– We offer the best customer service In Norway

Morten Borgersen has been in the sporting goods industry for 32 years. The past few years have seen rises and falls across the industry, and in those years with poor winters, the biggest chains have seen a stark decrease in revenue.

– We, however, have seen growth in our top and bottom lines every year since 2015, Borgersen tells Retailmagasinet.

Since 2015, all indicators are pointing up for Anton Sport. They have seen year on year all-time highs in revenue, results, and ambassador grades. On 20 November, the chain hit 700 million in revenue, and since 2016 they have had operating results between 17 and 30 million.

They have seen revenue grow by 70% since 2017, or 50% compared with direct competitors which clearly exceeds the industry average.

The considerable profits have all been used on new stores and upgrading their existing brick and mortar estate.

– We reinvest everything into developing the chain further. We will have perfect stores, the most perfect in Europe, Borgersen boldly states.

High ambitions

Anton Sport focuses not only on developing their store estate, but also on their employees. As early as 2012, they began using the Maze customer feedback and everyday training tool.

Maze helps Anton Sport receive continuous feedback from customers who have visited their stores. The customers receive six questions covering various topics i.e. their greeting in the store and whether the customer interaction had a pleasant conclusion. After which a total score is calculated and converted into an ambassador grade.

– We are really good at service. Many years of hard work on customer service bears fruit, Borgersen states happily.

He believes they have a head start on their competitors.

Anton Sports ambassador grade has gone from 60% to 85%, which is one of the highest in Norwegian retail.

Borgersen is still striving for further improvement, and his ambition is to bring this important KPI all the way to 90%. This is a highly ambitious goal, particularly as the sporting goods industry places higher demands on expert knowledge than many other retail industries.

Diligently used tool

Anton Sport annually receives 30,000 responses from customers through Maze.

– I read every single one, says the Anton Sport boss.

He notes that it is important that the entire organisation uses the tool, from top to bottom. No other chain has such a large portion of its employees using Maze actively as Anton Sport, Borgersen claims.

All employees use the app.

– It’s used diligently. We see that some of us use it during the weekend too, which shows how dedicated our employees are. They are sincerely upset every time a red face appears in the app, says Borgersen with a smile.

There is a separate notification for red faces, which represent dissatisfied customers. Borgersen says that this luckily does not happen too often, and that they contact the customer when it does.

– I like working in an industry where you see immediate results when you implement measures. It’s fascinating to see how even small changes to the behaviour of the salespeople have a positive effect. It affects the ambassador grade, which is calculated in Maze, says the Anton Sport boss. As a concrete example, he mentions that they are 20% better at determining needs in the past nine months.

The purpose is development

Morten Borgersen believes that there was a turning point when they started using the tool. Since then, they have received hard facts on the customer service level through concrete feedback from customers. Before then, things were mostly based on assumptions.

– We had an assumption that we were alright on service, but we want facts. We have them now, says Borgersen.

He emphasises that Maze is not used to reprimand or punish anyone.

– We're like a big family, and we have a winning mentality. It's not fun to be the store with the lowest ambassador grade. But the only goal is development. We want to find the squeaky wheel and do something about it, says Morten Borgersen.