Service centricity key for specialist retailers where domain expertise is in driving seat
By Andy Randall, Group COO at Halfords
There’s a hidden advantage to specialist retail – an offering that most digital-only retailers simply cannot support, and it comes in the form of domain expertise.
Simply asking a customer to choose and item from a shop shelf albeit a digital one, won’t make the cut in today’s market.
Whether it be fitting parts on site, booking service slots, or meeting the customer at their location – specialist retailers can exploit technology to add value to their products and solutions with service using their specialist knowledge and expertise.
Online retail and e-commerce have been growing in popularity for some years, even before the pandemic started. But in a world widely dominated by Amazon, it is becoming more and more difficult for traditional bricks and mortar retailers to compete with low prices and short delivery times.
Covid-19 complications, supply chain disruption and digital market entrants have been little help in alleviating such pressure – in fact they have been significant factors in accelerating the online shift.
But it’s not all doom and gloom. Domain expertise will prove its worth in the upcoming years – and it will be a key differentiator for specialist retailers looking to compete with the convenience of their e-commerce competitors.
The centricity switch up: Move aside product, in comes service
The answer lies in the skills, expertise and knowledge that set specialist retailers apart from low-contact market entrants such as Amazon, Uber and others.
This is where retailers offering services and expertise have the edge – think DIY stores mixing paint and advising on building materials, key cutters, dry cleaning experts, home repairers, car parts providers and many more. These retailers rely on the skill of their employees to provide vital services to end customers.
Take my most recent beach vacation for example, renting paddleboards even in the most isolated of locations – the experience and equipment knowledge from the man renting the boards, was unmatched.
The challenge for specialist retailers becomes how best to scale this knowledge, expertise and fantastic service across every customer touchpoint and all of their employees.
Digital doesn’t resonate only online – physical stores are getting a touchpoint boost
Let’s take the physical store first –manual spreadsheets and creaking retail platforms for EPoS, stock management and appointment bookings cannot provide the level of consistent service and support required by both employees and customers in today’s ultra-competitive retail environment.
Retailers must augment colleague expertise through digital means to ensure a more consistent and customer-centric shopping experience. Tablets and mobile devices should be on the shopfloor to allow employees to quickly answer customer queries, check stock levels and even execute a purchase.
Even when employees are carrying out services on a customer’s equipment, they can use tablets to photograph or film work done and deliver this straight to the customer to ensure the highest possible standards of quality and safety.
This assisted selling makes sure employees across the retail business, regardless of their location or skill level, have access to the information they need to ensure a customer-centric interaction.
Getting close to the customer means putting mobile retail front and centre
The pandemic has given ‘getting close to the customer’ a whole new meaning and bringing the shop to the customer’s door has been high on the agenda for an increasing number of retailers.
To do so, retailers have had to amplify their physical estate beyond stores themselves, which is where the rise of mobile retail services has taken hold – providing pre-booked services with minimal contact and disruption to the customer.
The pros for the customer are many, professional services delivered at their convenience, backed up by digital communications to keep them looped in on slot times, stock levels and arrival expectation.
From a retailer’s perspective a move to mobile services can be as simple as procuring a fleet of vehicles and putting their experts on the road. But at the back end they must ensure their software infrastructure is up to the challenge.
When slots are promised and services are often vital for the customer, missing an appointment is not an option.
Software that can stand the test for both colleagues and customers
This means making sure they have a software system to match the end-to-end mobile customer journey and expectations.
That means taking data and putting this journey together, from offering available slots online through to order processing, stocking vans, route optimisation and last-mile delivery.
With a robust software system in place, scale and efficiencies can be quickly realised. At Halfords for example, we have been growing our mobile service vans to fit tyres and car parts over the last three years.
We developed our own software, Avayler, to manage this process and ensure the expansion to mobile operations was successful and profitable. Very quickly we were able to increase productivity by 20% on top of our initial projections.
You can’t have CX without the tech
A recent PwC report underlines the vital role technology will play in driving a more customer centric retail future as consumer expectations continue to rise.
The report found that speed, convenience, knowledgeable help and friendly service are prioritised by consumers. These qualities were highlighted by nearly 80% of all survey respondents as being the most important elements to ensure a positive customer experience.
The report states: “Those who get it right prioritise technologies that foster or provide these benefits over adopting technology for the sake of being cutting edge.”
It continues: “customers expect technology to always work (and are unlikely to take note of new technology unless it malfunctions or interrupts the seamless, friendly experience).
They want the design of websites and mobile apps to be elegant and user-friendly; they want automation to ease experience. But these advances are not meaningful if speed, convenience and the right information at the right time are lacking.”
Specialist retailers have a secret ace up their sleeve
In an unpredictable retail market, there is no underestimating the power domain expertise and knowledge can have for specialist retailers – especially in terms of its ability to get them closer to the customer.
Technology will be a key facilitator for not only employee empowerment but for making the shift from being product centric to customer centric – a crucial strategy for those competing in a drastically different retail world.
