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Cisco Unified Communications for Retail: Accelerating the Flow of Information to Transform the Store Experience

Every day, thousands of questions are asked in retail stores by customers and employees searching for information on products, pricing, and inventory. Being able to quickly find such mission-critical data can make all the difference in maximizing a customer’s shopping experience and supporting store operations. At a time when volume discounters and low-cost chains dominate the market, today’s retailers are looking for new ways to streamline how they convey key information and offer services to customers, associates, and management to increase sales and differentiate their organization.

Cisco Systems® enables retailers to achieve this vision with its Cisco® Unified Communications for Retail solution: a portfolio of proven, cost-effective voice and IP products and applications designed to facilitate customer, employee, and corporate information sharing. These powerful technologies help retailers communicate more effectively, streamline business processes, reach the right resource the first time, and increase their profits.

“In the quick-serve restaurant industry, success rests on our ability to motivate staff, streamline operations, and empower employees. The applications that run on our Cisco IP phones help us maintain a unique sense of culture and improve communication. I never imagined a phone would have such an impact on my business.” —Les White, President, Subway franchisee Zeus Nestora

MEETING TODAY’S RETAIL CHALLENGES

The retail market has changed dramatically over the past few years, placing new demands on stores of all sizes. Competing successfully is no longer simply a matter of offering a range of products at the lowest price. To create a multidimensional shopping experience for the customer—corporate executives, field managers, and store employees need access to a broad range of product and organizational information. However, achieving that access presents a new set of challenges.

● According to a recent Gartner study, the majority of customer questions are inventory-related: Do you have this item in my size? In the color I want? With the features I am looking for? When shoppers can’t get immediate answers to their questions, stores miss out on a sales opportunity and the customer is far less likely to return.

● When sales associates must spend too much time searching multiple locations for personnel, product, or training updates—using bulletin boards, e-mails, faxes, phone messages, and word of mouth—stores’ payroll investment is being poorly utilized. By minimizing time spent on information searches, retailers allow employees to focus on customers.


● Assuring an ongoing flow of information between headquarters and associates is another major challenge for today’s retailers; disseminating consistent corporate messaging within a specific timeframe plays a major role in keeping store operations effective. Store employees have by far the most contact with customers, yet they often know the least about the corporate mission, goals, promotions, and news. They also often have valuable feedback on how customers respond to certain items, store promotions, and experiences, yet have no way of getting that information to headquarters for analysis.

In response to these challenges, retailers are realizing that they must invest in store-level communications technologies to assure a more complete flow of information. However, they are currently limited by store infrastructures that often consist of older, proprietary, disparate systems. This results in limited access to information and a heavy reliance on manual processes, making stores less flexible and resilient. To resolve these problems, retailers are turning to Cisco Unified Communications solutions. These solutions are built upon the open Cisco Intelligent Retail Network (IRN), which supports and facilitates the sharing of verbal, visual, and written information using intelligent IP applications (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Elements of Cisco Unified Communications for Retail

THE CISCO UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS SOLUTION

The open architecture of the Cisco IRN reduces the cost and complexity of managing multiple store locations, meeting stringent quality of service (QoS) requirements, and providing optimal availability and security.

The robust, end-to-end IRN infrastructure enables the secure transmission of data, voice, and video traffic. It integrates with existing systems, to protect retail investments while supporting a gradual migration to full IP communications. By investing in Cisco Unified Communications for Retail, stores take advantage of technology that supports improved sales, promotion of new products and services, and better management decision making, while protecting brand image and assets. These powerful solutions provide access to IP applications that assist store customers and employees, while accelerating the flow of information within the store environment.


