to ensure their slim margins prioritize profits as they navigate the remainder of the year.
The competition for customers will be fierce — but fortunately, retailers can improve the experience of this most critical factor by focusing within, which is the one thing that is in their control.
It won't be price, product quality, or brand reputation that differentiates successful companies from their less customer-focused counterparts. It will be the customer experience that sets them apart.
According to one PwC customer survey, 73% of respondents indicated CX was more important than advertising, price, and product quality when making a purchase decision. Forty-three percent of shoppers would pay more for greater convenience, while 42% would pay more to make purchases in a friendly, welcoming environment.
Conversely, one analysis found that 61% of customers will switch brands after a bad experience, making engaging and connecting with customers from the first interaction more important than ever.
That's why retailer success in 2025 doesn't have to depend solely on expensive marketing campaigns or the latest sales techniques. It's predicated on a back-to-basics approach to customer service that seeks to elevate CX in every interaction.
In other words, retailers can become more competitive long term by improving soft skills, the attributes and interpersonal abilities that enhance customer interactions, foster loyalty and create a more personalized, positive shopping experience.
Here's how.
No. 1: Control what's controllable
Some elements of CX are technological and experiential. For example, if a website or an app mistakes an item's availability, that's a CX failure but not necessarily one that in-store personnel can improve.
However, there are countless ways retailers can elevate CX by doubling down on soft skills to ensure every customer touchpoint produces a positive experience.
Specifically, retailers can enhance CX by ensuring their customers are seen, heard, and appreciated.
It's a high-stakes priority with little room for error. In a retail environment, employees have seconds to make a good first impression before shoppers clock a negative customer experience.
Therefore, soft skills in the retail sector include:
- Giving customers immediate attention.
- Making eye contact and smiling.
- Offering a warm greeting or salutation.
- Showing the customer they have your undivided attention.
- Demonstrating empathy.
Plenty can go wrong with unpredictable factors complicating every day operations. Supply chains could snarl, tariffs could impact the business, consumer spending could tighten, or the hot new product may not deliver on its promises. Retailers can't control these dynamics, but they can guarantee that every person who enters their store has an incredible experience.
No. 2: Teach, train, retrain soft skills
People attain soft skills in many ways. For some, soft skills are a product of their environment and personality. Their parents, caregivers and influencers intentionally or inadvertently modeled soft skills, passing them down to another generation. Others learn these skills from teaching and training.
Regardless of where people first learned these abilities, retailers need to focus training on the "how" with practice sessions and reinforcement as a regular part of their employee development regiments.
Start by modeling soft skills. Leaders can't just talk about soft skills. They need to embody these traits personally, actively modeling them in interactions with customers, team members, and other leaders consistently.
At the same time, strategic training sessions should be developed and implemented to present soft skills as an in-progress ability that everyone can develop and refine.
For new employees or seasonal hires, make this a part of your onboarding process.
Of course, soft skills are a journey, not a destination. All employees require regular input to refine and enhance their customer-focused soft skills. What's meaningful is to offer positive reinforcement and incentives to continuously rehearse and improve these critical priorities.
Therefore, decision-makers should prioritize a trifecta of employee development including:
- Positive reinforcement: Tell people when they excel at demonstrating essential soft skills.
- Constructive feedback: Offer solutions for soft skills deficiencies.
- Academic exercises: provide e-learning options, on-site sessions, and other educational opportunities that refresh soft skills training and reinforce the priority throughout the organization.
Many people feel self-conscious about their soft skills development, believing they "don't have what it takes" to excel in this area. Training people in these core competencies raises their confidence, making them more pleasant and welcoming.
No. 3: Account for generational differences by remaining agile
Today's retail environment has a diverse workforce of five generations of professionals.
Curating and cultivating compelling CX is both a challenge and an opportunity.
Therefore, retailers must remain agile, recognize diverse expectations, understand communication preferences, and tailor training programs appropriately.
To remain agile, gather and act on customer feedback across different age groups to better understand their experiences and preferences. Use this feedback to refine your customer service strategies and ensure they are inclusive and effective.
Since generational preferences change over time, retailers should stay informed about evolving trends to ensure their teams remain agile and responsive to shifting customer needs.
CX for better bottom line results
By prioritizing customer experience through enhanced soft skills, retailers can set themselves apart.
Focusing on controllable factors like warm greetings and empathetic interactions, consistently training staff across generations, and remaining agile in response to diverse customer needs can make a difference, allowing retailers to maximize their share of consumer spending in the future.