World Market elevates the customer & employee experience with Theatro
"Theatro has digitally transformed our store communications which helped us improve our associates’ productivity, knowledge and speed of service which translates into better customer experiences and increased sales”
— Scott Traverso, Vice President Store Operations World Market
Theatro transforms World Market's connections and collaboration, improving labor efficiency, customer service and the bottom line
Transforming the in-store experience
Retailers that want to stay competitive must invest in building meaningful customer relationships across all channels and touchpoints through differentiated and frictionless service. Responding to the growing expectations of time-sensitive and tech-savvy customers means that retail brands must improve in-store experiences, along with enhancing curbside pickups, personalized mobile app features, and loyalty programs.
World Market (WM) wanted to connect its entire team in real-time to create consistent in-store communications between its stores’ leaders, groups, and associates. However, store operations were constrained by internal systems that did not enable a fully connected workforce. As a result, store personnel faced gaps in communication that led to missed updates, disjointed workflows and other inefficiencies between store associates and management.
Only WM managers were connected via store VoIP phones, leaving 75% of in-store teams operating in isolation and having to walk across stores to find assistance, product information or inventory data. Additionally, in-store announcements were typically communicated via an overhead paging system, which disrupted shoppers’ experience and often yielded no results in employee acknowledgment as individual accountability was lacking.
Store management was also challenged by the redundancy of consistently relaying critical internal communication from HQ to every associate, across all shifts and store locations. These repetitive exercises were still typically insufficient, creating more gaps in communication and associate knowledge which negatively impacted productivity and the overall customer experience.
Connecting your people is key
WM chose the Theatro Mobile Communication Platform, an as-a-service solution that runs off Microsoft Azure via an IoT Wearable with an Intelligent Virtual Assistant, supported through cloud services. Theatro is a subscription-based service that connects every associate to the enterprise, to managers, and to one another, improving labor productivity and the overall customer experience. Associates are also connected with critical back-office systems, giving them on-the-spot access to product knowledge and inventory insights, resulting in reduced ‘walk time’ when searching for answers.
Headquarter and store-based management teams can communicate directly, in real-time, with all associates, which increases team engagement, collaboration, and alignment to business objectives.
Ringing up the positive impact
Instead of continuing to rely on overhead paging and limited VoIP phones, World Market evaluated several different technologies including walkie talkies and other mobile technology. They knew they must eliminate overhead paging but needed a solution that connected the entire team. Ultimately, Theatro had the most complete offering to not only optimize communications across the entire team but also provided quick access to critical business information through integrations to back-end systems like POS and inventory management.
Now that every associate is connected with Theatro, our teams can communicate faster and more efficiently at every level, which makes our customer experience better. Theatro has digitally transformed our store communications which helped us improve our associates’ productivity, knowledge and speed of service which translates into better customer experiences and increased sales.
The business has already benefited from improved operational efficiency and employee engagement including:
- The elimination of the distractions created by overhead paging, delivering only messages that are relevant to each associate while also enabling a better customer experience.
- Headquarter teams have the ability to communicate with all frontline team members by leaving them voice messages that they hear when logging on to the system for their shift, using Theatro’s Content Distribution Manager (CDM).
- Increased speed of service with the platform’s closed-loop Request and Respond applications, enabling quick access to managers and one another to support customer requests.
- Access to critical back-end system information, allowing associates to easily and seamlessly check inventory through a simple voice command which improves service efficiency.
- Automating and streamlining Curbside services, adding impetus to the growing on-demand, ‘click and collect’ nature of today’s retail service demand.
- Improved labor scheduling and reallocation capabilities to optimize store coverage based on customer need.
About Theatro
Theatro’s Heads-Up, Hands-Free solution enables enterprises to unlock the value of their frontline teams by connecting them to the people and information they need to do their jobs…all done through the power of voice. Theatro’s as-a-service solution enables employees in gaming, hospitality, retail, and manufacturing to provide outstanding customer experiences while driving employee productivity and operational profitability. For more information, visit www.theatro.com.
