Inventory, Interaction, And The Customer Experience

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

July 2016 Innovative Retail Technologies

A positive customer experience takes more than a smiling face; it requires data, technology, and engaged associates.

A Q&A With Matt Pillar, Leslie Hand, IDC Retail Insights, & Cy Fenton, Books-A-Million

When it comes to engaging customers in an omni-channel world, growing layers of technology and touch points are both a blessing and a curse. The more tech, the more opportunity; the more tech, the more complexity. Here, IDC Retail Insights VP Leslie Hand and Cy Fenton, SVP and CIO at Books-A-Million and CEO at Booksamillion.com, pare the elements of customer engagement and experience down to the core.

What do you consider the major obstacles to engaging shoppers in the current retail environment?

HAND: One of the biggest challenges today is connecting consumers with information and support that radically improves shopping convenience. Omnichannel commerce requires that the volumes of data retailers have at their disposal can be utilized to improve the ease by which shoppers fi nd and buy what they need. Two obvious areas that can cause the best customer-facing technologies to fail are poor inventory accuracy and poor interaction personalization.

FENTON: Matching customer expectation set by online retailers, mainly Amazon, with the current capabilities of brick-and-mortar retail. Customers now expect that they should be able to order a product and have it on their doorstep within 48 hours at the most, and most of the time for free. While this is doable, it’s enormously expensive, and most brick-and-mortar retailers are not doing this all that well. Retailers that are engaged in selling commodity items are the most vulnerable here. Vertically integrated retailers (apparel and fashion, for example) have an easier time of this, but even they are under a great deal of pressure to deliver on this customer expectation.

Why is it important to have a cohesive omni-channel engagement strategy, and what’s your best advice for achieving omni-channel customer engagement?

HAND: Omni-channel engagement strategies seek to centralize, harmonize, and actualize data as much as possible, while leveraging information to create the best experiences that are context-appropriate at each touch point. Strategies need to include a focus on improving both core infrastructure and data architecture to seamlessly exchange data in real time, and customer-facing technologies that enable the delivery of flawless personalized experiences.

To me, omni-channel is about being able to say “Yes” to a customer, no matter where they are engaging you. Customers who come into our stores are looking for something right then. If we don’t have it in the store, the customer is understanding, but they expect that we will be able to deliver it to them ASAP. One of the big challenges in a brick-and-mortar store-focused organization is to move the thinking from “How do I serve the stores?” to “How do I serve the customers — in the store, or elsewhere?” This is still a major mind shift in many organizations, and it starts there.

What specific technologies are helping retailers meet their customer experience goals?

HAND: Core product management and customer database architectures that enable the centralization and harmonization and actualization of data are foundational. So are customer-facing technologies, supported by analytics, and the connected networks and devices that enable the creation of flawless, context-appropriate experiences at each touch point.

FENTON: Technologies that enable both the customer in the store and especially the associate are really important here. Customers are coming into stores asking two basic questions: Do you have this item, and where can I find it? So technologies that answer those two questions are key. Customers expect that they can have the answers in the palm of their hand with mobile sites and/or apps that are focused on store availability and wayfinding. As to the associates, they need to be able to answer those questions too, and many other more detailed questions about the product. Customers expect that their purchase history, loyalty information, customer service history, and other transaction information to be available to every associate. Finally, we can’t expect them all to be product experts, so they need access to information, reviews, and other content about the products that can help the customer make an informed decision.

We believe retail store associates are an underutilized customer engagement/ experience resource. In your mind, what’s the ideal role of the associate in the customer experience strategy, and what role does technology play in that mix?

HAND: The associate is a more vital resource than ever, and technology in the associate’s hands raises the bar for the level of service that should be enabled through them. In some ways, the glamour in providing great customer experiences had faded for many retailers, as associates became inventory and checkout clerks. But associates can flourish once again as agents of great experiences, as technology improves their ability to serve and add value to the actual customer interactions.

FENTON: Nothing can replace a person for engaging with a customer. Our associates absolutely are our best resource, because they listen and understand. In a centralized, chain-oriented retail environment, we tend to want to push all decisions back to the home office and limit what the stores can do in order to maintain control. In this day of digitally enabled customers, we need to enable our associates to be more independent and help the customer right then. That is the customer expectation. So, giving the associate the tools to make a good decision and help the customer is very important. To that end, see my note above on customer history.

I believe that access to other associates who are experts on particular product types is the next big area of associate enablement. It’s the idea of crowdsourcing your product knowledge within your associate community.

What was the most successful customer-centric initiative you’ve recently seen or deployed, and how is that success measured?

HAND: I had the fabulous experience of being assisted by several associates while shopping at REI last weekend to utilize my annual reward and 20 percent off coupon. The associates were extremely knowledgeable, and where they needed additional support to provide more information, including inventory information, they pulled out their mobile devices to get answers and enable the sale.