5 Steps To Creating A Better In-Store Customer Experience
By Derek Dykens, Cisco
Traditional retailers are feeling immense pressure to improve the in-store customer experience as innovative, digital-first competitors continue to enter the brick-and-mortar space. These disruptors are known to provide a more positive, memorable customer journey in the physical shopping world given that they’ve already learned so much about their customers online. Here are a few steps that any retailer can take to improve the in-store experience:
1) Be There To Assist In Moments That Matter
We have all experienced this. You walk into a retail store for a simple yet important shopping trip and you can’t find an employee to help you. Maybe you have a quick question about a product or service, maybe you are ready to make your purchase and the cash wraps are sitting empty. In either situation, this frustrating experience burns a lasting memory into your customer’s mind — that you are no longer invested in helping them when they visit your store. When a customer walks away because you’re not showing up it becomes a lifelong challenge to get them back. Consider leveraging technology and real-time store intelligence to know when and where your customers need help. The more meaningful data that you have about your shoppers, the better you can serve them. Understanding the shopper’s behavior in real time can tell you when they are ready to make a purchase or who has been dwelling in a specific category.
2) Show Your Associates Some Love
Having an unhappy employee can quickly translate into unhappy customers. One negative interaction with an in-store associate can make or break the relationship. And keep in mind, retail associates have countless opportunities in the industry to work for another retailer, so ask yourself — why are my associates working here? Having them engaged, trained on the latest products and completing various store tasks on time while keeping their smile might seem like the impossible. However, don’t be afraid to leap forward with your associate mobile strategy. Deploying the right mobile technology can provide great benefits and get you back on course to having happy employees. Empowering your associates with tools to do their jobs in a faster, more meaningful way can greatly increase their engagement and loyalty to your brand.
3) Pick Up The Phone, Have Answers
When you call a retail store you are expecting to wait on hold. Maybe for a couple minutes, maybe for eternity with no answer at all. Worse yet, waiting on hold to have an unknowledgeable employee answer the phone can feel like the end of the world. Now, what if you were to take a subset of those calls and roll them to a contact center where employees are ready to answer any question that your customer might throw their way? Having the technology to route those customer calls with context from your CRM systems can make all the difference. You answer the phone faster and you answer the customer’s questions while potentially upselling them on other products or services. Now that sounds like a better experience for everyone.
4) Provide Self-Service Options
Gone are the days of a one-size-fits-all customer journey. Self-service options can save your store team time and will often make the customer feel like they’ve accomplished something faster than if they were to have direct engagement with an associate. For example, retailers are now seeing value in deploying scan-and-go type technology that leverages the customer’s mobile device, or enabling chatbots to answer customer questions. Keep in mind that self-service isn’t for everyone, so this goes back to step #1 – you still need to be there for the customers who prefer those face-to-face interactions.
5) Keep It Simple
The end goal should be to reduce friction. Don’t overcomplicate things or make an experience feel over the top in an attempt to ‘wow’ your customer. When you do this, you run the risk of having inconsistent customer experiences across your brand. If you raise the bar too high then your customer will expect you to meet or exceed that every time. Otherwise, they could be disappointed and might leave feeling unsatisfied or confused by the inconsistency. Focus on effectively doing the steps outlined above well and you will bring immediate, unforgettable value to your customers.
The ways of creating a better in-store customer experience don’t have to be overly complicated. Just remember — be there, love your employees, answer the phone with knowledge, enable self-service and try to keep it simple. You can learn more about how Cisco is partnering with retailers to digitize the in-store customer experience at cisco.com/go/retail.
Derek Dykens is Retail Business Development Manager, Industry Solutions Group, Americas for Cisco. As a trusted advisor, Dykens is focused on identifying ways to impact the customer experience through analytics and technology, streamline processes within store operations, and enable retail teams to do more with the investments they have already made. Additionally, he can offer a fresh perspective on what other retailers are doing and the current trends Cisco is seeing across the evolving industry. Prior to this role, Dykens was working for Target Corporation leading key technology projects and aligning future technology investments to Target’s digital roadmap. He also spent time at Lexmark International as a Retail Consultant, reducing operational costs for North American and European retailers. Dykens is based in New York City and has been with Cisco for 3 years.