Associates & Analytics: A Customer Experience Win-Win

By Erin Harris, Editor-In-Chief, Cell & Gene
Follow Me On Twitter @ErinHarris_1

March 2016 Innovative Retail Technologies

Big Data was a big topic at the 2016 NRF BIG Show, but to no surprise, the topic that seemingly screamed from Javits’ rooftop was analytics. Practically every technology vendor we met with touted its expertise in delivering mission-critical analytics at breakneck speeds to help retailers better run their businesses. That’s good news for retailers, as acting on the key findings from swarms of data is just one of the ways retailers are differentiating themselves from the competition; they do so by predicting trends and preparing for future demand. But with Big Data comes big responsibilities and, more to the point, an overabundance of analytics. Where’s an overburdened retailer to start? Well, for one thing, merchandisers, planners, etc. use the analytics to segment customers according to buying behavior, contacting them in the manner they wish to be reached (i.e., email, text, social) when they are in the right location, and engaging them with personalized, real-time offers. Used effectively, business intelligence/ analytics provide the insight necessary to create a better shopping experience for the customer by delivering realtime information about out of stocks, dynamic pricing, relevant promotions, and timely offers. This is retailing’s new normal. There’s just one problem. Is one of the most important members of your staff — the store associate — on the receiving end of the analytics that ultimately drive the customer experience? Probably not.

Arming The Associate With Analytics
One of the ways to improve the customer experience is to improve the employee experience. That can be done in a whole host of ways, from better training to better compensation. But for the sake of this article, I’m talking about using analytics to arm store associates with the information they need to impact the shoppers’ journey while they are inside the store. According to Motorola Solutions, 89 percent of retailers are unable to connect customers’ activities online with what they do in-store. For retailers that have Wi-Fi and associate-facing mobile devices, there are plenty of solutions that deliver real-time information to store operations. As such, customer data points may be captured once the shopper logs into the store’s public Wi-Fi and is seen in real time within the sales associates’ mobile application on their device. This helps the associate personalize store visits and match products to the shopper’s buying history. Retailers need to understand the critical importance of these applications. The benefit of the omni-channel, truly seamless, shopping experience is for the shopper to encounter an associate who’s already privy to her likes and dislikes, online shopping cart, spending history, and more. The alternative is a disgruntled shopper who may make her purchase elsewhere and an associate who feels disconnected and foolish at best or apathetic at worst to the entire engagement.

There are analytics to better serve just about everyone in the organization. And, retailers must implement several processes and technologies before putting customer insight into the hands of the associate — and it won’t happen overnight. But the retailers who figure out how to leverage technology to put those analytics in the hands of the store associates will make significant sales-needle- moving strides in 2016.