You’ve decided to make the plunge into online ordering for your grocery store. You’re working to get data flowing from your register system to your online shopping provider. Now, you have an even bigger decision to make.

Who will be your personal shopper(s)?

As the face of your store for the online customer, your personal shopper can make or break your customer’s experience. They have to truly understand customer service. You can teach them everything else, but customer service is a natural gift.

A good place to start is looking at your internal staff. Who could be a future store director? That’s who you want to run the program. They’ll need to understand every facet of the store, especially how to pick the best produce and meat. In that regard, it helps if they shop for their own household so they have adequate experience.

Your personal shopper needs to work extremely well with other associates in order to receive speedy meat and deli service. They’ll also need to be personable and have the ability to get to know their customers. An ability to read people helps as well. Some customers miss the interaction they get by visiting the store while others don’t want that at all. But one thing is certain: to the customer, your personal shopper is your online shopping program. Stores receive survey responses like, “Amy changed my life,” not “Your program saved my life.”

It takes three separate online shopping purchases to change your customer’s habits into being a reliable online shopper. Marketing or curiosity may get that initial order, but what makes them want to come back? An excellent experience provided by a friendly personal shopper who knows what they’re doing.

If you’re still not sure who to pick, try being a personal shopper for a few days so you know what questions to ask in an interview. By promoting your team’s best individuals, you’ll set your online shopping program on the path to success.