The Personal Shopping Day Program (PSDP) was strategically designed to achieve the following objectives:

• Increase employees’ product knowledge,
• Encourage and foster teamwork and,
• Ensure associates were providing exemplary customer service.

The PSDP was designed to be educational in nature and upon completion of the program, sales associates morphed into highly trained, Personal Shopping Consultants. Associates who joined the program were rewarded with various incentives, additional discounts, lunch or dinners out, movie tickets and above all, promotional opportunities and salary increases wherever possible.

The program called for associates to learn about every single product available to customers in their department so that most (if not all) customer questions and concerns could be addressed on the spot.

Ensuring knowledge about every single product in any given department can be a very daunting task therefore an element of fun (the Fun Factor) is built into every PSDP process. For example, in the Fashion departments, fashion shows that were arranged, hosted, and executed by the associates themselves start taking place on the sales floor every week. The sales associates chose some of their favorite pieces from collections in their own departments became well-versed on every piece selected and then they would model the outfit on stage and tell an American Idol-style judging panel the various features of their outfit and why customers should consider adding it to their wardrobe. 

To maximize on this aspect of the program in terms of localization, buyers from head office were invited to participate in the judging panel, as well as one of the store’s regular customers selected by way of an in-store contest, which also served as indirect marketing for the fashion show.  Speaking of marketing, because these fashion shows took place directly on the sales floor, customers were drawn into the event by the music and loudspeakers and sales were almost always higher on those days as a result. 

Another exciting byproduct of the fashion shows was that other associates attended to cheer on their peers, which impacted teamwork in the store immensely. Lastly, because of the widespread interest in the PSDP, either by those associates actually modeling as well as by those watching, product knowledge grew among the entire team making for a stronger and more confident team overall.

Again, fun was a very important part of the fashion shows and played a particularly important role in encouraging the store’s more shy associates.  In compensation for their excellent work, all the models/associates received up to 50% off the outfit they wore on stage, and the staff person who won the entire contest received their entire outfit for free in addition to her entire team receiving free movie tickets.

In the weeks these shows were taking place, sales associates were asked random questions about the products in their departments by their supervisors once a week.  Those who correctly answered more than 60% of those questions were given shopping consultant status and business cards with their new title was provided to distribute to customers.

These customers then set up appointments with the shopping consultant for up to two hours of one-on-one, uninterrupted sales support. This personalized shopping support absolutely influenced the bottom lines of the store the program was piloted in.  Some of the Hbc stores (like the Bay at Queen Street, Toronto, the Hbc’s most lucrative store overall) are as large as 1,000,000 square feet and thus shopping at such an enormous location can be challenging for some customers, especially the elderly.  Therefore having well-trained consultants not only makes the customer’s shopping experience much easier, but it also gives the consultant the opportunity to up-sell.  This program was also particularly popular at gift-giving holidays (ie. Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s and Father’s Day, et cetera) where customers had several gifts to purchase and time was of the essence.

The Personal Shopping Day Program took employee development and customer service level in retail to new heights.  It also fostered unprecedented collaboration and productivity among employees, increased bottom lines, and reduced returns and employee turnover at the Bay Scarborough Town Centre, where this pilot project took place.