‘Appointments are now an essential part of retail’

Bart van den Nieuwenhof, CEO of the Hans Anders Retail Group, was a guest on the live digital broadcast of ‘Fabulous 4 Retail Meet-up’ on Wednesday 19 May, a monthly programme with discussions on various topics and retail trends that is brought to you by Sandenburg-DST and Salesforce. The panel interview saw Bart talk about the transformation Hans Anders went through and is still experiencing.

COVID-19 has permanently changed the way consumers buy and shop. Hans Anders has successfully anticipated and addressed this over the last year by firmly committing to process optimisation, such as introducing in-store appointments that have created a frictionless shopping experience.

Bart van den Nieuwenhof: ‘Hans Anders is currently going through a transformation. For years, our value-for-money positioning has made us into a real volume player. 1 in 3 glasses sold in the Netherlands are from Hans Anders. Long queues in our shops were commonplace until last year. The biggest customer pet hate was queueing and not knowing how long the wait would be. We felt some changes were possible. That is why we focused our efforts on introducing appointments, making everything as easy as possible for our customers and creating a frictionless shopping experience. We now let all our customers know: make an appointment, either online or via our customer contact centre, so at least you can be certain when it’s your turn.’

Appointments are successful in corona times. ‘The focus on appointments aligned seamlessly with our protocols on health and safety in the shops. There was a sevenfold increase in appointments during lockdown periods,’ says Bart. According to Bart, appointments in retail are here to stay even after COVID-19: ‘Why wait for an hour when you can easily arrange to be seen right away?’ This is an effective example of convenience retail in a physical shop environment. We create a better match between customer demand and human resources, which in turn creates a perfect balance between service optimisation and enhanced efficiency.’

Our specialists are our heroes

According to Bart, efficiency should never be at the expense of the added value of service and expertise. "We smartly plan our capacity of employees on the shop floor around the demands of our customers. Without this being at the expense of the absolute added value that our people, all well-trained specialists, offer our customers. I do not see, yet, a world in which the customer helps himself without the help of our employees. Our people are the heroes of Hans Anders. They make the real difference for the customer.'

By anticipating the wishes of our customers and moving along in a world where you want to be helped well, safely and expertly, we increase the value of the purchase experience. And the price remains low! That's typical Hans Anders.'

Watch the seminar here (dutch).