Store Communications – Learn from the best

While not necessarily the best at store communications, mobile phone retailers certainly have a lot of communicating to do! There is lots more communicating required with complex phone features and tariffs than there is with loaves of bread so I was really interested to read about Carphone Warehouse’s approach. Carphone is also currently changing its customer approach to be much more service oriented and less overtly sales led to fall in line with the Best Buy philosophy, and of course to improve customer service – even more communicating required.

So, in summary, here’s how they do it. General communication goes through a company intranet CPWtouch, a new platform for operating procedures called How2 is launching and there is already a task management system call Customer First Companion. There is also a weekly update on the company called Chalk Talk. These systems are used in combination for maximum effect. Carphone Warehouse is also using external help to measure service scores for each store.

Of course the Carphone Warehouse is a large retailer selling an exceptionally complex product so they need sophisticated and comprehensive communication systems. It is all about horses for courses. You need the level which is right for your business.

Store Communications – what level are you at?

There are probably four levels of communication systems:

1. Phone, fax and post – Can be friendly and its slowness means that stores are not overwhelmed with tasks and information but is slow, expensive and reduces business agility.
2. Email only – Vast improvement in speed of communication but is uncontrollable. Tasks and information for stores proliferate at an alarming rate and it is hard to see who has done what.
3. Email with an information only intranet – As per email but with the added advantage of ensuring that everyone can findto up to date information.
4. Full store communication system – Systems which manage tasks in stores, collate feedback and ensure access to the right information. Our store communication system RAPID  falls into this category.

There is a general trend over time for retailers to be moving up these levels. The speed of movement depends on the size of the retailer, the level of central control exerted by head office, the propensity towards the use of systems and the complexity of the product sold.

Which approach is right for your business at the moment?

What does the Retail Operations team really need from a system?

Well, as the authors of the RAPID store communication system, we at Retail Answers like to think that we have a pretty good idea of the answers to that question. We work with customers such as Thomas Pink, Moss Bros and Borders to make sure that we keep RAPID up to date and address the issues our clients face.

Retailers with physical shops are facing major challenges with tough trading conditions, rising business rates and stiff competition from online retail. The Retail Operations team is in the front line of this, yet frequently is the least equipped department in terms of systems, often making do with email or even in some cases phones and faxes.

So just to make sure that RAPID is rising to these challenges, we are hosting a RAPID consultants day tomorrow and have invited the leading consultants in the area of retail operations to get their feedback on RAPID. We are very excited to share what we are doing with RAPID and gather new ideas and have a productive discussion around this big question.

Delivering promotions to the last inch

Forget worrying about the last mile, delivering retail business strategy successfully to the customer relies on that last inch!

Take the Waitrose promotion “Indian meal for two for £10″. This must be in direct response to the M&S “Meal for Two for £10″. Waitrose marketing department have put their heads together and come up with a variation on M&S and scored in a couple ways – the Indian meal is extremely easy to cook and therefore really does replace at least a take away, and no-one expects desert with a Indian so Waitrose can provide a more complete main course  for the money.

So once the idea is in place what else needs to happen? Product development and the commercial team must have been involved to develop the dishes and negotiate prices with suppliers. The level of stock required needs to be forecasted and on Saturday evening had reached the store and was displayed prominently, the instore signage was in place – a large banner as you entered the store and the promotion was set up on the tills so the customer got the promotion in the end.

But retailers will always need to deal with dumb customers like me who take a different route around the store and miss the display. When I asked a member of staff (admittedly a young lad who is probably only Saturday staff) about the promotion, he said that only some stores were doing it. I would have challenged this anyway in view of the banner at the store entrance but another member of staff said that this store was doing the promotion, took me to the display and my husband and I enjoyed a very nice meal yesterday.

So for all the meticulous planning, the success of a promotion relies on every member of staff knowing about it. This requires excellent communication between head office and store in the first instance. There are many ways of achieving this but more and more retailers are deploying store communication systems based on web technology to achieve this. In a large store like a supermarket, a further level of communication needs to take place within the store. Realistically this is probably going to take the form of daily team briefings but technology could also be deployed by requiring staff to check the store communication system for key messages before starting a shift.

Retail IT and private equity

So, what is the press saying about what IT can do for venture capitalists investing in retailers? Here is Christopher Field writing in June’s edition of Retail Techology, particularly with reference to systems upstream of the point of sale.

“While there is no shortage of relevant solutions, most retailers are still running their stores off paper; managing communications using a mixture of CDs, forms and telephone calls ……
Private equity companies generally don’t care that IT can solve most of these problems; they have their eyes on the balance sheet, but I do think that the IT vendors could get better at demonstrating how good technology well applied can shave months or even years off the exit.”

This is exactly the area that our store management system, RAPID, addresses and we would love the opportunity to demonstrate how RAPID could hasten the exit to any interested venture capitalists!

Q. How does Retail Answers usually deliver RAPID?

(RAPID is our web-based store management system)

A. Arrange remote access with the new client and do the installation onto their network remotely. This gives the technical team flexibillity and we would visit the client to do the workshops and training when the system is installed.

Q. How does Retail Answers deliver RAPID when the client sends a box to Retail Answers to install it on and remote access can’t be arranged. Oh and the client is based in central London and parking is difficult.

A. Put the hardware in a rack sack and take the train and tube! It’s greener than driving…