Until last year, Migros was the first retailer that came to mind within the luxury supermarket industry in Turkey. But as new competitors began to enter the luxury market in Turkey, changes started to take place. As such, fortifying customer loyalty toward the Migros brand became a new and critical business issue for the company.
As the expectations of the upscale customers who heard about the arrival of world-class competitors rose to a higher level, Migros needed to gather lacking international luxury know-how ASAP.
The majority of Migros’ employees are from middle-class families, with traditional values and lifestyles. Yet, they were being asked to serve customers in a different, upscale segment. To address this business need, Migros designed a development program called “Perspective,” which is aimed at its 50 luxury brand store managers.
Program Details
The Perspective program combines in-class training, learning through experience, and cultural development programs. This is not only a training program; it also introduces participants to a different culture, social class, and lifestyle. This program introduced a vast number of concepts to employees, from luxury to protocol rules, from table settings to displaying diamonds.
The program consists of two modules. The first is in-class and learning from experience activities, experimental sessions, and workshops. The second is based on learning through experience by participating on a trip abroad. This is unique for a training program in Turkey.
The program includes competitor analyses, shopping experiences in luxury stores, experience sharing from world-famous luxury brand sellers, a session of listening to expectations from luxury customers, eating in luxury restaurants, staying in luxury hotels, and many other lifestyle experiences.
In the second phase of the program, Migros took the store managers to New York and London, so they could visit luxury retail stores there and become more familiar with those cities. At the same time, the people on this trip were able to see firsthand, the competitors that soon would be coming to Turkey and had the opportunity to observe them in their place of business. This helped them get closer to the customers in terms of general culture and experience.
Results
This program attracted a lot of attention in Turkey. It met its goals in a short time and generated business results with its impact. While yearly growth was 6 percent in 2012, it was recorded at 15 percent in 2013, and employee loyalty increased by 13 percent. The program has a satisfaction score of as high as 4.99 out of 5, and it has had positive effects on employee loyalty and satisfaction.
