Optimising the omnichannel experience: from cart to checkout

Vivek Behl at WalkMe explains how workers can bag success this Black Friday with digital adoption

The countdown to Black Friday has begun. As retailers gear up to kick off the shopping season, most are focused on optimising their omnichannel experiences to attract deal-seeking customers.

But in the rush to implement the latest technologies and create seamless shopping journeys, it’s easy to overlook one critical component: the people who make it happen.

Behind the scenes of the slick apps and websites are countless retail employees in stores, warehouses, call centres, and delivery vehicles who all have a part to play in both the run-up and on the big day itself. While not all of these employees will have customer-facing roles, they all contribute to how seamless and successful the day will be.

Because of this, it’s crucial that they both have the right technology at their disposal to do their jobs with ease and can use that technology effectively to focus on their core task – serving the customer. 

Ring-up sales with on-the-day advice

The hectic rush of Black Friday sales can be a major stress test for retailers’ technology platforms and employee readiness. In this environment, technology is make or break. Technology enables shop floor staff to answer any shopper’s question immediately, guides warehouse and delivery staff to dispatch and deliver products promptly, and powers online or phone-based customer service. But companies must not allow technology to become a barrier in its own right. 

The more time employees spend trying to use technology correctly, the less time they’re spending helping shoppers. This manifests in many ways that aren’t great for the employee or customer experience: a long wait while shop staff try and process a transaction, a delay because warehouse and delivery staff can’t find the best route, or being put on hold while the customer service team looks up an answer. These fumbles can all be fatal to customer loyalty.

In fact, nearly 60% of customers feel that long holds and wait times are the most frustrating parts of a service experience, so finding ways to eliminate these waits is essential. 

Instead, employees in any part of the business should have the tools they need to completely harness all of the technology at their disposal– and near-instantly overcome any small issues. For instance, most potential issues with point-of-sale or inventory software won’t be new. Intelligent software that can recognise when an employee has encountered a common issue, help them solve it, and put them back to productive work with minimal delay will be worth its weight in satisfied customers. 

Cutting edge digital experiences

59% of customers believe that companies need to provide cutting-edge digital experiences to keep their business building up for the big day.

Helping employees adopt technology so they can operate with confidence on Black Friday isn’t an immediate transformation. Instead, it can, and should, be a constant process that minimises disruption. For instance, formal training on how to use new technology is useful, and sometimes unavoidable.

But it is also time-consuming and can distract employees from their key jobs. Not to mention much of the information is forgotten in its moment of need - with a customer waiting. 

Instead, the aim should be to make technology as invisible and empowering as possible. Whether serving customers on the shop floor or building the websites that will power Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, employees want to concentrate on the task at hand, not the logistics of the software they’re using. The right approach to digital adoption throughout the year can give employees the on-the-job help they need to truly shine. 

There are two keys to this approach. The first is discovery – understanding exactly what applications employees use, for what purposes, and what common issues there are holding employees back. Armed with this knowledge, retailers can identify the prompts and best practices that will help employees do their work smoothly and concentrate on engaging with shoppers.

Ideally, this technology will seamlessly and intelligently integrate into employees’ workflows so they are getting the right advice, at the right time, to create a seamless customer experience.

The second key is implementing a digital adoption platform (DAP) which sits across an organisation’s tech stack like a glass layer providing step-by-step guidance and automation for end users whether they are employees or customers. DAPs provide actionable insights so that the user experience can be continuously optimised.

This technology improves productivity and the end user experience to ensure smooth and successful interactions on both sides of the equation. 

Connected, convenient shopping journeys 

Retailers who invest in both technology and the human experience  give their staff the tools, knowledge, and support to thrive. By making employees the centre of the retail ecosystem, companies can support their workers in blending physical and digital interactions.

The result is a connected, seamless experience for today’s shoppers regardless of how tech savvy they are, where the technology itself doesn’t get in the way but rather enables a fantastic Black Friday and beyond.

Vivek Behl is Digital Transformation Officer at WalkMe

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com