SUBSCRIBE TO TMCnet
TMCnet - World's Largest Communications and Technology Community

CHANNEL BY TOPICS


QUICK LINKS




SOA Web Services

SOA/Web Services

 

SOA/WEB SERVICES FEATURE ARTICLES


September 26, 2007

Retailers Can Maintain a Competitive Edge Using Business Communications Platforms

By Alan Rosenberg, BlueNote Networks


The advent of e-commerce and the emergence of big-box retail chains have radically transformed the retail industry. Traditional retailers face unprecedented pricing pressure from goliaths like Wal-Mart and Amazon who negotiate massive volume discounts with their suppliers. And the Internet itself has fundamentally altered the way in which consumers make purchasing decisions, often to the detriment of traditional retailers. In an instant, a consumer can search hundreds of sites around the world to select a merchant based on price or just about any other criteria.

 
It is suddenly a much smaller and much more competitive world. Many traditional retailers are fighting for their very survival. Independently-owned businesses are becoming a thing of the past. Long-established national chains are closing their doors or are being forced to merge with competitors to stay afloat.  
 
To survive, retailers must find ways to cut costs or learn to make the most of their ever-decreasing margins. To prosper, retailers must compete on factors other than price. To compete with the giants, successful retailers must offer unique and differentiable services plus outstanding customer experiences. Forward-looking retailers are turning to business communications platforms (BCPs) as a way to improve their competitive position by reducing communications expenditures, increasing staff productivity, and delivering new interactive applications to bring the customer closer to the retailer.
 
A business communications platform (BCP) delivers voice as a reusable software service in an enterprise IT architecture. A BCP can serve as a software-based alternative to a traditional PBX or it can deliver modern Internet-facing services to an incumbent PBX (News - Alert). And unlike a conventional PBX, a BCP offers high-level application programming interfaces that allow enterprises to quickly and easily add interactive voice capabilities to Web sites and business processes.
 
While PBXs typically are relegated to use as retail store or office telephone systems, retailers can leverage BCPs to extend and improve interactions with customers and partners and derive greater business value from their telecommunications infrastructures. BCPs serve a variety of retail applications.
 
Unified Communications (News - Alert) Services
 
Many retailers lack an integrated telephone network for store-to-store or store-to-headquarters calling. Each store has an independent PBX or key system with local PSTN connections. A BCP can deliver a unified telephone system, connecting stores and headquarters locations over the Internet or a private IP network. With a unified communications system, retailers can enjoy improved communications between stores and with the head office and benefit from common dialing plans, unified features (inter-store dialing, call forwarding and transfer), and centralized conferencing, voicemail, advertisements-on-hold, IVR systems and other functions.
 
Additionally, businesses can significantly reduce recurring communications costs by leveraging centralized PSTN trunk pools or SIP trunk providers, plus reduce personnel costs by consolidating operations, administrative and telephone attendant staffing functions. And with BCPs, retailers can leverage the public Internet to extend secure and reliable communications to mobile and home-based workers. For example, Internet-based call center agents can be utilized to temporarily expand call center capacity for the holiday season or during high volume promotional periods.
 
Voice-enabled Business Applications
 
BCPs deliver robust, yet easy-to-use programming interfaces to embed voice into retail applications to streamline operations, improve worker productivity and increase customer satisfaction. A corporate purchasing agent can call out to a supplier directly from an SCM screen for more efficient communications. A sales clerk can check product inventory at a nearby store and instantly communicate with the other location to place the product on hold and arrange payment and pick up details for a better customer experience.
 
With presence-enabled call routing, a sales clerk can immediately and automatically reach a specialist who is most qualified to answer a specific question about a particular product or service. By initiating calls by business function, not by identity, enterprises can reduce phone tag and voicemail in nearly any business process.
           
Interactive Web Sites
 
Merchants are leveraging BCPs to bring voice and text chat to Web sites. Communications-enabled Web sites help reduce Web site abandonment by allowing consumers to converse with call center agents during the purchasing process. Best-of-breed BCPs pass along contextual information to the call center agents so they can better serve Web visitors and prevent customers from repeating account, service or product information. These innovations improve customer satisfaction and retention, plus they improve call center economics by reducing average call lengths and hold times.
 
Voice-enabled Kiosks
 
Say you are walking the floor of a large electronics store and have a question about a home sound system, but you can’t find a free sales specialist to help you. You walk over to a voice-enabled kiosk and read some general information about home sound systems and then select to speak to a specialist. The BCP routes your call automatically to an available specialist. You may be connected to specialist with a WiFi (News - Alert)-enabled handset in the same store, an available specialist in another store, or a free call center agent at a remote location.
 
Kiosks open up co-branding opportunities, enabling retailers to refer customers to sister stores or business partners. And, they can be placed in unattended locations such as shopping malls and public spaces to extend customer reach beyond the conventional retail outlet.
 
Interactive Signage
 
Imagine you are strolling down Fifth Avenue in New York City doing a little window shopping on your way back to your hotel after a late business dinner. You come across a fall coat you really like, but wonder if it is available in brown instead of black. The boutique is closed but the digital sign in the storefront displays an 800 number to call for store and product information. Using your cell phone you are able to control the digital signage and pull up additional views and styles of the coat. You escape to an IVR-based order entry system, purchase the coat and arrange to have it shipped back to your home in California.
 
Outbound Notification
 
BCPs offer outbound calling capabilities to automate and improve customer communications. Retailers can deliver promotional announcements to valued customers such as notification of an unadvertised sale. BCPs can be used to conduct automated follow-up surveys to measure customer satisfaction. And they can allow retailers to better schedule and coordinate product deliveries. Customers can be provided up-to-the minute delivery information so they don’t sit around the house for hours waiting for the delivery guy to show up. And delivery personnel can be certain that the customer is home to receive the delivery – before driving to the residence.
 
To summarize, BCPs offer a variety of ways to help retailers reduce communications costs, improve customer satisfaction, increase reach, and boost worker productivity. By modernizing their communications infrastructures and by delivering outstanding customer experiences, retailers can maintain a competitive edge, in an increasingly aggressive environment.
 
Alan Rosenberg is director of Product Line Management for BlueNote Networks (News - Alert) (News - Alert). With BlueNote SessionSuite platforms, enterprises, ISVs and partners can quickly and easily embed interactive real-time communication services into a range of commercial or custom software applications, Web sites and internal business processes using industry-standard interfaces and technology. He can be reached at [email protected].

SOA/WEB SERVICES





Technology Marketing Corporation

2 Trap Falls Road Suite 106, Shelton, CT 06484 USA
Ph: +1-203-852-6800, 800-243-6002

General comments: [email protected].
Comments about this site: [email protected].

STAY CURRENT YOUR WAY

© 2024 Technology Marketing Corporation. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy