Every business wants to find ways to increase profits. The best way to grow is to keep customers happy by offering great goods and services.  Retail outlets need to empower their staff to serve clients better and make sure that their customers are getting access to the company products.

Companies need to do this while keeping up with current challenges and changes. Retail faces unique challenges when it comes to keeping up with current trends and technology. This year, retail needs to look towards:

• Managing voice search. More customers are using Google voice search to find what they need.

• Generating traffic. SEO is vital.

• Keeping that traffic! An intuitive website that functions at 110% is needed to retain customers.

• Capturing and nurturing leads. This is where Google Workspace really shines.

• Converting customers who are browsing into customers who are buying.

Another important aspect that applies to the retail sector is customer experience. To create a wonderful customer experience, retail outlets need to streamline their processes. Businesses also need to improve the shopping experience of their customers. Google Workspace has an array of tools that companies can use to perform better in the following ways:

• Improving access to information

• Collaboration

• Improving customer experience

• Streamlining processes

Improving access to information

Google Workspace is well known for its speed. Sharing of information is easier and smoother thanks to this feature.

POWER OF INFORMATION FOR EMPLOYEES

Employees need to stay on track with price changes, product features, and store policies. They also need to access standardized material that guides operations and best practices.  These will help them serve customers better.

Consider if a customer interacts with one sales representative, then on subsequent visits, interacts with another.

If the information about the customer is already in the Cloud and all sales representatives have access, it becomes easier for them to serve the customer.

PRODUCT INFORMATION

When staff members update items on Google Sheets and Docs, the changes reflect elsewhere within a matter of seconds. This enables staff to know up-to-date information about inventory, prices, and offers. With this information at their fingertips, they can serve customers better.

Consider Design Within Reach. Employees of this company share information about promotions, internal news, and product details in a single Google Site. Staff can receive notifications when information is added or modified. They can then find out what new information it is, for instance, a special offer. With this, they can help customers make better choices.

Employees can access this information from anywhere in the store or even outside, this eliminates the need to post changes on a board or call meetings whenever you need to announce changes.

TRAIN AND ONBOARD WORKERS

Standardized trainings are important because they foster consistency. An organization can set up all its training materials on a Google Site for easy access by all employees.

In case a retail outlet is split into various sections, they can opt to use Google Teams. If it is a general store, only the people working in the electronics section may need in-depth training about electronics on sale.

With Teams, a new staff member working in electronics can get all the files belonging to the electronics section and familiarize themselves.

When a store has several remote branches and the management needs to train all the employees, they can use Hangouts. Consider retail outlets dealing in food, a senior chef can explain to others the procedure for preparing a trademark dish and answer questions live. This helps maintain consistency across branches.

The sessions can also be recorded and saved in Drive for future reference whenever someone gets stuck or forgets.

Collaboration

As employees look at information from Drive, they might find items that they want to comment on, leave feedback, or ask for clarification. Google Workspace has a host of ways that members of staff can communicate. These include Hangouts, the comment feature on Sheets and Docs, or even Google+.

Consider an item that seems wrongly priced in the store or it is out of stock, but the system is not reflecting it. An employee can comment on the spreadsheets that the item has run out and each employee will know immediately.

Woolworths uses Hangouts and Google+ as platforms for employee interaction. Admins use these to make announcements, introduce new employees, and improve the workplace spirits by posting interesting content and engaging with members of staff.

SCHEDULING

Google Workspace enables better scheduling because it integrates the apps with Google Calendar. This enables the management to set activities for staff members without any conflicts.

Since some retail employees work in shifts, it is easy for supervisors to tell who is on duty and which section they are on in real-time. When Google Workspace is integrated with the check-in system it provides information about the time the employees show up and leave.

To create a dynamic work schedule, companies can use Sheets and Calendar to plan. This enables all the schedules and tracking to continue in one place. Admins can tell how far tasks are being carried out and by who.

IMPROVING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

While empowered employees will be better placed to handle customer queries, retail outlets can improve customer experience by giving them more power over the shopping experience. To do this, the outlet needs to avail customers with information and improve service delivery. Some ways that Google Workspace can help include:

• Smart signage

• Self-service devices

• Customer feedback

SMART SIGNAGE

Digital signage is more beneficial than printed options because the retail outlet can do much more. For instance, the screen can be split to make announcements like new arrivals or promotions for a section. With Google Workspace, businesses can ensure that the information on the digital screens remains updated. A retail chain can customize the information to each locale.

One feature that is possible with smart signage is tailoring content for customers. Chico’s FAS Stores use Chrome Boxes to display content according to the time of day, or the product a customer is interacting with.

SELF SERVICE DEVICES

Most retail outlets in the banking sector have opted for self-service devices. This trend is also catching on in other sectors like fast food outlets. Self-service devices can help customers see a rendering of the product in use. This helps them make quicker and better decisions.

Google Workspace tools like Docs and Sheets can ensure that whatever a customer does on the device is updated in real-time over the whole organization. For instance, when a customer makes an order, the employees see the details in real-time. This improves efficiency.

CUSTOMER TRACKING AND FEEDBACK

No business can improve its service delivery without understanding the customers. Gadgets like tablets provide an easy way for retail outlets to collect customer feedback as they leave the premises. They can submit the information on Google Forms, and the feedback will reflect on Google Sheets. The employees can then use this information to tweak the processes for better customer satisfaction.

For online outlets, App Scripts can import data ion brand mentions to Google Sheets. After analyzing the brand mentions, a business is in a good position to improve its image.

Tracking is more practical for online shopping. User habits inform the items to show to the prospect as they browse the site. You can create a model that works for the kind of goods sold in the store.

Streamlining processes

Retail outlets need to collect data and use it to make decisions. One of the easiest ways is to use Google Forms. The information collected is then analyzed and it enables the business to make better decisions. Consider the old school way of calling storekeepers to ask about product returns.  It took a lot of time and manpower.

With Google Workspace, employees can enter such information on Forms. The results are collected in Sheets and App Scripts can be used to further process and analyze the data. The information becomes available to all staff who need it in real time. This helps in planning.

Companies can also collaborate better with suppliers by granting them access to documents that show when a store needs restocking. Suppliers can be allowed access to a Sheet that shows how many types of each product remain in stock. They can schedule shipment based on that information.  

Final Words

Google Workspace for retail has the benefits of making processes faster and more efficient. Google Workspace allows admins to set permissions and perform audits on files within the retail space. Permissions ensure that unauthorized personnel do not inadvertently change prices or erroneously indicate that items are out of stock. Once business owners can identify the needs of their retail outlets, they can take advantage of the Google Workspace features that will serve them best.

A Google Workspace trusted partner since 2014. More than 750 plus clients have migrated to the Google Workspace platform, and we continue to support them.  Click here to request a 30-minute meeting with us.

First image is from: https://www.pexels.com/photo/clothes-colorful-colourful-hanging-16170/

Second image is a screenshot from: https://GSuite.google.com/learning-center/products/drive/get-started-team-drive/#!/