Are you facing unprecedented difficulties finding and hiring new employees? You are not alone. Though most of the restrictions and lockdown mandates brought on by the pandemic have ended, people aren’t flocking back to work as was expected. Because of this trend, every industry has been facing staffing difficulties - especially convenience stores.
A Business Insider survey from April 2021 showed 94% of retailers were having difficulty filling vacant roles; with 29% having to introduce a sign-on bonus as an incentive. On top of sign-on bonuses, convenience stores have responded by increasing starting wages and begun offering education benefits or other creative perks to attract talent.
So with a lack of help to assist in day-to-day operations, you may be asking yourself ”How can my Loyalty Program help?”
Well, we have a few ideas we’d like to share.
Weekly Conversations with Your Loyalty Members
Have you considered using the same weekly deal communications to talk up your store? You’re familiar with sharing weekly specials within your app, via text, email or smartphone push notifications to loyalty members. These same communications are a great way to converse with your loyal customers. Highlight events or other positive interactions you have within your community. This way you are showing them just how important your store is to the community, and at the same time, signaling that your store is a great place to work.
Digital Help Wanted Signs
Do you have a loyalty app? Have you used it yet for job postings? During the past 18 months, Simpliconnect has successfully included links to job postings for many clients. By placing that announcement in your loyalty app, you are advertising directly to some of the people who are the most familiar with your store —your loyalty members. Though it doesn’t guarantee applicants, it will get your job posting seen by more people.
Reward Your Current Employees
Retaining your current talent is more important than ever. Have you considered offering a rewards program just for your employees? At Simpliconnect we’ve been innovating along with requests from clients. This was a top request from 2020 and we’ve delivered. Within a single loyalty program, we are able to offer loyalty member tiers. You can keep costs down with a single loyalty program & app while treating your customers and employees to differing perks.
At Simpliconnect, we know your time is more valuable than ever. Our dedicated customer success reps will work with you to design a loyalty program for your customers and employees and then make sure that day-to-day management is covered by us. Want updates to deals or clubs? No problem, send it our way and we will take care of it. Your loyalty program will be humming along in the background and bringing more customers into your stores. Who knows – your next great hire could be a loyalty member.
With some perseverance, innovation, and implementation of the Simpliconnect Loyalty program, this staffing shortage could be a smaller bump in the road to success for your business. If you’re looking for more ways to improve your in-store experience - or need help getting the word out about job opportunities - contact us to see how a loyalty app can be the perfect remedy.
