Staying connected
Retailers industrywide are pulling out all the stops to stay connected with their customers — but not all are succeeding.
Omnichannel customers expect that their favorite retailers deliver a seamless, consistent, convenient and fast experience regardless of whether they shop online, on their phones or in a store. While retailers are striving to create a unified omnichannel journey, they still struggle to keep up the pace.
Worse, some efforts are creating new operational gaps. And every disrupted, clunky, or just plain frustrating experience lets the customer down — an issue that jeopardizes long-term shopper loyalty.
The following suggestions, gleaned during the recent eTail East conference event in Boston, will help brands add new engagement tools in a way that will solidify customer relationships:
&bull Test all new solutions before long-term adoption. Retailers know they need to service their customers on their terms. This requires brands to adopt new services that can drive engagement, and scale as volume increases. Retail leaders have learned to focus on solutions that best serve customers — and drive value — at every point in their buying journey. That’s why testing is so critical. Testing not only helps ensure functionality, performance, usability and consistency, it also brings retailers one step closer to delivering a top-notch customer experience. More importantly, tests need to be done in a digestible manner to produce results. That said, companies that pursue small-scale tests and then scale the breadth will hit their goals and embark on faster rollouts.
&bull Cultivate tech-savvy brand ambassadors. Store-level associates have transitioned beyond mere clerks into brand ambassadors. As such, these savvy associates need to know how each and every customer-facing solution works — and how to use them — to engage the shopper. “Retailers that want to deliver a good experience need well-trained associates,” said Dan Fagan, VP of CRM and media at Destination XL Group. “It has never been more critical to invest in people who can use solutions to assist with the sale, are well-versed in leveraging online client data and interact with customers throughout their store visit.”
&bull Update legacy systems to align the omnichannel journey. The key to driving a unified customer journey is to break down all of the walls throughout the enterprise and create a truly customer-centric experience. Whether shoppers use e-commerce, mobile, in-store kiosks, buy online and pick up in the store, or rely on delivery drones, they need to know that they can complete their shopping trip easily. However, this is no easy task for retailers that continue to manage this journey with outdated, legacy-based systems. Consider Jet.com. The company, which was used to adding solutions in a very agile manner, had to change its mindset once Walmart acquired it in September 2016. “Now when we want to update an aging system, we need to ask ourselves: How necessary is the transition, what will be the return on investment, and, most importantly, will it add value to the customer experience?” said Ben Running, director of Jet.com’s innovation lab. “These are hard decisions when evaluating &lsquotechnology debt’ and determining how long to keep using a solution,” he added. “The key is to stay focused on where you can find the most value.”
Deena M. Amato-McCoy
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