The 100,000 appointment mark has been reached. And we are certainly proud of that. We do not let this milestone pass by lightly, so we look back on a year and a half of working with our appointment system with our CEO Koen Wilssens.
Appointment number 100,000!
Making an appointment for running shoes remains something uncommon. And yet we decided to introduce an appointment system in our stores a year and a half ago. Meanwhile, this service has been used more than 100,000 times.
So we may say that the system has proven itself. The huge peak and off-peak moments we used to have are gone. We asked CEO Koen Wilssens about the idea behind this distinct operation. He takes stock and is already thinking ahead.
“As a consultant, I experienced that at least twenty customers were already at the door ten minutes before opening. In order to help everyone as quickly as possible, we must gave advice to two or three customers at the same time. In terms of service, that’s far from ideal.”
“Actually, we had been talking about an appointment system for five years, but it wasn’t until the fall of 2019 that the idea went into development. It was necessary to manage peak and off-peak times so that our customers do not have to wait two hours for advice on busy days. As an advisor, I have experienced days where there were three of us and at least 20 customers were already at the door ten minutes before opening. In order to help everyone as quickly as possible, we must gave advice to two or three clients at a time. Financially that is a good thing, but in terms of service it is far from ideal. We are a very service-oriented store, so we could not allow this. Besides, as an advisor you are not relaxed in front of your customer at such a peak moment. Nor does that stress lead to perfect service.”
Race against time to get system ready
“There had to be a solution, because the rush was so unpredictable that we couldn’t respond to it. We were depending on parameters that we could never control. An appointment system seemed like a good solution. Through corona, the whole idea gained momentum. You could know from everything during the initial lockdown that the reopening of the stores was going to be an overwhelm. So in April we started a race against the clock. The appointment system had to and would get ready for the May 11 reopening. When we finally went online, the first 4,000 appointments were already booked in an hour and a half. The system immediately proved its worth.”
Having an advisor ready for you immediately
The appointment system was eagerly used from the start. Relying on the majority of the responses, our customers could certainly relish the new way of working. Nevertheless, we recently decided to make the appointment system more optional. We want to serve everyone and most importantly, we want everyone to feel welcome with us. Koen does strongly encourage coming by appointment.
“The biggest advantage of stopping by by appointment is that, as a customer, you know an advisor will be there for you for half an hour and you will be helped almost immediately. Customers who book an appointment are also given priority. Of course, we will try to help you if you stop by without an appointment. We will always find an advisor for you, but we can’t guarantee that you won’t have to wait. Sometimes it’s only five or 10 minutes, sometimes half an hour.”
“Biggest advantage of stopping by by appointment is that, as a customer, you know an advisor will be there for you for half an hour and you’ll be helped almost immediately.”
“I don’t deny that the appointment system also has its advantages internally. We can shift better between stores by, for example, sending an extra advisor to Ghent in the morning when it is busier there than in Zwijndrecht. The system helps us to think even more in function of the customer and to offer a better service.”
Even more options in the future
The system is running well, the 100,000+ appointments are the best proof of that. It’s not on point yet. Koen is still full of new ideas which means additional tools are coming in the future.
“We have many other services that we can offer (separately). Just think about nutritional advice, trail running advice…. We need to integrate this in the future as well.”
“For the past year and a half, we first wanted to see what is going well and what is not. Now the optimization can start. For example, we are still stuck with the static half-hour data. That has to become much more flexible in the future. You can currently book an appointment for four services, but we have many more services that we can offer (separately). Think about nutritional advice, trail running advice… We need to integrate this in the future as well. Making an appointment is already pretty smooth, but there is definitely room for improvement in the user-friendliness.”
Training day around customer service
A pleasant and optimal shopping experience is closely related to customer friendliness. We are also putting even more effort into that aspect in the coming period, if possible.
“Our consultants are not standing still. The next training day will revolve integrally around customer friendliness. I am 100% convinced that our advisors gave their best in the past months. But we shouldn’t lie about it, sometimes bad feedback has already come to us because someone couldn’t be helped. We should really try to avoid that and we will work on it so that soon we can really talk about a customer-friendly and perfect service,” Koen concluded.
