The first UK lockdown in March 2020 created huge uncertainty in the retail market, with non-essential shops only allowed to re-open in England on 15 June and early July in Scotland. Trading conditions remained uncertain, with local restrictions applied at short notice; hardly the most stable conditions in which to try and deliver the crucial Back to School peak over the following 10 weeks.

While Stevensons’ website sales had started to increase during the stores’ closures of Spring 2020, around 75% of its school uniform business was historically made through its high street shops, the majority in the summer period.

The brave decision was made to re-open stores, but to limit access to pre-booked appointments only.

In summer 2019, stores had delivered just over 2,000 one-to-one fitting appointments over six weeks from the end of June: both in high street stores and on-site school shops. The revised plan was to increase that number of appointments 10-fold, with a strict admittance policy designed to ensure the safest possible shopping environment.

Commenting is Natalie Poulakas, Head of Retail at Stevensons. “Colleague and customer safety was at the forefront of our planning, so it seemed logical that increasing our appointment availability was the best option. There was still too much uncertainty with how retail would be able to operate during the fluctuating Covid distancing restrictions to risk a shopping free for all.”

 

 

In summer 2020, Stevensons’ retail team delivered 28,889 appointments.

A comprehensive online survey completed by over 10k customers – over 35% of whom attended an appointment – revealed positive feedback to the service.

“Summer appointment planning for over 550 schools and 26 shops is a mammoth task,” continues Poulakas. “I start planning early in the year, looking at school holiday dates, the expected number of new joiners, the number of existing pupils, and any specific school requirements. I then worked with my wonderful team of Branch managers to extend our opening hours and plan summer staff recruitment to support the needs of the schools and ensure we can offer as many appointments as are needed at each location.”

Customers were so enthusiastic about the in-store experience in 2020 that, despite there being far fewer trading restrictions in summer 2021, it was agreed to repeat a scaled-down process based on the learnings from the previous year. The retail team delivered another 24,500 appointments between the end of June and mid-August. Again, over 35% of appointment attendees completed the survey with continued praise from customers.

“We’ve been able to increase appointment availability by over 10 times over the last two years,” adds Poulakas. “We’ve done this by extending our store operating hours, investing in additional pop-up fitting rooms, and employing nearly double the number of summer temp staff we had in previous years. It’s been a challenge, but with such great customer feedback, it’s clear we’ve done a good job.”

Several important factors drove the management of the appointment process, as Ian Blazeby, Head of Marketing at Stevensons, explains. “Our I.T. booking system wasn’t really designed to manage appointments with the flexibility we wanted. So, we had to create workarounds that delivered the service that customers wanted.”

Critical factors in planning and delivering a successful service:

• The pandemic delaying deliveries from offshore suppliers meant that stock arrival dates were erratic. It was important to invite customers to the store, but only once it was clear the relevant stock for their specific school was available.
• Limited space in stores and the need to socially distance meant re-imagining how to deliver individual appointments. This led to the investment in pop-up changing rooms.
• Communication with both schools and customers was crucial when confirming appointments for school uniform fittings to match them to stock availability. A complementary variety of content and channels were used: PDF flyers sent to schools and website pop-ups for every school to drive bookings to ideal appointment weeks and to clarify store opening restrictions. There was also additional store signage to reinforce the in-store appointment process.
• The sheer volume of customers that would need a timeslot meant significantly increasing store opening times. Some days this was until 9.00pm on weekdays and weekends.
• Significantly more summer staff were recruited and fully trained to manage the quick turnaround of customers and to ensure they were able to buy what they needed. Or, order any missing items for onward delivery.

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