To better understand customer needs.
Myer CEO Richard Umbers (pictured below) has underlined the emphasis of technology and data within the back end of the department store during a recent speech in Sydney.
“Loyalty originates in the first instance by having a very good retail offer – that’s the reason why people keep coming back,” Umbers told the assembled crowd at the Four Seasons Hotel which included Winning Group CEO, John Winning and Winning Appliances CEO David Woollcott.
“Technology and data enable you to do that better and the first port of call has been to understand who our customer is and that has been a data journey using our loyalty program and outside data to model who it is that we are focusing on.
“That means you get the products you sell and the service proposition right to reflect that.
“The second part is when technology comes into its own. This is when you use technology to enhance the customer experience and that can be done invisibly to the customer – some of the best technology is where people are engaging and they don’t realize they are engaging with a technology solution – for example using apps to improve service on the shop floor, to assist them to be able to call something from the back room using an app.
“What used to happen is the store assistant would go off into the back to search for the product and the connection with the customer would be lost. With technology you can really lift the bar in terms of customer experience. Those two components together work well.”