GDR’s Managing Editor John O’Sullivan explores the omni-flex retail stores increasing operational efficiencies, improving customer convenience and offering greater flexibility to staff.
One of the trends most accelerated by our recent pandemic experience has been the shift towards flexible working. With offices, stores and restaurants closed for long periods, employees were forced to find new ways to communicate with each other, and to engage with and sell to their customers.
For many office-based companies, the unexpected trial has led to the adoption of long-term flexibility measures, such as remote or hybrid working, and even a renewed interest in the four day working week (read about GDR’s own four day week trial here).
At the same time, retailers, companies and brands are also realising that their staff don’t necessarily always need to be in a specific physical location to best serve their omnichannel customers.
As we move into the post-pandemic era, we believe that many of the innovations and new behaviours that were borne out of necessity during the pandemic are now shaping a new era of elevated customer service in retail. This is the era of omni-flex working.
Omni-flex as the new normal
Even after its stores reopened post-lockdown, Lululemon continued to hire Digital Educators, who are remote workers connecting with customers via online video chat so they can answer questions about products, styles and fit. In this sense, Lululemon is making its pandemic approach its new normal, but other retailers have been pushing the boundaries of flexible working even further.
Apple has launched what it refers to as a Retail Flex trial, which allows retail employees to work “some weeks at their retail store location and other weeks remotely.” When employees are at the store they’ll perform their usual tasks, but at home they’ll handle online sales, customer service, and technical support, supporting the wider Apple brand, not just one store. Athleisure brand Vuori has also started hiring omni-associates, who work full time for the brand, but who split their time between the retail floor and working remotely at home or at Vuori’s head office. Wherever they are based, the omni-associates offer customer service advice to both in-store and online customers.
Best of both worlds
Elsewhere, brands and retailers are using new omni-flex working techniques to offer better and more efficient customer service in stores and restaurants by augmenting their physical workforce with flexible, remote workers.
Bite Ninja, for example, is a drive-thru restaurant platform that lets remote workers take customer orders, freeing up in-store staff to concentrate on food preparation and delivery. Its greatest strength is its scalability and flexibility. Using Bite Ninja, remote staff can work across a number of different locations and the number of operatives can easily be scaled up and down depending on demand.
Best Buy’s first small format digital first store in Monroe, North Carolina also calls upon in-store staff and remote workers to operate in concert. The core role of the in-store staff is to greet customers and ensure they understand how to shop and navigate the new format space. If customers want expert product and technical advice they can scan a QR code to “shop live” with remote experts via virtual video chats. This hybrid approach allows the brand’s best product experts to offer advice across a much wider store estate, to the mutual benefit of Best Buy and its customers.
Are remotely staffed stores the future?
The autonomous 7-Eleven and Lotte DT Lab Store concept in Seoul goes even further. It has been designed to explore how technology could enable a remote manager to oversee a number of different stores at the same time, without relying on any in-store staff at all. A store dashboard allows the remote store manager to monitor a range of analytics about the store at-a-glance including live inventory levels, temperature, humidity and alarms about things like potential theft or other security issues. They can also respond to any issues via the dashboard, without needing to be in the relevant physical store.
While omni-flex working as been interpreted in different ways in all of the examples above, in the best instances the innovations increase operational efficiencies for companies, improve convenience and service for customers, and offer greater flexibility to staff. This triple win scenario highlights the potential that emerging and maturing digital technologies have in helping to create more productive, personalised and rewarding customer retail offerings that work better for all parties.
If you’re interested in any of the themes discussed in this article, get in touch with rachel@gdruk.com to find out how GDR’s consultancy, inspirational speaking, trends and sector reports can help drive positive change in your business.