Enhancing the Customer Experience: Lenovo's Journey to Retail Excellence

The retail marketing manager role can hardly be played without anxiety. 

At the exclusive store in Lucknow, is the sales promoter greeting customers pleasantly enough? Is the specs card installed prominently as mandated at the store on Mount Road in Chennai? Is the planogram being followed at the Lokhandwala SIS? 

These questions do not have straightforward answers like, say, sales numbers. Finding these answers is a practice in itself. A practice built and refined at Channelplay over last 15 years.

Sikha Sinha, Mystery Shopping and Audits Head at Channelplay, often quotes the classic management adage, “you cannot improve, what you cannot measure”.

Embracing this philosophy, Lenovo, sought to "measure" the experience within their exclusive stores and large-format retail establishments. They desired to assess their Share of Visibility (SOV) and Share of Shelf (SOS) compared to their competitors in the multi-brand space, as well as evaluate the quality of manpower deployed at these stores.

With Lenovo's objectives in mind, Channelplay devised a program that blended the art of mystery audits with the science of declared audits. An objective questionnaire was meticulously developed after conducting numerous store visits. The focus areas were clear: manpower quality, Share of Visibility (interior and exterior), and Share of Shelf (product visibility compared to competitors).

Channelplay's quality team underwent rigorous training to ensure accurate and reliable observations. They set out on a mission to audit a staggering 1330 stores across 218 cities in India.

As the audits progressed, the findings began to reveal crucial insights. It was discovered that 15% of Lenovo stores were not adhering to proper product and accessory display standards, while 10% lacked signage hygiene. Furthermore, 25% of the stores exhibited room for improvement in terms of interior hygiene. With these actionable points, Lenovo's retail marketers had a clear roadmap to enhance their team's performance.

With these valuable insights, Lenovo managed to maintain their number one position in Share of Visibility (SOV). They also secured an impressive 41% share in the entire branded retail channel compared to their five competitors. Additionally, Lenovo's Share of Shelf (SOS) reached an impressive 35% across the entire channel, once again surpassing their rivals.

“Channelplay's expertise in auditing and comprehensive market research offers invaluable insights for our business. We have been able to maintain retail hygiene, measure in-store experience, and also make informed investment decisions to stay ahead of our competitors,” says National Manager, Retail Operations at Lenovo.

And so, through the partnership between Lenovo and Channelplay, the retail landscape became a more polished and customer-centric environment. By continuously striving for excellence and measuring what mattered most, Lenovo's commitment to enhancing the customer experience became an integral part of their journey towards retail success.