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Top 5 Challenges Retailers Face Managing Customer-Facing Technology — And Questions To Ask Before Deployment

By Tom Karren, Moki 

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 With more retailers bringing technology into their stores and 90% of customers saying they expect retailers’ brand experience to be uniform across channels, the question isn’t whether to converge your physical and digital customer experiences — it’s how to do so. In-store tablets, mobile point-of-sale systems, digital kiosks and other customer-facing devices (CFDs) can drive sales, increase customer loyalty and strengthen your brand image. Before deploying customer-facing technology, however, savvy retailers should consider five questions. 

1. Function: Which type of device and application are best for your store? 

Do you want to educate customers about new products? Speed up check-out? Poll customers on their shopping preferences? The first step in creating meaningful, interactive digital experiences for your customers is knowing what’s out there and what best fits your needs. 

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There are three main types of customer-facing technology: Digital, Transactional and Experiential — and you should decide which type (or types) address the challenges specific to your organization. 

Digital CFDs deliver digital interactions and impressions. Interactive tablets and kiosks can help organizations focused on omnichannel marketing succeed in better attracting, keeping and up-selling clients, as well as gather useful marketing data. RAB, a national lighting company, reported a 40% increase in sales after deploying CFDs to help shoppers with their lighting selection process. 

Transactional CFDs, such as mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) systems and other order fulfillment devices, expedite service transactions and improve customer satisfaction. UGG’s New York City locations increased sales 30% after equipping store associates with mPOS devices so they could spontaneously close sales anywhere in the store. 

Experiential CFDs, such as “headless devices,” digital signage and IoT sensor devices, elevate the customer experience. They enable chain headquarters to do things like remotely control in-store audiovisual, heating/cooling and lighting systems. For example, a sports brand can remotely change displays across its locations based on who is leading the NBA playoffs and in which city the store is located.

2. Scale: What is the size and scope of the deployment you want?         

Convincing the “powers that be” that it’s worth the investment is a part of any worthy project. Smaller businesses have the advantage here — purchasing and setting up one or two devices takes far less money and time than rolling out thousands across hundreds of stores in multiple countries. 

Smaller deployments can also be easier to immediately justify: For example, a single $200 device might pay for itself after selling 10 extra T-shirts. For larger companies, launch time per device becomes critical. 

For instance, Belly, a company that manages loyalty programs through CFDs for brick-and-mortar retailers and convenience stores, cut device deployment time in half after hiring a cloud-based CFD manager. 

3. Service: How will you manage IT servicing and other overhead?

As CFDs are deployed in the field, businesses need to consider the management and upkeep of these devices. 

Store associates shouldn’t have to perform management or IT functions on CFDs. This introduces a host of problems relating to security of devices, turnover of employees, and required associate skill level. 

Devices that can be remotely configured, deployed and updated without on-site IT support bring the best results. Remote CFD management providers offer around-the-clock monitoring, reporting and security services, relieving employees and store managers of time-consuming troubleshooting. 

4. Content: How can you deliver personalized, engaging content to your customers? 

How can you provide similar levels of interactivity to what customers are receiving online? 

Identifying your customers’ needs can be challenging, but it is a must. For example, to make shopping easier and more fun for families with small children, British shoe retailer Clarks recently rolled out an interactive, iPad-based system for measuring children’s shoe sizes. 

Similarly, Marriott has installed kiosks in their hotel lobbies to give guests a way to check into flights and print boarding passes before leaving their hotel, providing peace of mind and saving guests time and hassle at the airport. 

CFD provider, Ziosk, is revolutionizing the way that restaurants interact with patrons. Chili’s uses Ziosk tablets in hundreds of locations to serve up relevant and action-driven content to patrons at their dining table. In addition to customers browsing menus, ordering drinks and desserts and paying for their check, Chili’s delivers offers through CFDs to upsell and cross sell other menu items and services. Reporting a 20 percent increase in dessert sales due to these devices, Chili’s CFDs are also decreasing table turnover time, allowing locations to serve more guests.

5. Analytics: What data do you want to capture? 

One of the most difficult challenges in the age of omnichannel marketing is attributing marketing success. Sometimes a sale is executed online but the real credit belongs to a specific store location. Customer-facing technology can help retailers distinguish where marketing credit is due — and dynamically adjust their efforts accordingly. 

Some types of CFDs can even, quite literally, track eyeballs: they count the number of people that stop in front of a digital display and register the amount of time each one spends reading it. Retailers can use that data to A/B test marketing displays. They can also optimize the physical location of in-store customer-facing technology by studying, for example, whether a given device gets more attention and interaction in one corner of a store than another. 

If managed properly, in-store devices offer almost infinite possibilities. I am excited to see even more innovative and creative ways that retailers, both large and small, will implement customer-facing technology in the near future. 


Tom Karren is the CEO and Co-Founder of Moki, a leader in customer-facing mobile enablement. He is responsible for the underlying technology that runs Moki’s software and brings 15 years of technical and business leadership to the company. A serial entrepreneur at heart, Tom’s experience also includes founding mCubedLabs, a web and mobility solutions company providing mobile, web, cloud and design services, and WingateWeb, an event management software company. Karren is also an associate founder and board member of the BYU Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology. 

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