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Where's Your Customer?

Where's Your Customer?

By: Jo Williams
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 Where's Your Customer? is a podcast for retail leaders who want to become truly customer-centric. Through honest conversations, inspiring stories, and practical ideas, we help you see your business through your customers' eyes. So you can build stronger connections, happier teams, and a brand customers can't live without.2025 Economics Marketing Marketing & Sales
Episodes
  • 6| What Department Stores Teach Us About Customer Experience

    6| What Department Stores Teach Us About Customer Experience
    Dec 21 2025
    What Department Stores Teach Us About Customer Experience Last week I found myself in Darlington with time to spare, wandering into a House of Fraser that felt tired and unloved. Sitting in their quiet cafe, mostly surrounded by pensioners, I couldn't stop thinking about how different these places used to feel when I'd visit them with my nan. Department stores used to feel magical. Someone had curated what deserved your attention. Staff knew their departments inside out. You could discover something unexpected wandering from cosmetics to homeware to fashion. There was trust, too. They stood behind what they sold. So what went wrong? And more importantly, what can the survivors teach us about creating customer experiences that actually work? The research tells a stark story. In 2003, Debenhams was loaded with £1.2 billion of debt after a private equity buyout. Refurbishment spending plummeted by 77%. Meanwhile, John Lewis invested £800 million in their stores and tripled profits. The difference? One extracted value, the other created it. What We Cover in This Episode The real reasons beloved department stores collapsed (hint: it wasn't just online competition)How private equity's asset-stripping approach destroyed Debenhams, BHS, and House of FraserWhy John Lewis invested £800 million and tripled profits whilst competitors failedSelfridges' "sensorial experience" strategy that online shopping can't replicateHarvey Nichols' "large boutique" approach that jumped them from 21st to 3rd in customer experience rankingsSix strategies every retail business needs to create experiences customers actually want The Department Store Landscape Today Some department stores haven't collapsed dramatically - they've just faded. House of Fraser shrank from 59 stores to just 14. Kendall's in Manchester, that beautiful Art Deco building locals still call by its original name, faces conversion to offices after years of closure threats. These stores still open their doors each day. Staff still turn up. Customers still browse the aisles. But everyone seems to be going through the motions. They've stopped listening to customers. They've stopped evolving. Meanwhile, the survivors show us exactly what works. Six Strategies That Create Winning Customer Experiences 1. Choose Your Lane and Own It Harvey Nichols chose the large boutique experience. Selfridges chose sensory overload. John Lewis chose brilliant fundamentals. Each made a clear choice about who they serve and how. None tried to be everything to everyone. 2. Create Destinations, Not Just Distribution Points Successful stores host workshops, exclusive events, and create genuine reasons to visit beyond buying products. They integrate hospitality - cafes, spaces to breathe, places to spend time. John Lewis is testing cookery schools with Jamie Oliver and rooftop bars. 3. Make Technology Serve Human Connection Smart mirrors, AI recommendations, and mobile payments are just expected now. But the magic happens when technology helps your team serve customers better. Harvey Nichols connects online browsers with in-store experts through video chat. 4. Develop Experience Facilitators The best stores evolve their people from checkout operators to consultants and problem solvers. They use customer insights to help staff create moments of discovery and delight. 5. Become Part of Your Community's Fabric Support local causes, create shared experiences, and strengthen social connections around your location. Stores that become integral to local life earn loyalty that pure transaction can't buy. 6. Perfect the Physical-Digital Dance Customers don't shop online or offline anymore - they do both simultaneously. Click and collect must work flawlessly. Real-time inventory needs visibility across every channel. Key Takeaways Department store failures weren't caused by online competition alone - they were caused by extracting value instead of creating itJohn Lewis, Selfridges, and Harvey Nichols each chose different strategies, but all invested in customer experienceThe stores that survived defined their unique value proposition and stuck to itTechnology should enhance human connections, not replace themCreating destinations rather than distribution points earns customer loyaltyThese lessons apply to any retail business, not just department stores Resources Mentioned Centre for Retail Research - UK retail closure and job loss statisticsJohn Lewis Partnership - £800 million store investment programme and profit growthHarvey Nichols - 360-degree service proposition and customer experience rankingsSelfridges - "sensorial experience" philosophy and store transformationHouse of Fraser decline - from 59 stores down to 14 What's Next? The magic hasn't disappeared from retail. It just needs redefining for how we live today. Think about your own customer experience strategy: When did you last examine whether what you're offering still matters to the people you serve? When did you last invest in ...
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    17 mins
  • 5| Boost your AI skills - AI Literacy for Retail Professionals

    5| Boost your AI skills - AI Literacy for Retail Professionals
    Dec 14 2025

    The most customer-focused retail leaders aren't waiting for formal AI training. They're building their own AI literacy to serve customers better, and you can too.

    If you've been seeing posts about AI transforming retail, hearing colleagues mention ChatGPT, or watching competitors get smarter with AI, you're not alone. Spending on AI technologies in retail is projected to reach $85 billion by 2032, with 78% of organisations globally now using AI in some form.

    Right now, individual professionals are learning faster than their companies are rolling out formal training programs. When your company does start deploying AI more broadly (and they will), you want to be the person who can guide those decisions thoughtfully.

