Tech Guest Viewpoint: Join the ‘Voice Revival’ at Retail

For decades, buying and installing phone systems in retail stores has remained a mundane experience. Times have changed.



Retail business and IT leaders have historically spent little time on integrating “voice” into their overall business strategies, since there was no true robust way of doing so. Retailers bought phone systems based on basic features, and mainly price, similar to the way they might buy fixtures or racks. Older voice technology lacked the ability to drive ROI to reduce in-store costs, drive sales, and radically improve customer service. As a result, the “voice channel” received minimal attention or investment.



Conversely, retailers have greatly invested in improving Web and POS toolsets in order to radically improve customer service, lower costs, and sharpen competitiveness. Yet, all the while, for most retailers, the use of voice technology continued to languish. The last few years, however, have seen resurgence among innovative retailers in utilizing the voice channel for meeting key business goals: driving sales, enhancing in-store customer service, and reducing operational costs.



For retailers with older legacy communications technology, and given today’s changing retail environment with the advent of the connected shopper, the gap is only widening. Conventional thinking would suggest that with the advent of the Web, phone calls into stores would be diminishing. But just the opposite is true.



Even as retailers are being pressured to reduce in-store staff (to maintain margins), voice calls into stores are actually increasing — and, more importantly, these calls are often made by qualified and motivated shoppers. Innovative retailers know that to maximize sales and provide enhanced customer experiences, these calls must be handled effectively and intelligently, and at minimal cost.



How many retailers with legacy communications technology can empirically account for how their individual stores (and the individual departments within each store) are actually handling these customer calls? The reality is, virtually none of them. Most are operating blind, with zero visibility, reporting, analytics, or measurement.



This results in a monumental performance gap for retailers desiring to provide differentiated in-store service levels. With today’s sophisticated POS technology, retailers can validate how many sweaters they sold in a given store last Tuesday between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., right down to size and color. But could they quantify how many shoppers called that store, were left on hold in the shoe department, and hung up (perhaps to call another retailer) before getting the information they wanted?



Handling inbound calls better through next generation communications technology is critical. But in reality, that’s still just playing defense. Truly innovative retailers are going on the offensive in order to further differentiate service and boost sales. What does that look like in real terms?



Equipping store associates with mobile communications solutions (iOS, Android), for example, that allow them to handle inbound/outbound voice calls, texts, pages, instant messages, and generally show presence on-the-go.



Spreading inexpensive iOS or Android devices about the store offers shoppers the ability to request service with the push of a button, or perhaps even start a voice call with an in-store associate, or even a call center, substantially improving the in-store customer experience. Legacy communications technology simply cannot do this.



Retailers spend millions on ads on Google and other search engines to help drive sales. But when customers respond and, for example, call into the shoe department at a local store, why do they hear music on hold or an unrelated ad for a mattress? The modern retailer uses next-generation communications technology to deliver targeted “voice ads” and messages to callers on hold at said shoe department.



The more innovative modern retailer, in fact, is working to charge vendors for “pay-to-play.” Say a vendor like Prada wishes to be the on-hold message for the shoe department chain-wide. Prada may agree to pay the retailer each time the message is played.



Prada wins by gaining “impressions” that can drive increased sales of Prada shoes, as does the retailer. Both the retailer and the vendor can then also leverage measurable analytics that can help validate the ad’s ability to move product, cementing the value proposition. Again, legacy communications technology simply cannot do this.



From a cost standpoint, retail business leaders should also be asking their IT departments if they still have voice connections to the local telephone company from every store. Most retailers still do.



Modern retailers are eliminating 40%-70% of their monthly telecommunications costs by centralizing all of those circuits. Why cut in-store staff to meet operating expense goals, when you could cut your spend with the phone company by 40%-70%? Again, this can’t be done with legacy voice communications technology.

Dick Anderson is executive VP of Vertical Communications.