Are you being assisted?

How assisted service can help sell, sell more and sell more often

At the recent client conference, BT Expedite's Charleen Benson provided an overview of the main benefits of assisted service and explained how new technology and changing buying behaviour provide an opportunity for retailers to take customer service to a whole new level.

What is assisted service?

At its simplest, assisted service is providing information at the point of decision. "The goal of assisted service," explains Charleen, “is to provide an exceptional customer experience. It enables the newest member of staff to give the same level of service as the most experienced.

"And, most importantly, it improves profitability – assisted service is all about getting customers to buy, buy more and buy again."

Charleen describes a three-pronged approach to assisted service:

1. Conversion
   By having immediate access to real-time stock information, store staff don’t risk losing a sale. And with product info, cross-channel stock availability and competitor pricing information at their fingertips, they can quickly and easily help customers buy the product they want.
2. Up-selling
   With the blurring of boundaries between store and web, having access to web-style information means staff can up-sell by recommending related products, and tapping into social media and customer feedback online.
3. Retention
   Assisted service opens a world of opportunity, including customer insight information, gift lists, social media, exclusive offers and customer profiles – all of which enhance the in-store experience and help build customer loyalty.

The changing retail landscape

Multichannel once meant getting your store on the web. Now, the trick is to bring the benefits of the web – customer recommendations, social media, product and stock info – into the store. This blurring of the channels means customers expect the same level of service in whatever channel they shop. Indeed, the customer journey may move through different channels between browsing and buying.

Of course, customers want to be served efficiently. They love browsing – and hate waiting. But good service is more than being quick and polite. It's about knowledge. Assisted service can help speed the process, but the key is training sales staff so they can exploit the benefits in-store access to the web provides.

"Customers are more informed than ever," says Charleen, "but many shoppers suffer information overload with all the choices available. And more research online doesn't mean customers expect less service in-store. They are looking to store staff to make sense of this, to edit the choice."

Assisting the assistant

To do this, staff need quick, easy access to the web. And with mobile devices getting smaller, more powerful and cheaper every year, this is becoming increasingly possible. But the variety available means there is no one-size-fits-all model for assisted service. And there are a number of different routes you can take depending on your brand and its aims. Charleen explains: "A high end fashion retailer may, for example, focus on the in-store experience while brands with a complex mix of products, will concentrate on access to product information."

The trend is towards one device being able to do everything – browse the web, scan items and take payments – but you also need to factor in other things, such as operational needs and the customer experience. So with a tablet-style handheld device on the shop floor, consider how de-tagging, bagging or packing might work.

One for all and all for one

Going forward, payment processing devices are likely to look, and act, like the Apple iPad. In terms of functionality, they will allow customers to create, lookup and update orders while sales staff will be able to create transactions, source products, store and recall payment, and check and fetch orders.

It's this overlapping of functions that provides a glimpse of where assisted service is taking retail. With both staff and customers working with much the same information, more and more of what is currently "behind the scenes" will become public – and one infrastructure will connect, support and integrate e-commerce, in-store and back office systems.