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>>JOHN STINE: The leading influencer of purchasing decisions and retailer choice — that is,
which retailer do I go to?
What products do I choose? The leading influencer of that is not sales associates,
is not Facebook or social media, is not advertising, it’s ratings and reviews of retailer websites
online.
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>>JOHN STINE: We are living in a cross-channel world, where the impact of the internet is
felt directly in the store.
This is about what we would term “unified commerce.”
And it’s reshaping, then, the types of transactions and transaction devices retailers will need
to have.
>>PAUL EPPERLEY: We have to move toward those new technologies.
I think for a long time, we sort of braced back against, “We don’t need a mobile
ordering app.
We don’t need, you know - the cafeteria is right there. Why do we need that?”
The way you can seamlessly interject yourself into their daily routine, the more
loyalty and the more acceptance you’re going to get.
>>JOHN STINE: What are you seeing in terms of the seamless interjection, as well as this
new shopper behavior that’s changing things?
>>MIKE BOCK: There’s no greater intelligence than intelligence that comes directly from
the customer in order to interpret what their ideas are, what their preferences are, and
what their passion is.
So you can best tailor your approach and achieve that loyalty.
It first starts with an envisioning session.
So we’ll sit down with technology as well as heads of sales, heads of sales operation,
and understand what the current state is and what the desired state is in the future.
But most importantly, understand the customer and the customer’s habits.
>>PAUL EPPERLEY: We worked very hard over the last 10 years as we’ve developed a retail
system strategy, you know, around moving to an enterprise solution.
Some of our clients buy the equipment themselves, some of it we buy, some of it, you know, we
share the cost.
So it’s been difficult to convince them and other people, you know, that you have
to spend and resource to be successful in this area.
>>JOHN STINE: A question, gentlemen, of ROI: What were the types of things, Paul, when
you were speaking to your management about the return on these new, on this future point
of sale.
>>PAUL EPPERLEY: We’re out there every day with consumers and customers that, you know,
trust us with their money, and a lot of it is, what is our return on their loyalty and
their acceptance.
Because if they feel like we’re doing things that are moving them in the right direction
to make their lives easier, they’re going to be more frequent visitors.
>>MIKE BOCK: Customer loyalty is certainly one of those top measurable items.
Understanding the customer and what their habits are.
And a lot of that starts with, you know, what we call a clicks-and-people type of mentality.
We like to become very familiar with their sales process first, and understand how that
customer loyalty process works.
>>JOHN STINE: Understanding that sales process, I think that’s a great point you made Mike.
But perhaps even more important in this era of multi-channel, cross-channel, unified commerce
is that of loyalty, is the affinity that a shopper has to a brand.
That affinity is measured in a number of ways — the visits to the brand, you know, share
of wallet — all of those things come into play.
And that then leads — and Mike, I will start with you — to, this begins to suggest that
even for point of sale — and Paul, you were suggesting this — even point of sale is
increasingly a business issue as opposed to purely an IT refresh issue.
>>MIKE BOCK: It’s not like we can just remove the $20 million worth of invested
capital in point of sale systems that are working very well.
There needs to be some point of transition.
What we’re seeing some of our customers start to do is, instead of a – instead of
planting oak trees, they’re planting acorns, and in this case that is looking for some
small victories, starting a proof of concept in a small collection of stores and paving
the way for a return on investment story to make sure it was a reliable platform to move
the rest of the stories into.
>>PAUL EPPERLEY: We have data now to show us by region, by city, by location what people
want to buy, but we have a self-service station where, you know, the guy who doesn’t want
to talk to anybody can go get his food.
He can cash out, cash himself out at the kiosk.
He’s on his way.
>>MIKE BOCK: Be intentional with how you innovate, and don’t be afraid to fail and to fail fast.
If we follow that mentality to be intentional with our innovation, to look for some quick
wins, and to dig deep into our local resources or your business partners, whoever those partners
may be, to help you succeed or fail fast, but put those hypotheses to test, and get
out and innovate.
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