The Client
A champion in innovation and engineering quality, the client delivers audio solutions that amaze, delight and enable people to live their fullest lives. Offering commercial, military and consumer solutions, the client prides itself on being at the forefront of audio solutions. The client offers products and solutions across the globe in over 50 countries and has affiliate relationships extending its scope well beyond those countries.
The Challenge
The client engaged EX4CX to drive the delivery of a retail customer experience transformation. The existing retail experience delivered a transactional “experience” in an outdated store layout and appearance. The experience typically remained limited to a customer entering the store asking for a product, possibly receiving a basic demonstration, purchasing the product and leaving the store. As is well documented, “boring retail” has a limited and dying future and the client’s retail channel was seeing declining returns. Additionally, as competitors continued to advance their engineering prowess, product differentiation would no longer be the sole source of victory for the client’s brand.
The Approach:
EX4CX partnered with the client to transform the service delivery from a transactional moment to an experiential journey. Working with the client’s design, marketing and retail teams, the group developed an prototype focused on 3 key dimensions:
Physical CX - What does the store look like? What experiences (aka “venues”) could be created to build an engaging experience for the customer to build a deeper connection not just to the product but to the brand overall? How should venues look from a physical construction, in-store customer flow, visual impact? What can draw a customer in from a high traffic location into the actual store?
Human CX - How does a store employee interact with the customer? How does the employee build an empathetic connection to understand not just the customer’s needs but who the customer is? How do we change our hiring approach to bring true audiophiles to the talent base rather than pure sales talent?
Digital CX - To power both the instore physical experience venues and the employee’s ability to engage with the customer on a human level, what digital tools needed to be created or bought? The experience and the product needed to be the centerpiece so how do you create technology to be an enabler rather than a focus point? How can we ensure the employee is spending time with the customer and not worrying about the technology?
The Outcome:
The partnership created a complete redesign of the store footprint, styling, and in-store experience (physical, human and digital). 4 existing locations, located in the USA (2), UK, and Middle East, underwent a full pilot store transformation allowing for a test and learn approach. Customer results were immediate with a significant increase in NPS and sales. Employee engagement rose significantly due to pivot from transactional sales into building human connections. Marked a success, the pilot stores (including test and learn iterations) became the model for a global transformation planned for the next 3 years.