The simple changes that make a big difference

By Caroline Gorski

As Managing Partner for Retail and Leisure at O2, I’d like to offer you a few ideas about how a slight shift in the way you think (and the technology you use) can help you overcome some of the challenges you’re facing.

So without further ado…

Be more millennial

I understand that you may be a little nervous about giving young, temporary retail and leisure staff expensive, state-of-the-art tablets and smart devices to use in-store. But the fact is, young people (aka millenials) are the best people to give them to – they use them all day, every day, making them natural experts. Who else is like that? Your customers.

The millenials you employ interact digitally in the same way your customers do. So it’s not as risky as it seems, and it’ll really pay off.

By being more millennial, you’ll be more responsive to today’s customers needs, and you’ll have happier staff delivering a customer experience above and beyond any you’ve seen so far.

Find the technology that fits your business – not the other way around

It can be difficult to know what you stand for as a retail or leisure business today. Especially as socially-connected customers are now calling the shots, and digital is changing the way people shop, play and dine all the time.

This doesn’t mean you have to frantically invest in technology – quite the opposite. Instead, take some time to think about what makes your business unique, and use all that feedback from social channels to find out what your customers expect from you. Once that’s clear, find and deploy innovative technology that makes it easier for you and your people to deliver on your promises. From front-line staff to contact centres, all the way through to your logistics and fleet team.

And yes, it does all come back to people. They’re the ones that live and breathe your brand. So give them the tools that will help them show off.

Think outside the store

Improving the experience in-store is the easy part. You’ve got to get them in first. And with tight bottom lines, I’m sure you want your High Street presence to work as hard as possible. Well, O2’s got a few tools that can help you there:

Priority Moments

With Priority Moments, you can get your customer base to head in-store with great location-based offers.

Smart Steps

Smart Steps uses anonymised data to provide extrapolated trends about footfall. So you can make better decisions based on what your customers are doing, where they are, and what they’re like.

With 4G, you can bring the store to your customers without the lengthy and expensive set-up costs of a high-street outlet. Even if they’re on a bus, or at a festival or anywhere else, with 4G, your people will be able to showcase rich-media content, access product information, process digital payments and link customers to additional in-store offers – almost instantly.

Find out more

So there’s a few tips from me. If you’d like to discuss any of them, why not send me an email.

For more go to O2.co.uk/enterprise or follow us @O2BusinessUK