Actually, more than you think. Mobile technology in the store can dramatically improve customer service and increase sales.
Imagine this:
You are standing in a retail store shopping for ugly Christmas sweaters for your company holiday party. You are a new hire, and this will be your first in-person get-together with the team, so you must make a great first impression. And what better way other than to get the ugliest Christmas sweater you can find.
You come across a particularly ugly sweater that immediately caught your eye.
“Perfect!” you say.
But upon closer inspection, you realize the section for your size is completely empty. You look around for a store employee, see a few, so you approach one and ask,
“Do you have this sweater in my size?”
The young associate looks closely at the item and back at the location you got it from. In an unsure but hopeful voice she says,
“Um, let me ask someone.”
She walks over to an older gentleman stocking some Christmas ornaments and asks him the same question. In a kind but tired tone he replies,
“He’s gonna have to take it up front so they can scan it and look for additional sizes.”
The young lady looks back at you with apologetic eyes and hands you back the item. You say,
“No worries, I got time.”
You head up to the front of the store and see a long line. You’ve already spent more time than you intended searching for a sweater you may not even get. You sigh, put it down and continue with your day.
“There’s always next year,” you think.
How many times has this exact scenario played out in your life? Even if it hasn’t happened to you, imagine how many times it has happened in one particular store throughout the course of a year. Or a chain of stores. How many lost sales? Some customers may finish the process of going to the front register to look it up if they really like the product, but most likely it was an item that they weren’t too interested in and give up just like in the scenario above.
Now, consider this scenario:
Once you find the perfect ugly Christmas sweater, and realize they didn’t have your exact size
you look around for a store employee, see a few, so you approach one and ask,
“Do you have this sweater in my size?”
The young associate turns to you with a confident smile, swings around a tablet that was hanging from a strap around her shoulder, scans the tag of the sweater in your hand and replies with a smart and cheery tone,
“Why yes, we do actually. It looks like we have a whole case in stock. I bet someone missed it and didn’t put it out. Let me go get it for you. And, by the way, if that is everything you were looking for, I could ring you up right now!”
How simple that whole situation turned out to be with access to a wireless device where a clerk could access information such as inventory as well as check someone out.
With devices such as HP’s Engage One-Go, this is becoming more frequent in today’s retail stores, providing a plethora of benefits to retailers and consumers alike. A few of these benefits, as you saw above, include less congestion in the store, better customer service, and increased sales.
Key Benefits of a Mobile Strategy
Reduce Congestion
Having the ability to service customers anywhere in the store alleviates the need for there to be one huge line in the front of the store. Customers that need assistance with something can head to the nearest clerk and ask. This also helps the employees at the front register as they won’t have to answer many questions and can just focus on ringing people up as well as other activities such as merchandise returns and exchanges. This creates a streamlined checkout line with a much lower wait time. When these mobile devices are combined with a feature rich POS software like Accuvia Software Group’s VIA|store solution, these simple machines become a powerful, centralized tool, capable of making a store run much more efficiently.
Improve Customer Service
Along with having the ability to ring people up on the sales floor comes the ability to be able to answer more detailed questions such as those regarding order management or inventory status. These abilities present an opportunity to provide unparalleled customer service which, according to Salesforce, 89% of consumers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer service experience.
Increased Sales
Never mind the fact that a customer can complete a purchase anywhere in the store (which increases transaction rates), but when they are able to beat the line, be provided great customer service anywhere in the store, and be able to be rung up in the aisle they’re in, the chances they’ll come back and become repeat customers jump up. As a matter of fact, based upon a Customer Service Expectation Survey from Gladly, 68% of consumers say they are willing to pay more for products and services from a brand known to offer good customer service experiences.
Being able to connect with customers is one of the many goals of successful retailers. What better way to do that than to meet them in the aisle with a full set of solutions at your fingertips?
Visit us in New York at NRF 2022
Accuvia Software Group will be exhibiting at the NRF show in New York in January in Booth 6562 at the Javits Convention Center. We will be demonstrating our comprehensive solutions for retailers, including our POS, Central Office, and Loyalty solutions, and innovative POS hardware solutions from our partners at HP. Our solutions by themselves are smart and modern, but when working together, they become a powerful retail machine capable of enhancing in-store operations.
