North America is home to some of the largest retail estates in the world. Store networks can span thousands of miles and multiple time zones, so keeping them on the same page isn’t always easy. This is where we can help.
The VoCoVo Portal puts your entire estate at your fingertips. Whether you want to share updates, or check the battery life of your devices, you can do it all in one handy location. Here’s how it works, and how it can help you to make every store your best store.
Chain reaction
Ever since the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company opened its first A&P grocery store in 1859, America has been the land of the chain retailer. As the 20th century wore on, small local chains gave way to nationwide supermarkets, ushering in the age of the big box store. By 1997, over 60% of all retail purchases were made in chain stores.
This trend has continued into the 21st century, with chain stores becoming a permanent fixture of the retail landscape:
- In 2020, 22% of convenience stores belonged to chains with 500 locations or more
- There are over 4,000 Walmart locations in the USA, accounting for more than a quarter of all grocery sales
- The combined floor space of Walmart and Target stores is almost 50 square miles– enough to cover Manhattan twice
A large estate has many benefits, but it also creates new challenges. As brand awareness grows, so too do the expectations of your customers. This is especially true when it comes to consistency. No matter the size of your network, customers expect the same experience in every store:
- 87% of consumers want brands to focus on delivering a consistent experience.
- Over 40% of customers say that consistency is the most important factor when it comes to brand loyalty
Achieving this kind of consistency requires a constant stream of information. Emails from head office have their place, but there’s no guarantee they’ll be read or acted upon in a timely fashion. Stores need a better way to communicate and this is where we come in.
Find out more about connecting your estate with VoCoVo
Your portal to customer satisfaction
The VoCoVo Portal is an all in one communication hub. Users can send messages and keep track of devices, ensuring that standards are maintained across multiple locations:
- Our message cast feature allows head office to send updates to multiple stores at once. Simply record a voice memo or type a written message and then choose where you want it to go. You can send a message to your entire estate, every store within a region, or to specific, individual stores.
- Messages go directly to associates’ headsets, allowing them to act on new information without waiting for the next team briefing. If a product has been recalled, associates can remove it from the shelves at once. If a promotion has been introduced, associates can start telling customers about it immediately.
- The Portal keeps you up to date on the status of every VoCoVo device in your estate. If a fault occurs, you can call an engineer or order a replacement before the customer experience suffers.
Help is at hand: how our support packages provide peace of mind for your entire estate
Quality and quantity
This is great for consistency, but there’s more to customer service than uniformity. Shoppers don’t just want a consistent experience. They want a consistently great experience, and this is where the VoCoVo Portal really comes into its own:
- Headset data lets you see how many times headsets are used, and for how long colleagues are speaking. This can be used to gauge how effectively stores are making use of their equipment. Too much talk time could mean that information isn’t being conveyed efficiently, while too little may indicate that headsets are being underutilized.
- Keypad data can be used to flag up problems with the checkout process. If associates are always calling for back-up at a certain time, you can preempt this by opening an extra checkout.
- You can use the Portal to track call point use in different parts of the store. This allows you to experiment with different locations until you find the one that is most useful to customers.
By combining these features, you can raise the bar for customer service and keep it raised for good. Get in touch today to book a demonstration.