Retail is Not Rocket Science

Very early on in my career someone said to me “it’s not rocket science Joanne, we are retail and we sell lipsticks and frocks”. Fast forward to today and the saying is somewhat still true, however we just need to find ‘smarter’ ways to sell those said ‘lipsticks and frocks’.

We have scientists in the data & insights field influencing everything we do, digital trends and online businesses are evolving at pace, AI is adding business value and enhancing the overall experience in customer care, and the technology space has exploded with solutions on how to advance the connected customer experience.

It’s not about physical stores competing against online. It’s about the symbiotic relationship between the two, where customers get to choose their journey at the time. So, how do we elevate that instore human experience whilst maximising all the great data we now have access to? How do we as retailers engage and empower our teams with the right tools to boost customer loyalty and ‘serve up’ meaningful products and services to enrich our customers experience?

Read Is CX the Future of Retail?

It’s safe to say if our people aren’t engaged or aren’t part of the movement towards amplifying the customer experience instore, then we have a gap in the overall connected customer experience.

I had the pleasure of working closely with Proximity Insight in delivering a solution to our Stylists that enabled them to automate their traditional ‘little black books’. No longer did they need to ‘remember’ what’s next. Their daily tasks and customer journey reminders were all automated. They were able to review past connections from all our channels and when our customers left the store, the solution guided them to continue the conversation meaningfully via the customers chosen channel.

The PoC delivered positive business results surpassing our open rate and ATV targets. We were able to maximise sales and strengthen relationships with existing customers and new. Best yet, our customers loved the ease in communications and the highly personalised experience alongside the human interaction.

Remember, retail is not rocket science. So when choosing a solution think of the end user (your team), the ease in which it integrates into your ecosystem and above all the value to your customer and their overall shopping journey.