Smriti Irani-Fabindia row: Retail industry needs to wake up

Following the controversy over the Fabindia store in Goa, where Union Minister Smriti Irani noticed a CCTV camera pointing to the trial room, while questions have been asked rightly about misuse or perils of CCTV in the age of surveillance, another question that the controversy throws up is the quality of service available in the retail sector.

It is not uncommon to walk into one of the main malls in the capital housing top national and international high street and bridge brands - from Zara to M&S, Levi's, Mango and Fabindia, Wills Lifestyle and Guess, Diesel and Anokhi - and be harangued by "helpful" salespeople who follow you around from entry to exit repeating "can I help you?", often taking turns doing this. When you actually ask one of them, say, "where do you keep the dresses?" there is often the chance that the helpful salesperson doesn't know, and worse, points you in the wrong direction.

In the service industry where people interaction is such an important part of the job, there is a thin line between assistance and privacy. Hotels in India have worked this out rather well, with staff forming relationships with regular customers, and working out the art of intelligent intervention during a guest's stay, while at the same time maintaining a discreet distance that doesn't impinge on privacy.

While certainly security is a concern in either industry - F&B or retail - keeping a discreet eye on the property and making guests feel uncomfortable and feel like they are under surveillance is a huge difference that grooming and etiquette training helps overcome and smoothen, adding up to professionalism.

Such grooming often can make the difference between a guest coming back for another experience, and forming overall impressions about the hotel or store in consistency with the brand values and hospitality it wants to project.

But while the hotel industry has matured over the years, part of the problem is the sudden mushrooming of the retail sector and mall culture in urban india which happened simultaneously as foreign brands made their way into the country in the last ten years. The service sector accordingly is relatively young, and "while often talked about at conferences, the focus on sales people has been minimal," says Harmeet Bajaj, fashion consultant and academic and former faculty of NIFT.

While there are ample people around to "help" when you enter a store, the level of training and knowledge of the product is found lacking, than if you were to enter a store of the same or similar label elsewhere in the world. Part of this is to do with industry problems - "in the F&B industry, India has its own training schools where they take a certain type of person in and then groom them, and it is a career path, while in the retail industry, people are hired cheap at Rs 10,000 to 15,000 per month and there is little or no future," says Bajaj.

Kalyani Chawla, fashionista about town and VP, marketing and communications at Christian Dior India, says that while her shopping experience has not been terrible anywhere, she does feel Indian stores are likely to be more clueless about the merchandise on offer. "At the Champs Élysées at Paris, though they will know the merchandise, they do not speak English, which is problematic at such a touristy location," she says pointing out that while there may be other problems elsewhere, the "lack of training" is more a problem in Indian stores, or stores in india. She points out that typically, while a store abroad will have a staff of five, the same store in india will have a staff of 15, though much less informed."

The employment of more staff could be due to cheaper man power available, but it could also be because of higher walk ins - people who browse without ending up buying anything. According to a chart on indiaretailing.com (Industry sources, the associated chambers of commerce and industry of india) india's retail evolution, relatively new compared to other emerging ASEAN nations, has an organised retail penetration (2013) of 7 percent, while China is at 25 percent and Thailand at 45 per cent. 

The retail market is expected to double to $ 1 trillion by 2020 from $600 billion in 2015, while modern trade is expected to grow three times from $ 180 billion in 2020 from $ 60 billion in 2015, according to the report "Retail 2020" published in February this year. 

Whether the CCTV camera in the Fabindia store in Goa that Smriti Irani visited was turned towards the trial room by accident of or by mischief is still a matter under investigation, but retail industry experts maintain that either could be the case and such lapses, in whichever case, only prove that professionalism is wanting in the sector.

Bajaj agrees that "there seems to be an over emphasis on security" in the training given to store staff, while other key areas of training - grooming (how you present yourself), etiquette (how to engage with customers) and product knowledge (familiarity with brand trends, fashion skills and the items in the store) - are not of the desired level.

It makes the difference between someone who follows you around like a hawk since you enter a store till you exit it, or feeling the eyes of the entire store from the doormen to the sales staff on your back, to someone who, with the right training, will be taught to understand "movement" (you do not ask someone as soon as they enter what they want, you give them a moment to take in the environment) and intelligent intervention (if they find that the customer is looking only at white items or only pants, they can approach him/her and ask "can I help you with something else in white?") which the customer may be grateful for and may keep in mind while making an overall judgment about their shopping experience in that store.

Perhaps the Fabindia controversy - whatever the outcome of the case - will force the retail industry to pay more attention to its neglected service skills.