By Deena M. Amato-McCoy
Through special arrangement, what follows is an excerpt of a current article from Chain Store Age magazine, presented here for discussion.
Retailers are integrating information technology (IT) into business strategies to operate companies more efficiently and to establish a point of differentiation in a very saturated marketplace. By educating store-level associates about how IT actually supports store-level operations, chains are improving customer service and the overall shopping experience.
Two separate events at Target illustrate the point.
After having trouble locating a window treatment at his local Target, an industry colleague (an executive at a supply chain vendor) enlisted an employee to hunt down the treatment.
He learned the item was not in stock, but thanks to a process called "vendor-managed inventory [VMI]," customer demand ensured a shipment was arriving by the end of the week. The associate helped my friend order the item and then began "educating" him about VMI.
During my own recent Target visit, I asked an associate to help me locate YoBaby yogurt for my daughter. It was out of stock, but the associate said, "We know the product will be here tomorrow. We use an automated replenishment process and the product is delivered every Friday." He then gave me a layman's lesson on this practice.
Sure, many chains will read this and say, "Our associates do that." Others, however, need to ramp up their employee-education practices.
My local supermarket recently failed the customer-service test. While searching for Johnson & Johnson Baby Wash, a hole on the shelf sent me to the customer-service desk. Here, the associate logged into the store's inventory-management system that revealed a case should be in the back room. Upon asking her manager about the product's availability, he matter-of-factly answered, "I have no idea."
In an era where data is available at a moment's notice, this answer was unacceptable. Not to mention, how can store employees learn to use technology to improve the shopper experience if the manager is uninterested? Clearly, this "leader" should take a lesson from his more tech-savvy employees.
These examples are not the best or worst in customer service. However, as more chains educate associates about how to utilize enterprise technology at store level, these examples will serve as my benchmarks going forward.
Discussion Questions: What lessons are there to be learned from the Chain Store Age article? What benefit is there to having associates educate consumers on how they solved a customer service problem such as locating a product that is out-of-stock?