    What We Cover in This Episode
    • What AI literacy really means for customer-focused retail leaders (it's not about becoming a tech expert)
    • A practical 4-week learning roadmap you can start today
    • How to experiment with AI tools safely whilst respecting company guidelines
    • Why AI literacy makes you a better customer-focused leader
    • Real examples of how retail professionals are using AI to serve customers better
    Your 4-Week AI Learning Roadmap Phase 1: Understanding AI Fundamentals (Week 1)

    Download ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini and spend 15 minutes daily having general conversations. Get comfortable with how these tools think and respond. Learn basic vocabulary like prompts, hallucinations, and context.

    Phase 2: Work-Adjacent Experiments (Week 2)

    Create hypothetical customer scenarios and test AI responses. Practice with public information only. Try different types of requests to build intuition about what these tools excel at.

    Phase 3: Real Work Challenges (Week 3)

    Pick one recurring challenge; analysing feedback, meeting prep, or drafting communications for example. Use AI as a thinking partner whilst maintaining human judgment and decision-making.

    Phase 4: Building Team Awareness (Ongoing)

    Start conversations with your team about AI experiments. Share learnings in team meetings. Model responsible experimentation for others to follow.

    Key Takeaways
    • AI literacy for retail professionals means understanding what these tools can and can't do, not becoming a tech expert
    • You can build AI skills responsibly without formal training or breaking company rules
    • The goal is to become a bridge between technology possibilities and customer needs
    • Leaders with AI literacy can spot opportunities, ask better questions, and guide change thoughtfully
    • Professional AI tools (£20/month) are worth the investment for serious skill-building
    Resources Mentioned
    • ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini AI tools
    • ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, and Gemini Advanced (paid versions)
    • Stanford AI Index Report on global AI adoption rates
    • Forbes' research on generative AI workplace usage
    What's Next?

    Start with one small experiment this week. Download an AI tool on your phone and spend 10-15 minutes daily getting familiar with it. Don't overthink it, just start building familiarity whilst keeping customers at the centre of everything you learn.

    Found this useful?

    Don't let these insights get buried in your busy week. Subscribe now and get each new episode delivered straight to your podcast app. If today's episode sparked an idea or solved a problem you've been working on, a quick review would mean the world and help fellow retail professionals find customer-focused ideas, too.

    Tired of staring at customer data that tells you nothing useful?

    I've created "10 AI Shortcuts for Understanding Your Customers" specifically for retail professionals who know their data holds answers but don't have time to become data scientists.

    Download your free guide at wheresyourcustomer.com/ai-shortcuts and start making sense of your customer insights today.

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    18 mins
  • 4| The CX Metrics That Turn Customer Experience Into Competitive Advantage

    4| The CX Metrics That Turn Customer Experience Into Competitive Advantage
    Dec 7 2025
    Walking into leadership meetings with glowing NPS scores only to face questions about declining repeat purchases? Most retail teams measure customer experience as if it were still 2015, celebrating snapshots whilst missing the complex omnichannel reality customers actually live in. In this episode, Jo shares four business-critical CX metrics that connect directly to revenue and give you predictive power. Perfect for retail professionals, CX managers, and marketers who need to prove ROI to skeptical leadership teams. What You'll Learn: • Why Customer Effort Score predicts churn better than NPS • How First Contact Resolution drives both trust and efficiency • Why Customer Lifetime Value transforms CX from cost centre to profit driver • How to build predictive dashboards that spot problems before they hit your bottom line Key Takeaways ✓ Customer Effort Score (CES) - Your friction detection system that predicts churn more accurately than traditional metrics ✓ First Contact Resolution (FCR) - Target 85%+ to build trust whilst reducing operational costs by up to 16% ✓ Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) - Show leadership how CX improvements increase CLV by 15% to transform budget conversations ✓ Customer Loyalty Index - Measure what customers actually do with their wallets, not just what they say ✓ Leading indicators matter - Watch channel switching patterns and employee sentiment to predict problems before they affect your bottom line Episode Highlights [02:00] Why traditional CX metrics fail in omnichannel retail [04:15] The four metrics that predict business success [08:36] Real story: Why dealer relationships mattered more than CSAT at Jacuzzi [11:15] Tesco case study: Using weather data to predict behaviour (40% sales increase) [13:45] The hidden metric: How employee experience predicts customer satisfaction Resources Mentioned
    • Gartner research: CX drives 66% of customer loyalty
    • Forrester findings on customer experience ROI
    • McKinsey data on retention vs acquisition costs
    • Retail X research on customer switching behaviour
    Your Weekly Challenge Pick one metric from today's episode that you're not currently tracking. Set up basic measurement (even if it's manual) and start building your early warning system. Consider tracking customer effort scores for your checkout process or monitoring channel switching patterns. Start small, but start now. In six months, you'll either have predictive insights or you'll be dealing with problems after they've already hurt your customers. Connect & Subscribe Full show notes:wheresyourcustomer.com/4 Subscribe: Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and wherever you listen to podcasts Review: If you found value in today's episode, please leave a review. It really helps Jo reach other retail professionals like you, so they can discover these strategies too.

    Behind every metric is a person trying to be understood. Go find them.
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    20 mins
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