VAR Tells How Wine + Technology Can Enhance The Customer Experience
One of the topics of Business Solutions’ Retail IT VAR Of The Future Conference, May 12-13, at Bally’s Las Vegas, is how retail VARs can enhance the customer experience their merchant clients provide.
In a webinar that previews the conference, Randy Roe, founder and president of Retail Technology Services in Seattle, WA, tells how a client — in this example, a winery — can leverage his solutions to create a better experience for customers.
Roe says in the case of wineries, “experience is what it’s all about.” Typically, wineries are located near their vineyards, so customers have to travel off the beaten path to visit them and are looking for more than just a shopping trip. Roe says your client need to impress them not only to sell wine, “but also to offer food and services to deliver the experience they are looking for.”
He says giving associates mobile capability can be important — allowing them to go to the customer on the floor to arrange tastings, to sell wine, and to check or update inventory. Roe adds wineries that offer food need to “operate like a restaurant,” placing orders, promptly serving food, and taking payment. Wineries also often have loyalty programs, event mailing lists — or “clubs” — that visitors can join. The ability to have an associate seamlessly enroll a customer from a mobile device can provide a much better experience than handing the customer a paper form to fill out.
Another way to enhance the customer experience is through automation. Roe points out, “Digital signage lets you tell the story with color, lights, and sound — and a more consistent message is getting across.” He says by making the experience interactive at a kiosk, customers themselves can enroll in loyalty programs or place orders. Also, automating decisions around scheduling staff with traffic counting and prediction can help managers have the right number of associates on the floor at the right times — enhancing the customer experience by shortening lines and wait times.
Roe also says to look at all the channels your clients use to interact with customers. Because wineries are often a destination customers only visit occasionally, “when they leave, all that’s left is the website,” he comments. Roe suggests syncing inventory and other information from the brick-and-mortar location with the website. Another option is using information gathered during a transaction to send email marketing messages. “With automation, customers could receive an email as they’re walking to their cars — they could literally order wine from the car.”
Roe tells VARs, however, your clients probably will not be aware of the options available to them to enhance customer experience through technology. “We find we need to set the stage,” he says. “They aren’t sure what they should spend on to get the ROI they deserve.”
Roe advises retail VARs to interview your customers about their customers and their objectives for enhancing the customer experience: “Align tech with that. It will be a much more meaningful solution.”
The full Retail IT VAR Of The Future preview webinar is available on demand. Click here.
For more information on the Retail IT VAR Of The Future conference, visit www.retailitvarofthefuture.com/ or email Abby.Sorensen@BSMinfo.com.
Conference sponsors include Platinum sponsors BlueStar, ScanSource, and Worldpay, Gold sponsor Moneris, and Silver sponsors AML and CRS.