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Automation and the retail customer experience

Roy Castleman, founder and managing director of EC-MSP Ltd., shares insight on automation and how it's impacting retail today and what's to come in the future.

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February 9, 2021 by Roy Castleman

How automation is impacting and anticipated to impact retail CX is a touchy subject.

It's touchy because the dual forces driving the future's architecture are exactly those — automation on the back of AI, and improving the customer experience — and, at first glance, they appear to be oil and water. They don't mix well. AI is still in its infancy, it's true, but the standard massive rush toward new tech as seen with messaging platforms and cloud computing, simply isn't happening.

That's because while one can indeed get water and oil to mix, it takes some artistic imagination and careful science.

A headlong rush into automating millions out of retail jobs isn't happening yet because while AI can save costs and possibly improve CX in many ways, customers are the ones that come with the money. They won't abide a learning curve into AI being the default customer greeting, at least not in this era of immense consumer expectations and dwindling attention spans. Wholesale tech automation risks too much in the retail environment.

Put another way, ask a IT support company, like EC-MSP, how much automation they're installing at retail clients, and they'll tell you it's very little — at least, automation that is customer-facing is minimal.

Because automation is currently mostly an in-house benefit (it contributes to efficiency) but not a confirmed improvement in the eyes of the consumer (which determines its effectiveness), retailers are extremely hesitant to be the guinea pig in this mix-and-match journey towards the future.

With the gap between consumer expectations and AI's ability to facilitate a great, complete retail experience currently being what it is, what is the average retailer to do about automation?

Staying on the right side of a thin line

When it's said that current and future customers expect sublimely simple, digital-first experiences from retailers, it means consumers are anticipating their expectations to be exceeded every step of the way. It's less a demand than a childlike hope, but either way it brings enormous pressure to any retail environment.

Couple this with the fact that — now more than ever — many retailers are also compelled to differentiate themselves from the competition in unambiguous ways, and you have significant potential for misapplied automation.

Yes, IT in its many guises can enable CX, if it taps into constantly changing consumer demands and their end-user technology. Building a report with clients via digital channels is one great retail automation idea. Even that, however, needs a 'how' and constantly refined 'why' to be the great idea it can be. Pasting the successes retail has gleaned from automation in its backend — supply chain and warehousing — onto the shop floor, isn't going to work. Retailers know this, which is why the trend has become to carefully apply automation to specific, individual aspects of a retail business.

Slow and steady ahead is the rule, and so far, it's panning out well for all parties.

Retail will need to walk the thin line between customer expectations of hi-tech apps and service (the absence of which could render any store's image as outdated), and incorrectly identifying where to apply automation in-house (the overflow of which would render the store's image as disinterested and uncaring) in pursuit of efficiencies and lower overhead. All industries can claim some hardship, but as any retailer knows, dealing with fickle consumers is its own brand of hell.

The automation of retail, then, would ideally be a pas de deux, where the customers are extensively canvassed around new automation and actually lead the way towards appropriate application. That sounds simple, but requires a budget and a dedicated team capably led, to ensure that the data thus captured is constantly transformed into current business intelligence.

That is the level of focus retailers should be applying, in rolling out automation in a consumer environment.

Technology itself — AI and likely robotics — will present as an impetus, too, but when it loses track of its raison d'etre — to better serve customers — beware. Business fitness, tech: these two are definite drivers of the automated future, but the customer experience has to be foremost of the three.

For retailers to prevent misapplied automation — the kind that will alienate clients, rather than grow or even maintain a loyal client base — three key points can be kept uppermost in mind:

Retailers need to portray great human experiences in whatever digital aids to retail are applied. Put differently, that means 'think like a person.' Tech can impress with its novelty, or alienate with jarring questions, processes, or results.

For this, you'll need to be in tune with customers' human needs. UX designers must do their best, and better do it well.

Apply automation to the transactional aspects of the retail experience, but make sure a human is hovering nearby for more complex issues. People resent being forced to utilize only automation because it can make them feel dumb, if only initially, and that's the last thing you want consumers feeling on your premises.

Customers will enjoy doing transactional tasks quicker with automation, updating a profile or account preferences, or looking for a product in-store, finding it themselves, and making the purchase. But retail wants everyone's money, and not everyone will want to shop unaided — legacy perceptions and experiences here will die hard. Before it does, make sure you provide both autopilot and personal touch.

Employ automation to support rather than try to replace interactions between staff and customers. If automation reduces interactions - and it will - that makes the remaining windows of presentation (where a staff member projects your corporate ethos and image in an interaction with a client) fewer, and thus more valuable.

Look to staff raising the bar with clients, not less staff doing less. Don't think of automation in terms of quantities - how many hours can be shaved off the wage bill, for example - but rather in terms of quality. Again, it needs to enhance the customer experience, not present as a cheap, cold alternative. Let tech do the transactional stuff because it does it faster - let humans make it known to other humans just how valuable your customers are.

It's OK for retail to dream a little

Retail automation isn't all scary, and several upsides of well-applied automation are self-evident.

When implemented with an honest intention of improving customer experience - and when applied correctly — will improve the retail environment for both store and customers. Digital retail aids acts as an equaliser between small and bigger retailers, because there's little barrier to entry on costs. Good news for customers (a diversified yet simultaneously homogenised retail environment) and good news for retailers (if they believe that competition is an aid to business, or at least business fitness).

More than that, digital solutions can be a remarkably effective lens generating brand focus, keeping a store amicably in customers' minds.

The efficiencies of automation are real, too — retailers have seen it at the backend - and customer-facing automation is by and large a profitable investment, offering a good return, and immediately lowering some costs into the bargain. Perhaps most importantly (only time will tell), automation will inevitably — to a greater or lesser extent — free staff up for higher quality or more important tasks, like marketing efforts or shop floor sales.

That's a sleek and charming customer experience, better quality retail staff, and repeat business all sewn up, when it's done properly.

Again, the only real guiding light (within the paradigm of retail's financial abilities, of course) should be giving the customer the experience they want. They'll accept they're in a clothes shop or greengrocer in the here and now, and look forward to experiencing your products and shop experience. You accept that you'll have to listen and watch very carefully and ask for constant feedback, so that they come back again and again.

Roy Castleman is founder and managing director of EC-MSP Ltd., a London-based IT support organization