by Adrija Samantha, Brand Consultant

COVID-19 has impacted our lives in ways many of us couldn’t have imagined. From how we interact with our friends and family to working from home and so much more. For me personally, shifting from one city to another just one week before lockdown, settling down with my husband in an empty house with a packed work schedule has been a true personal test.

Be it an urgent delivery request or full filling your daily requirements, our friendly Kirana-wala, delivery man, retail employees and so on kept on assisting us with our requirements and be a reliable source for our needs and wants to set up our home during peak lockdown when almost everything was shut. During the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to speak to some retail store employees in Hyderabad about the far-reaching impact of COVID-19 and the responses they are taking to it. For some retail workers who stock shelves and check out customers, this year have felt like Deja vu. Faced with drastic shifts in demand, mandated store closures, evolving customer needs, and major health and safety concerns for their employees, many retailers are navigating unchartered waters. They stepped up beyond regular call of duty to support the customers right through the crisis of pandemic. I learnt my lessons of customer centricity from the neighbourhood Kirana stores and a sense of societal duty from the employees of a nearby Grocery store who put customers ahead of their own. Be it pandemic or any festival, they are always there to serve us.

 

This year the ‘Trust for Retailers & Retail Associates of India (TRRAIN)’ and ‘Retailers Association of India (RAI)’ have unveiled a campaign #KhulkeBoloThankYou in line with the upcoming Retail Employees Day which is celebrated on 12th December each year. With an aim to thank our retail employees for their relentless service all through the year despite the global pandemic, the thought-provoking campaign aims to spread awareness about their role and contribution in our lives. Driven with the goal of gathering ‘1 Million Thank Yous’, the movement by TRRAIN & RAI is a step to empower the frontline warriors from the retail fraternity across the globe and in India who has assisted us with our everyday needs donning the warmest smiles and a humble namaste.

 

Retail employees hear thousands of requests, demands & pleas from customers every year; and it’s amazing how they yet manage to cater to each and every one of these with amazing consistency and a ready smile.
This year, of course, they have been outstanding frontline warriors too, responding to customer needs & calls and delivering to millions of doorsteps – in the face of personal risk & an infrastructure, quite under-prepared for a pandemic of this scale. This makes this year’s celebration of Retail Employees’ day, even more, meaningful and special.

 

To the end, the overall happiness of the employees will not only increase their productivity but also ensure that they greet customers with a smile. So, we follow a moto that Happy Employee is equal to Happy Customers. For this, we take a three-pronged approach for Happy Employees-

  1. Motivating our employees by upgrading their skills through various Training.
  2. Recognizing them for their Unconventional hard work.
  3. Celebrating them every day.