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Service Over Everything: Mobilizing Voice And Data Reaps Measurable Retail Rewards

VP site only Zebra head shotToday, consumer expectations are higher than ever. We want access, attention and answers fast. Any frustration in the retail shopping experience, and loyalty and sales quickly wane. In a business segment fueled by that loyalty, it’s startling to consider less than 25% of customers are fully satisfied with the service they receive and the availability of associates charged with delivering it.

To improve the shopping experience, forward-looking retailers are looking for new ways to delight customers and keep them coming back. To keep up with well-connected customers, retail associates need instant access to product and service information, inventory look-ups, price checks and mobile checkout ability no matter where they are in the store. Data communications provide part of the answer, but reliable voice really enables complete connectivity.

Purpose-Built Voice Networks Required

One device. Reliable network. Powerful multi-function capability. That’s what retail associates need to maximize their efficiencies and better serve customers. With high-quality mobile voice communications and fast data access on a single device, associates can deliver more responsive, personalized service. And that’s simply good for business.

The concept of mobilizing voice and data is simple, but successful execution lies in the details. Case in point? A leading home improvement chain wanted to increase the time associates spent with customers from 40% to 60%. To accomplish this goal, they deployed a solution that presented desktop applications and enabled voice communication with colleagues and customers all on a single mobile device. Managers and associates could answer inbound telephony customer calls, check inventory and prices, and communicate instantly with colleagues via Push-to-Talk (PTT). The results achieved? Impressive. Overall responsiveness to customer requests improved, productivity throughout the stores increased with fewer customer calls abandoned.

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Faster Connections Protect Sales

We’ve all been there. Stuck on hold for minutes on end, clicking through voice automated prompts only to be disconnected or transferred to an endless chain of retail associates without the answers you need. Clearly, call handling remains a challenge for many retailers. According to our most recent Holiday Shopping Study, more than 60% of respondents reported they would wait less than two minutes on hold before hanging up. Valuable sales opportunity lost.

The advantage of new voice communications solutions is speed of response. The faster a customer gets connected to the proper department or person, the less chance they’ll be trapped on hold, frustrated or forced to hang up. But retailers also have the power to reverse a costly trend — showrooming. With the right device and applications, sales associates can answer product questions, check stock, arrange pickup or delivery for items not available in the store, cross-sell with other products and even upsell to higher-value items. While some customers may come in to your store with plans of purchasing online, the ability to enhance their shopping experience and deliver improved customer service will likely keep those sales in-store.

Reliable Communications Enhance Customer Satisfaction

So what do retail associates believe has the greatest impact on shopper satisfaction? We asked them and 80% pointed to improving in-store communications. But as in all things, not all voice systems are created equally. For the greatest impact, solutions should be purpose-built for retail to help increase efficiency, enhance the shopper experience and ultimately, strengthen relationships with new and existing customers.

Here’s a quick overview of the capabilities that matter most:

PBX Extension: Direct interfaces with your PBX ensure faster, more accurate routing of calls from outside the store to associates with enterprise-class mobile devices.

Call Parking, Retrieval, Transfer: Long associated with traditional PBX-only features, these powerful capabilities can be extended to associates anywhere in the store. When a call is parked, it’s assigned a number and can be retrieved by any employee on any phone simply by selecting the number.

Telephony and PTT Interoperability: Using one device that provides a flexible experience, customer service associates can answer incoming telephony calls, place customers on hold and press the PTT button to get information from colleagues. This allows the associate to maintain control of the call throughout its duration. Also important, retail voice applications should ensure that unwanted PTT communications don’t interrupt standard calls or critical data applications like mobile POS.

Three-Way and Private Calling: This capability enables internal and external call flexibility. It is designed to accommodate conference calls between managers, associates and customers as well as private call, one-to-one communications.

Shared Multiline Extension: By displaying multiple extensions and incoming lines on a mobile device, associates can quickly answer calls from another department, incoming customer calls and see if a line is in use by another user.

Voice Over WLAN: Through converged voice and data devices, employees can answer or make calls directly from the store floor, using the store’s Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), enabling efficient employee-to-employee connectivity and enhancing customer service.

Noise Reduction and Echo Cancellation: Busy retail environments are very noisy. Advanced noise reduction and echo cancellation technology are critical to improving the quality of all calls. Best results are achieved when both are implemented on the device platform layer with access by the voice application.

Succeeding In A Connected Customer Era

Times have changed. Customer expectations are driving big changes in your business model. Delivering outstanding customer service means arming associates with a single, converged device that puts all the information they need to help customers immediately at their fingertips; the ability to quickly answer their calls from anywhere in the store. The retailers that do that well will not only increase sales, but also win the greatly coveted, yet exceedingly fragile prize of customer loyalty. And in retail, that’s everything.

For more information about mobile voice solutions, please visit here.


 

James Poulton is the Director of Product Solutions at Zebra Technologies where he is responsible for leading the definition and delivery of productized solutions for key vertical markets.

 

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