Moving to UCaaS Provides More than Improved Communications

As retailers replace their legacy PBXs with cloud-based UCaaS solutions, they not only upgrade their communication capabilities but also gain an opportunity to reimagine the entire store associate experience.  Voice communication between employees, customers, vendors, and corporate personnel is at the center of great customer service. UCaaS solutions provide an opportunity to improve these conversations and evaluate your current communication technologies, workflows, and tools in a new light.  Rather than simply replacing one phone system with another, ask, “How can I leverage this technology and supporting technologies to improve employee satisfaction and productivity, which leads to improved customer satisfaction?”

Taking this view may surprise you about how many disparate communication technologies you support.  Retail store technologies often include:

• Land Line Phones (PBX)
• Wireless handsets
• Overhead paging system
• Walkie-talkies
• Push-to-Talk IP solutions
• Cellular Phones
• Private Video LANs to support internal training and meetings
• Mobile Computers

While each of these technologies addresses a specific communication need, each is an island unable to communicate with another.  These disparate technologies require that store personnel utilize multiple devices to accomplish specific functions, and when these functions overlap, the device dance begins.

Let’s look at one example:

A store manager is preparing next weeks’ work schedule, and the phone rings, and she answers.  The customer on the other end is looking for a specific item and wants to make sure it is in stock before he visits the store.  At this point, the manager has a couple of options:

• Put the customer on hold, look up the item in the inventory system, and hope the information is accurate.
• Put the customer on hold, pick up a walkie-talkie and send out a broadcast message to the staff requesting that someone physically confirm that the item is in stock. Wait for a response; this may take several attempts. Once they have an answer they must take the customer off hold, and inform them that it is in stock 
• Put the customer on hold, physically check the shelf herself, remove it from the shelf, return to the office, inform the customer that the item is in stock, and she will have it waiting for him at the customer service desk.

Common to each course of action is that the customer was put on hold, and multiple tools (phone, PC, walkie-talkie) were involved in each transaction. Now imagine each associate has one tool that enables them to communicate outside and inside the store while also providing instant access to product information.  The previous example could have gone like this:

The store manager answers the phone, a customer asks a question.  Rather than putting the customer on hold, he is transferred directly to the department lead, that confirms the item is in stock, but also explains what additional items he will need to have it installed and puts the items on hold to ensure that they are available when the customer arrives.  The customer is never put on hold, the workflow is streamlined, and the customer need is exceeded.

As a communication endpoint device manufacturer, Spectralink has over 30 years of experience empowering mobile and frontline workers by providing them with voice and data communication devices.  The Versity 95 and the Versity 92, our Android-based

Spectralink Versity 92 and Versity 95 enterprise smartphones

enterprise smartphones, provide world-class voice and data communication capabilities. It is the one device that offers external and internal voice calling, messaging, data collection and mobile application support all in a lightweight, durable form factor.  With Versity as your UCaaS endpoint, you can:

• Receive and place phone calls from anywhere in the store
• Voice calling between store associates
• Messaging
• Barcode scanning
• Full mobile application support
• 24/7 access to information
• Man-down alerting
• Emergency notification and alerting

Contract Spectralink today to learn more about how mobile technology can help your Retail enterprise maximizing operational efficiencies and help to improve employee satisfaction and safety on the job.