As the modern shoppers’ habits have changed dramatically in the digital age, managers always face the constant challenge of creating an approach to store sales that focuses on both providing seamless customer experience, whether the customer is shopping in a brick-and-mortar store or online from a digital device.
I interviewed Carl Collins-Cepeda, a senior retail executive about a similar issue he managed, and he said, “the brand experience was not a consistent experience. We had a sub-70% overall satisfaction rating. Without an omnichannel process to help customers find the products they were seeking company growth would become stagnant.
Carl Collins-Cepeda, Senior Retail Operations Executive
Customers were not able to order unavailable items, in-store, which led to lost sales revenue. The pick/ship execution and compliance process was taking over 5-7 days to find and ship the customer’s purchase. Open stock items were not being checked prior to shipping which meant many customers were dissatisfied with their purchase, leading to a merchandise return rate of over 10%.”
He went on to say, “I implemented a new Retail Management System to unify the instore and online shopping experience. Then I created SOPs to train store teams on use of digital devices to find merchandise for customers and pick/ship for timely order processing. I assigned expectations to the process and worked with each department leader to ensure that the daily schedule was the focus, as well as getting customer orders processed for shipment/pick-up within 24 hours.
“I developed and instituted daily/weekly reporting to monitor and see that orders were being shipped on time. Moreover, I collaborated closely with the Store Operations, IT, Distribution, and E-commerce teams to create more automated processes to deliver the sales, service and expense results necessary to build the brand.
“Store associates were able to order the item customers were looking for in-store, insuring maximum sales revenue. Improved sales and shipping processes led to customer satisfaction rate improving from a –70% to +95%.”
I asked Carl what the other measurable results were and he said, “The plan put in place satisfied 450,000 customers annually, and produced over $30M in additional annual sales revenue for the company.”
Watch full video interview below.
Contact Carl Collins-Cepeda via LinkedIn or his Career WebFolio.
Fred Coon, CEO
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