Customer Service

A Balancing Act: Why Technology Isn’t the Only Key to Retail Success
August 3, 2018 at 9:17 am

We’re all guilty of yelling at Alexa or Siri. From sharp commands to making our virtual assistant the brunt of our jokes, niceties fall by the wayside when we interact with technology. Why? Because giving technology a human name doesn’t make it human. It still lacks the ability to feel the sting of our annoyance…

In Retail, Big Isn't Better
August 1, 2018 at 11:53 am

In the big business of retail, “authenticity” is starting to become a meaningless buzzword. Executives, marketers and creative agencies like to toss the concept across giant conference tables in hopes of hooking a generation of consumers. Leaders of the world’s biggest retail chains are constantly attempting to connect with shoppers through lower costs and greater convenience, but too many of them are missing the mark on a far more fundamental human need.

Report: Merchants Earn Highest Pay in Retail Organizations
July 24, 2018 at 2:57 pm

There are multiple departments within a retail organization, so which are most important? If we’re equating worth to cost — i.e., the annual salaries of employees within each department — then supply chain executives are most critical (see chart below). This was just one of the findings of Total Retail's recently released 2018 Salary Benchmark Report,…

Report: Retailers Adopt Omnichannel Solutions to Strengthen Customer Experiences
July 19, 2018 at 10:25 am

Retailers face a number of challenges, including competition from nimble e-commerce upstarts and increasingly impatient customers. The industry is recognizing that as the needs of the modern consumer change, the customer experience they offer needs to evolve with it. A large part of that evolution has been the shift to omnichannel support. Omnichannel solutions allow retailers…

Are You Listening? The Truth About What Customers Want in a Digital World
July 16, 2018 at 3:09 pm

This report from customer engagement and analytics software provider Calabrio includes responses from more than 3,000 consumers in the U.S. and U.K. about the customer experience journey, and what motivates them. The findings are clear: human nature is how customers think, feel and act — and it drives their digital behavior. To gain their loyalty, customers should feel heard and have an emotional attachment to the brand, and that can only be created through the human connection.

In-Store Service Helps Nest Bedding Win Customers
July 16, 2018 at 11:45 am

In episode 154 of Total Retail Talks, Joe Alexander, founder and CEO of Nest Bedding, discusses how the mattress and bedding company is humanizing the in-store shopping experience, and why the strategy is paying dividends. In addition, Alexander offers advice for other retailers that are looking to create a differentiated in-store shopping experience for their…

Tech’s Role in Driving Meaningful Customer Interactions
June 29, 2018 at 11:26 am

Competition in retail has always been intense. Surviving, let alone thriving, requires heavy technology spending. In the modern retail era, customers have all the power. Phones and digital devices serve as entry points into shopping experiences. At the click of a button, consumers have access to unlimited product assortments, price transparency, inventory availability, and crowdsourced…

Great Expectations for Even Greater Customer Experiences
June 22, 2018 at 11:37 am

Most businesses will tell you they deliver good customer service, but what do their customers think? Mitel’s Global Customer Experience Survey builds on results from a 2017 global survey of IT decision makers. When Mitel saw that 59 percent of businesses reported being more than halfway through their customer experience improvements, it wondered if its customers agreed. That question and many others were posed to a group of more than 5,000 adults in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Australia as part of the customer experience survey. The results present an eye-opening midterm assessment that reveals many businesses still have a long way to go toward improving the buyer’s journey.