The Importance of Customer Service

Customer service is vital to retail. For instance, did you know that:

51% of retail staff are employed in sales and customer service roles.
18% of retail staff are employed as managers or senior officials.
The UK is ranked 13th amongst a selection of other countries in terms of “welcome” people would expect to receive, leaving much room for improvement.
57% of visitor economy businesses believe the customer service skills of their staff could be improved yet only 13% use externally developed training.
With events and attractions such as the Olympic Games coming to the UK, up to 500,000 overseas visitors and 50,000 athletes are expected to attend the 2012 Games and beyond. Estimates suggest the Games will generate around £2 billion for Britain’s international visitor economy.
Businesses based near the venues for the Canadian Winter Olympics in Vancouver found that, on average, their sales increased by 40% during the Games.
To date, nearly one million people worldwide have been trained using WorldHost™.

Retail is vital to the UK economy. Did you know that:

Retail continues to be the UK’s largest private sector employer with 2.8 million employees.
Retail makes significant economic and social contribution to every local community, region and nation.
The UK’s top 75 retailers employ two-thirds of the total workforce, while there are around 150,000 sole traders operating in the sector.
Despite the recession, the turnover of the retail sector in 2009 was £315 billion which equates to 8% of UK GVA.
There are 188,000 retail enterprises, operating in around 286,000 retail establishments across the UK.