Retailers have long known that customers won’t shop at their stores if they don’t provide a satisfying buying experience, but finding ways to consistently meet customer expectations has been difficult. That’s where a new tool from AMR Research comes in. The company recently created a self-assessment tool, the Six Sigma Retailing Quotient, which provides a set of metrics that helps retailers find the weak spots in their stores and realize lost profits from unsatisfied customers. AMR Research shows that out-of-stock items and unknowledgeable staff are among the top reasons customers avoid stores and that after three negative buying experiences, customers won’t return. Wal-Mart claims that each lost customer represents about $200,000 in lifetime lost sales. And while retailers know this, 80 percent of them haven’t measured their store’s operations.

“This one-of-a-kind quotient provides a seamless and quantitative way to measure store operations performance,” says Rob Garf, retail analyst for AMR Research. “By leveraging its results, retailers are getting a handle on the true state of store operations, making good investments and taking steps toward achieving the full benefits of Six Sigma retailing.”

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