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JRNI CEO on how tech is bridging the digital-to-physical divide in retail
Retail Customer Experience talks with John Federman, CEO of JRNI, an enterprise SaaS scheduling platform, on why technology must be front and center for all retailers as it can make the difference between a disjointed and seamless customer journey.
December 19, 2019 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com
As a new year arrives, within weeks retailers are in the throes of the busiest shopping season of the year and likely aren't initiating any technology or customer experience strategy. That will very likely change come early January, as enhancing the customer experience and putting greater emphasis on customer engagement will be a key factor for success in 2020.
To gain some perspective of the challenges facing retailers with customer experience, Retail Customer Experience reached out to JRNI CEO John Federman to get insight on what retailers need to focus in the new year. JRNI provides an enterprise SaaS scheduling platform and works alongside retailers every day in their quest to boost the customer experience.
Q. What is the role of technology in customer experience today? Should it be front and center or is it just one piece of many elements retailers need to focus on?
A. Technology should be front and center as it can make the difference between disjointed or seamless customer journeys. It's one of the underpinnings of great service — much like training staff and making sure stores are set up correctly. And it's one of the faces to which multichannel consumers are exposed.
Today's consumers are multichannel — they research products online and purchase them in-store, and vice versa, so they expect retailers to be available wherever, whenever and on whatever devices they prefer. They rely on technology to help inform their purchase decisions and to guide them through the purchase process, so retailers need to provide solutions to meet consumers' expectations.
However, a word of caution that technology should never be used to replace human interaction. The only way that retailers can develop stronger relationships with their customers is by having face-to-face conversations. These in-person dialogues allow both retailers and customers to get to know each other, ask in-depth questions, and respond with appropriate tone and empathy. That leads to trust, and that's how strong relationships are built.
When retailers connect with customers personally, it allows them to feel valued. Technology can certainly help nurture relationships, but it can't grow them on its own.
Q. As brick-and-mortars expand with e-commerce and pure play e-commerce retailers are moving into physical stores how can technology help bridge the digital to physical divide — can you provide an example or two?
A. There are a number of ways that technology can bridge the digital-to-physical divide: appointments and events.With appointments, retailers can offer customers the opportunity to arrange pre-booked meetings online with in-store staff to receive personalized shopping recommendations and true one-on-one service. We're seeing strong interest in appointments as 57% of consumers want to schedule appointments, according to our recent Modern Consumer Research Report.
For example, customers can meet with in-store stylists for suit consultations and receive suggestions for the best brands, styles, and fits. It's a great opportunity for retailers to establish personal relationships with customers by putting them at the center of the experience and the conversation. The power of appointments lies within upsell and cross-sell opportunities, where in-store staff can recommend accessories, such as ties, shoes and belts, to complement newly purchased suits.
In fact, some of our customers have experienced increased basket sizes of three-fold to 10-fold when their customers shop via appointments. Appointments are perfect ways to deliver individualized experiences that leave customers happy and excited to schedule their next meetings.
Now, let's talk about in-store events and how retailers can use them to bridge the physical-to-digital divide. Today's consumers want experiences when they shop in-store; they want something that they can't receive online and that makes their in-person journeys to stores worthwhile.
Special events, such as VIP gatherings, preview sales, or new product launches, allow customers to interact with items before they're available to the general public. We've heard from our customers that their customers love attending events, especially when they can hold items in their hands or see them before purchasing.
There's another benefit to hosting events — turning stores into communities. This correlates to the overall customer experience because events bring together like-minded consumers who can not only connect with each other, but who can also voluntarily share their feedback about products and services with retailers.
Q. The retail industry, for many reasons, is playing catch-up in adopting and deploying all the emerging technologies coming into play. What are some tips or best practices you can share on how retailers should approach a tech strategy for providing a more robust CX?
A. Retailers should adopt best practices around using multichannel approaches, personalizing consumer experiences and leveraging customer analytics.
Because today's consumers are multichannel, retailers need to engage customers across all channels to establish stronger relationships and build greater loyalty. As more and more consumers shop via web-rooming, show-rooming, and click and collect, retailers must use online platforms to collect insights into customers' shopping habits and create seamless journeys for them. The online experience should be consistent with the in-store experience, so consumers feel comfortable and valued.
Retailers must also personalize the customer experience, especially in-store, and treat consumers as individuals. When consumers shop in-store, they want retailers to understand their preferences and past behaviors, so they can deliver personalized recommendations. When retailers can tailor their services to customers, they can increase their revenue because customers will buy more from them.
Lastly, using analytics helps to improve the customer experience because data is insightful, actionable and truthful. It presents retailers with holistic profiles of their customers, including their favorite items, preferred shopping times, and purchase histories. With this data, retailers can track digital and in-store touchpoints to communicate with customers appropriately, or to identify points in the journey where customers may be lost. Most importantly, data serves as the foundation to solidify stronger relationships because retailers know consumers' interests and preferences before they walk into stores.
Q. The store associate is now the retail ambassador and ensuring associates are on point, on the job, etc. is critical. That's why solutions such as JRNI are critical. How does store associate/workforce scheduling play into the customer experience today?
A. In-store associates play a critical role in today's customer experience because consumers demand personalized service from them, which is why store associates must have complete intelligence into their customers' shopping patterns.
In fact, poor experiences can irreparably damage stores' reputations – shoppers tell an average of 15 people about poor experiences versus 11 people about positive experiences. And research shows that nearly 75% of shoppers will seek alternative solutions if the purchase process is unpleasant or difficult.
Technology solutions can seamlessly capture important data about their customers, so retailers can provide better in-store experiences.
For example, retailers can record customers' favorite products and services, as well as previous appointments and events that they've attended. When new products or services arrive in-store, retailers can reach out to customers to alert them. They can also invite them to schedule appointments or attend in-store events to preview new products and services before they launch publicly.
When customers arrive in-store, store staff won't waste time ramping up and learning about customers' backgrounds when they can quickly retrieve this data from their systems. Store associates can immediately focus on their customers and help them shop, which gives them more time to develop their relationships by engaging directly with customers.
Data has the ability to produce remarkable in-store experiences that can turn transactional shoppers into loyal followers, and store associates need to know how to action this data effectively.
About Judy Mottl
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