Day: August 16, 2018

Omnichannel: How retailers can craft a seamless customer experience

Posted on by Matt Ellsworth

Shopping today is no longer an either/or proposition: either you buy online, or you buy in store. Instead, it’s a why not both. Why not browse online, pick up where you left off in-store, and complete the purchase with that product in your hand?

These are today’s omnichannel customers. Harvard Business Review surveyed 46,000 shoppers and found that 73 percent used multiple channels to complete a purchase.

The question for retailers is now: How can we craft a seamless omnichannel experience to drive sales and customer satisfaction?

Know your shoppers and competitors

The rise of e-commerce cuts both ways for retailers. It can drive more consumers to a product or brand, but can also connect those same shoppers to competitors, given the simplicity of finding the lowest price and easiest buying experience online.

Market intelligence allows retailers the advantage of knowing their competitive landscape, thereby allowing them make smarter changes quicker—and at scale. Before optimizing the omnichannel experience, retailers must understand who their shoppers are, what they want to buy, and how they prefer to make those transactions.

On a similar note, retailers must also know their competitors and track price fluctuations.

This level of visibility can educate retailers on where and how to make their channels work together – a Namogoo survey found that a majority of consumers are in brick-and-mortar stores while researching those same products online.

Cater to customer preferences

In the six years since PwC began looking at consumer research, the number of their survey participants who shop via their mobile devices increased by 133 percent.

More shoppers are making their purchasing decisions across multiple channels. As a result, retailers should cater to their omnichannel preferences.

How retailers can create a seamless customer experience:

Manage out-of-stocks: Track retail data from suppliers, ensure store employees have the tools needed to monitor SKUs, and see the stores from the eyes of shoppers. If a website says a product is in-stock, it has to be on the shelf.

Offer user profiles: Provide a way for shoppers to take their search history and product preferences with them across channels. A user profile can accomplish this, as consumers can log in at home, browse the website, save their searches and pick them up in the brick-and-mortar store as they complete their transactions in person.

Leverage technology: A smartphone app can provide coupons. Interactive in-store catalogs can streamline browsing, and price-checkers around the brick-and-mortar location can speed up comparisons.

First things first

There are many ways that retailers can craft a seamless customer experience across multiple channels. Before any action can be taken, though, they must know what consumers want.

How customers explore omnichannel retail can depend on what they are buying. Then, retailers can take steps to optimize their shopping experiences for their target audiences.

The retail landscape is shifting.
Consumer buying behavior is changing.
Learn how to adapt your e-commerce marketing strategy HERE.

What is sales enablement: Sell sharper, better, smarter

Posted on by Saj Hoffman-Hussain

“Always be closing.” This line from Glengarry Glen Ross is seared into the minds of salespeople all over the world, and given the global, 24/7 nature of sales today, it means more than it did when Alec Baldwin performed the classic scene. So how can a sales professional keep up on everything they must know while also staying one step ahead of their competitors? Enter in sales enablement and artificial intelligence.

So, what is sales enablement?

Sales enablement is the process of providing a sales organization with the:

  1. information
  2. content
  3. tools that help sales people sell more effectively

The foundation of sales enablement is simple: Give salespeople what they need to successfully engage the buyer throughout the entire buying process. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been lauded as the magic bullet to do just that.

However, the increasing use of AI to facilitate sales decisions along the buying journey has led to several unintended consequences, as the technology has progressed. Greater automation has led to the creation of more manual processes, not less.

In some cases, training of sales representatives in customer relationship management systems has been haphazard, leading to missed opportunities, an inefficient pipeline, demotivated staff, and subsequently high turnover. These are all challenges to overcome for the current crop of sales organizations as they look to compete in the future.

There is no such thing as a standard sales representative; they all vary in maturity, experience, types of sales portfolios, and approaches to selling.

For true sales enablement, the way to level up is to ensure training is highly focused on the individual needs of performers. The aim is to turn the average sales guy into a unicorn sales professional, capable of making intelligent decisions using machine learning software, and rolling through the buying journey with ease.

No more garbage in, garbage out

It is imperative that CRM data models be fit for purpose (sleek, simple, strategic) if the traditional process is to be transformed into an exceptional experience for the sales representative, and subsequently the customer.

Georg Kreimer, Head of SAP Customer Experience Labs is a data evangelist. He says, “With all the data we are able to capture about the sales process, there are interesting things we can do with AI … We want to employ a multi-faceted approach – very strong systems that will help the sales person use the right information at the right time, so they can work the sale efficiently.”

For high-performing sales professionals, it is this need to be strategic when using automated processes, yet ability to respond flexibly to challenges that make the difference between a mediocre sales experience and an outsize one.

Keep it human and keep them engaged with sales enablement

There will always be a need to keep a human professional engaged in the buying journey. True automation for a fantastic customer experience may not be possible, or even desired.

Sales enablement in the future should be about fixing a poor sales experience, capitalizing on missed opportunities, and retaining an engaged, motivated, and dedicated sales workforce. Cochrane recognizes that good salespeople naturally understand the rhythm and cadence to progress an opportunity and convert it to a sale.

Kevin says, “They are the ones who are excellent communicators, able to know when to push, when to send that text message, when to pull back, and when to go in for the kill. They have the zeitgeist of how to touch, when to touch, and how to close.”

Kreimer agrees, arguing that we need to consider the data not only in the amount that we collect, but also in how we categorize the data, and the intention and purpose behind data collection.

For example, interactions with customers will include transactional information, which is important, but more importantly as predictive learning takes hold in the marketplace, the emotions associated with touchpoints will become increasingly important to consider.

This means that with the inclusion of AI-driven CRM’s, successful sales enablement of the future will always require the human touch.

Smarter processes.
Boosted sales.
Happier reps.
We’ve got it all.