Retail: 5 tips to improve the customer experience

Your Internet connection is the backbone of all your operations. Without it, payment terminals and inventory management systems will fail, resulting in delayed processing times for your customers. A robust Internet connection is not a luxury. Rather, it is the guarantee of a better in-store shopping experience and the assurance of being able to achieve your sales objectives.

The Guaranteed Internet service offers a wireless backup feature. But what exactly is Guaranteed Internet? The LTE wireless network acts as a secondary link, which automatically provides latency-free backup to maintain access to the Internet (and servers, IP telephony, etc.) in the event that the primary link encounters an issue. It is this backup that allows for business continuity in the event of a network outage.

In a shopping mall, the shared network sometimes doesn't work as expected, limiting visitors' ability to search online for the desired product or a current promotion. Conversely, business-grade Wi-Fi deployed in-store provides complete, end-to-end coverage of your premises.

Companies are obviously looking for the best Wi-Fi network to propel their business. And that is what Videotron Business offers with Wi-Fi Pro: the deployment of a network with enhanced security that supports all required simultaneous connections. It is possible to have separate accesses for customers and employees, and secure traffic for each of them.

The former will be happy to be able to count on Wi-Fi, while the latter will benefit from real-time information on the traffic of the business to analyze trends, innovate accordingly, and deploy new sales strategies.

Although shopping often starts online, potential customers may not find the information they need to make their desired purchase on your website. On the other hand, a customer who has just made a purchase may have a question related to it. As such, it is important that your customers have access to someone in your organization who can help them meet their needs.

The quality of the after-sales service, supported by communication technology such as IP telephony powered by Webex, is a major asset for building customer loyalty and improving the shopping experience. Hosted phone systems allow calls to be centralized, easily redirected to the relevant department or employee, even if they are working from home, and forwarded to the manager if needed.

In addition, these hosted phone systems often incorporate unified features, such as automated greetings, scheduling, and call recording. This feature stores important or contentious calls, allowing you to handle them as you see fit. Coupled with CRMs, IP telephony can also provide agents with real-time insights into previous interactions, making each call more efficient and relevant.

Are your promotional initiatives getting the attention they deserve? A fixed poster can quickly become obsolete... and can even lead to a pricing error. And if your promotions are not displayed at the right time, they lack visibility for customers, who may opt for a deal offered by a competitor.

A dynamic display is a very useful communication device to inform in-store customers. Whether you want to highlight the arrival of a new product, roll out a fixed-term promotion, or inform your customers about your new business hours, screens fed from a single online portal will display the desired message.

As a retailer, this solution offers several concrete benefits. In particular, you have the possibility to personalize your promotional offers according to the time of day. You will also be able to evaluate the impact of your advertising initiatives, as management reports are available to help evaluate performance.

This solution, whose many advantages can also benefit hotel establishments, makes it possible to create, manage, and distribute information from a single webpage, anywhere, anytime—hence the name "dynamic" display!

Some situations can discourage customers. One such example is frequent stock-outs. In-store inventory accuracy is paramount. A customer who sees the availability of a product online only to end up empty-handed once in-store might leave your place of business feeling frustrated. The solution to avoiding these unfortunate situations is to optimize real-time inventory management.

Stores that use the Internet of Things (IoT) can manage their inventory in real time and effectively detect inventory shortages. Thus, customers are sure to find the desired item on the shelves, since they will be replenished at the right time. This technology, useful in many other industries, generates real-time data to facilitate decision-making for organizations that want to improve their performance.

It is also possible to connect your internal systems to one another for an optimal experience. Their integration through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) also facilitates inventory and order management. APIs make it possible to link different software used by a store.

It is therefore through them that inventory management systems (ERP) are linked to the online sales platform. The same principle applies to the cash register with inventory tracking and customer relationship management (CRM) systems to track customer interactions and preferences. They also make it possible to connect payment terminals with solutions such as PayPal, Stripe, or Apple Pay, for example.