IP APPLICATIONS FOR STORE CUSTOMERS: ENHANCING SERVICE ASSISTANCE, SELF-SERVICE, AND MERCHANDISE INQUIRY

Customer IP applications from Cisco and its partners offer the tools shoppers need to find key information to support buying decisions. These powerful applications are built into Cisco networks and IP phones (Figure 2) to enhance the customer experience by providing information and services when and where they are needed. They enable all-important merchandise inquiries, offering immediate product, inventory, and price information throughout the store. They also facilitate customer self-service interactions, such as loyalty card enrollment or point balance inquiry, gift card purchases and recharging, or ordering items via a Cisco Unified Contact Center. Cisco solutions additionally support remote or in-store customer service assistance at the touch of a button, including intelligent call routing to avoid missed calls.

Figure 2. Product Information Displayed on a Cisco IP Phone

IP APPLICATIONS FOR STORE EMPLOYEES: PROVIDING ACCESS TO PRODUCTIVITY, TRAINING, AND MERCHANDISE MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Cisco and its partners also provide a powerful suite of IP applications for employees—including personnel tasks such as clocking in and scheduling, HR, payroll, and other business tools—that incorporate store productivity, training, and merchandise management onto a single device (Figure 3). Built into the durable wired and wireless Cisco IP phone and integrated with back-office systems, these applications give employees access to critical information using data and voice over the Internet, without requiring retailers to rewire or invest in additional PCs, time clocks, and other expensive devices. Costs are also reduced by the convergence of voice into the data network and the ability to communicate simultaneously with all store employees. Using this powerful technology, personnel spend less time on routine tasks and more time with customers.


Figure 3. Integrated IP Applications for Employees

STORE COLLABORATION TOOLS: IMPROVING COMMUNICATION BETWEEN EMPLOYEES, FIELD MANAGEMENT, AND CORPORATE PERSONNEL

Using Cisco store collaboration tools, (Figure 4) retailers can take advantage of conferencing and unified communications capabilities through a single conduit to facilitate communication between store employees, field management, and corporate executives. By accelerating the flow of information and messaging throughout the stores, store management and associates receive consistent corporate directives and updates—from new fashion trends to the latest FDA drug approvals—in the shortest period of time. These two-way tools also provide a means for associates to provide valuable feedback on customer response, needs, and behavior to upper management, with fewer communication constraints. At the same time, retailers lower travel costs by reducing the need for face-to-face management summits, all-hands meetings, and training sessions.

Figure 4. Cisco Unified Communications Enabling Store Collaboration


“Hannaford is a leading-edge, customer-oriented enterprise, and we were looking for a solution that strongly reflected this to our employees and customers. Cisco phone solutions have provided substantial benefits, giving us both the power and the ability to make each handset a mission-critical information touch-point.”

—Ed Taggart, Manager, Network and Communications, Hannaford Bros. Co.

WHY CISCO IN RETAIL?

By selecting Cisco as your unified communications solution provider, your enterprise reaps all the advantages of working with the 20-year worldwide leader in retail networking. The ever-growing base of Cisco retailers, application partnerships, comprehensive offerings, and world-class service and support are transforming today’s stores into empowered, intelligent retail environments. Cisco and its partners work with retailers to install Cisco Unified Communications solutions from planning to deployment, and can even manage the Cisco network on an ongoing basis.

● Cisco is the leader in today’s rapidly growing trend toward data, voice, and video convergence.

● Cisco provides a powerful end-to-end Intelligent Retail Network infrastructure designed to support present and future growth.

● Cisco Unified Communications solutions provide proven capabilities for improving retail profitability.

● Cisco works with leading solutions and applications partners.

● Cisco provides world-class support through CCIE® certified professionals and the award-winning Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC).

NEXT STEPS

Cisco Unified Communications solutions based on the Intelligent Retail Network are in widespread use by retail organizations worldwide. For more information, visit: http://www.cisco.com/go/retailsolutions

You may also contact your Cisco account manager or partner. To locate your Cisco partner, visit: http://www.cisco.com/go/partnerlocator


Printed in USA CXX-XXXXX-XX 08/06

cisco unified communications for retail: accelerating the flow of … · cisco unified...

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