Policies and tech don’t mix

 

circuit board, computer, digital, IT Policies or procedures are seen as an important business methodology to ensure there’s a defined workflow for staff to efficiently manage tasks.

The question that businesses might want to ask though, is how the policies will affect their staff, customers, and IT systems.

Many businesses have policies around dealing with customer questions or complaints to ensure that the message is consistent across the store network. Mixed messages may cause customers to question the company’s professionalism, which in turn can result in negative feedback.

Particularly important are policies around returns and exchanges. Efficient policies and staff training can provide customers with a level of service they’ll be happy to share or alternately condemn with immense force.

It’s predominantly in the area of IT systems that policies pose issues if not holistically considered or tested. For example, customers standing at a POS counter are far less patient than at any time during their shopping experience.

Let’s say an operator makes a mistake, such as charging a customer twice for an item. This may require senior staff to resolve it or the customer to visit another counter to wait in line where it may become their responsibility to explain the situation.

The problem is that the policy may suit the business, but not the customer who has been placed in a frustrating position, or worse, may be made late for another engagement.

Fundamentally, IT systems are put into place to simplify processes, speed customers through lanes, and provide controls around fraud (internally and externally).

The intended goal is to provide better customer service, limit operator overheads, and enable insights to operations and sales. The only issue is that in retail there is no perfect sales environment.

Staff and customers assume that IT systems are in place to handle each and every circumstance that will arise. For them, a particular issue is not unique and shouldn’t pose an issue, but we all know that this is not the reality.

Policies often fail simply because IT systems are based only on logic and don’t understand or cater for all the intangibles that can present themselves on the retail floor.

This is the root issue if policies are created outside of technical considerations and implemented without appropriate diligence. For example does your system provide the following?

  • Full audit of each transaction including operator, time, and date stamps
  • Scaled controls around overrides
  • Flexible exchange or returns workflows
  • Configurable trigger-based pop up screens
  • A reason code structure
  • Instant alerts to management that are triggered on configured events
  • Tasks management with escalations
  • Reporting tools that highlight exceptions and trends
  • Instant feedback mechanism for staff and customers.

There’s no perfect system that anticipates events or provides the most appropriate response, so the next best option is to empower staff to assist the customer while being made accountable for their actions.

If every keystroke can be audited, then the business should be able
to anticipate trends and respond accordingly.

For each policy it’s worth asking the question of why is it being put into place and who will be affected and how. Working with frontline staff will expose holes very quickly. Some businesses use professional shoppers to trip up staff and systems.

If staff are confident they have workarounds that are known to be audited they will probably feel more empowered than simply feeling monitored.

We don’t want to open up our systems to fraud and we know that not every customer is honest, but as a general rule the goal is to have staff and customers walk away from an experience believing that service was placed above controls or policies.

This story originally appeared in Inside Retail Magazine’s August/September 2013 edition. The October/November issue, featuring Inside Retail Magazine’s annual 50 Most Powerful Retailers List is available now. For more information, click here.

* Stephen Duncan is product manager, retail and CRM at Pronto Software. He can be reached at stephen.duncan@pronto.net.au or (02) 8875 503

 

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