It's not all about Sales. Customer Service Needs to Adapt to Omni-channel as well

I was doing my morning reading when I came across this article on 1 to 1 marketing. It it is a shallow dive piece on customer service in the omni-channel marketplace, but it raised some interesting points and got me thinking about a few things.

Number one, was that despite the near ubiquity of the internet in developed countries, management still thinks the customer is too dumb to Google their issue or question.

Just 9 percent of managers believe that customers use the web frequently before reaching out to the contact center. 

Nine percent?

Really?

While I understand that not every customer is as fiercely independent as me (I hate having to deal with sales and customer support!) I think you'd be pretty blind to think that they didn't try to solve their own problem first. Most customers have the internet in the palm of their hand after all.

The article also pointed out that many customer service systems aren't equipped with the ability to track users across various interaction with the help desk. This is more of an issue in process and I think the companies that address the ability to see customers across channels in the service department will see a huge edge in the next few years.

Beyond systems, training of the support team to maintain an even temperament and manage the conversation with the client is also key.

If an agent is unable to find the information they need to support a customer quickly and easily, they're going to be frustrated. And that frustration is going to transfer over into the experience that the customer receives.

This is very true and could easily turn your customer away from the idea of making return purchases. A frustrated or irritable customer service rep is going to pass that attitude over to your customer who will be more than happy to share it with their friends. This could easily spill over to social media and amplify further.

Is Communication the Key to Success in OmniChannel Retail?

I just finished reading Paul Murphy's blog post over on Fourth Source and he raised a few excellent points about the costs, concerns and challenges facing retailers who try to go omnichannel. While the article is focused on the UK, who have long been ahead of North America in online shopping, he raises some points that enterprises on this side of the pond could pick up on and use to win.

According to his post, 56% of John Lewis shoppers chose collect their orders in the store. Providing the inventory count is correct, it shouldn't be a big issue right? But shoppers are impatient people, so it's now on the store to know who the customer is when they get there and have the order somewhere that it can be picked quickly and easily. This would also be a great opportunity to personalize the experience, as you know a bit about the customer when they come to get their items.

Paul also points out that email may not be the best way to reach a potential customer to re-market to them or let them know their order is ready.

email open rates for the retail sector currently are 23.6%, making them too unreliable for this application. SMS by comparison has an open rate of over 95% and is available

 With the advent of cheap cloud messaging services like Twillio, SMS or MMS is a viable & cost effective way of reaching consumers. The key here though, will be to ensure the messages are timely, useful and written in a way that they feel personal. The text message stream is more sacred the inbox in my opinion.

Subscription Fashion Services, the New Monster to Kill Retail

Business bloggers are always looking for a new monster to call out for sneaking around in the shadows and looking to kill old school business. This article on business insider points the finger at the new wave of subscription fashion services as the boogie man that will take a bite out of big retail.

The article also argues that kids these days are "addicted to promotions" that are available through loyalty programs, points cards and other avenues. This one takes the cake for me thoough:

A recent report by Morgan Stanley shows that millennials are spending more on expenses like rent, cellphones, and personal services than young people a decade ago. This leaves less money for buying clothes.

While this is true, I think that it points the blame at the real issue facing North Americans and is disposable income. Are the kids addicted to promotions and cheap subscription clothing services, or victims of inflation and the high cost of modern life? 

The Trans Pacific Partnership & Retail. What does it mean?

The Obama administration has fast-tracked the initiative they've called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. If you've heard about this, you may have heard the famous "NAFTA on Steriods" from Elizibeth Warren.

NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed between Canada and the USA in the mid-ninteties and has since been held up as the reason for jobs leaving America. Since the Canadian dollar is usually worth 20% less than the USD, it was a natural move for companies looking to save a few dollars and have no cultural issues.

The agreement will be among U.S. and Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam to gradually reduce and in some cases eliminate tariffs, and otherwise promote trade. Given the amount of apparel made in markets like Malaysia and Vietnam US companies stand to benefit.

The catch could be in provisions made within the agreement. For example, the agreement could require that signatories to the agreement must have a certain percentage of raw materials sourced within the country where they’re made.This would make for a radical change in sourcing and production. This provision is only hypothetical, but we'll have to wait and see how this develops.

Fashion Business for the "I want it now generation"

I was just reading this article over at Apparel Magazine where they just labeled the kids the "I want it now generation". While I think that Kevin is taking some liberties to try and make a good headline (because who doesn't want it now?) some of his thoughts on where the business side of fashion needs to move are quite on point.

If you follow business supply technology, you'll already know that omni-channel is the buzzword de jour. It refers to the ability to view your entire business and it's distribution systems through one platform. Great in theory, hard to implement and maintain. Without laser accurate inventory, it's very possible that your omni-channel strategy will result in customer dissatisfaction.

Some stats from Kevin's Article:

50 percent of all consumers consider store pickup options important when shopping online, and 41 percent would like alternative delivery options available upon request....only 23 percent of retailers have a buy online, pickup in-store program in place and just 20 percent have implemented a reserve online, pickup in-store program.

So people want it, but most companies aren't there yet. Not surprising. Consumer technology moves a lot faster than corporate infrastructure a lot of the time. To run a truly omni-channel fashion business you'd want to have a great ERP system for apparel companies.

How long will it take before omni-channel is truly adopted? It's hard to say. Big companies are starting to make the switch. Ann Taylor has done it, and it has come at the cost of some of their physical stores. Macy's is trying to do it but has had issues making it work for customers.

It's not easy.

But as more fashion companies and large retailers take the leap they will iron out the wrinkles, which will trickle down to smaller apparel and non-apparel businesses.

Wearable Tech: Is it fashionable and do we need it?

I was browsing my morning newsfeed and this article on wearable tech came up. High fashion has begun to embrace the future and big companies like Apple, Google and Samsung have rolled out watches & augmented reality glasses, but do we really need it?

From the Telegraph article.

"The key to good product design is having a need for something, not creating something because you can," - designer Sean Miles

This is a quote I completely agree with, then I saw the bags he designed and wondered if he actually understands his own words. Check them out:

I guess it is kind of a pain to have to take your mobile device out of your bag, but this is the best we can do? It's kind of like Google's foray into face computers that resulted in major public backlash. Maybe we're not there yet.

On the pure fashion front there is some interesting stuff happening, like this hat designed by Phillip Treacy:

Futurey, huh?

It's actually a light on a string helicoptering around, so while it looks cool it remains in the world of completely unwearable fashion. When will the two merge? Drop a comment below and let me know what you think.