By Scott Minihane, Business Development Manager at Infinity.
Home furnishings is consistently one of the highest performing categories in retail. A buoyant housing market and more time spent at home has also seen the sector hold up reasonably well compared to others over the past couple of years - despite the obvious challenges brought about by Covid-19.
According to the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor for November 2021, it was 4th out of the 13 areas of retail analysed.
Digital channels have driven much of this growth, and ecommerce has grown exponentially across every retail category. This has been an interesting transition for furniture retailers. The aesthetic, tactile and high value nature of many purchases has historically rooted them in bricks and mortar. But consumers are now happy to buy online. And, even if they aren’t, they will carry out much of their research online initially – before going into a store to make the final purchase.
Because of this, furniture retailers have been working hard to join the dots between the online and offline experience. Huge investments have been made in analytics that can track the behaviour and preferences of shoppers online - or tools that enable customers to visualise what an item of furniture will look like in their home. In store, sales assistants are armed with technology that allows them to check inventory and delivery schedules, see a customer’s previous purchases or take payments away from the cash desk.
But, the contact centre, one area that provides a vital link between a retailer’s website, the store and its customers is still not being exploited to its full potential. The ability to link every phone call to its source and understand the journey that led to that call being made can give companies a huge advantage.
Maximising marketing spend
Call tracking enables furniture retailers to see which of their marketing activities are generating the most revenue and profit. And, conversely, where spend is being wasted. For instance, it enables them to identify and optimise key pages that have been shown to have higher phone conversions, or to pinpoint pages where adding a phone number leads to an increase in sales. Ultimately, anything that helps marketing teams to spot recurring trends can help them to make better decisions for future campaigns.
That’s because, as soon as a shopper makes a call, they instantly share insights that can be used to create more efficient marketing strategies. Historically, these insights were left trapped in the conversation between the customer and the agent because the resources required to listen to each call and look for patterns made it too difficult and time consuming a process.
But, monitoring the language that prospective buyers are using is invaluable. It can help retailers to understand the questions that consumers are commonly asking or to understand specific elements of a campaign that are resonating or inspiring them to get in touch.
By really tapping into the content of a call, and how things change when specific topics are discussed – delivery times, warranties or returns policies, for example, retailers can not only make their marketing materials work harder, but they can also refine how certain topics are addressed on calls to deliver a better overall experience for customers.
Empowering sales agents
Improving the phone call experience has a huge impact on an agent’s ability to close a sale. Analysing phone calls helps retailers to understand which tactics are having the greatest effect on the final numbers.
Supply chain disruptions that have prevailed for more than a year have been costly and frustrating for many sectors, including furniture retailers. Companies including Made.com and IKEA have been vocal about the damage that these issues have caused. It’s out of their control, of course, but it could end up having a huge knock-on effect for brand equity.
If it’s frustrating for customers waiting for a delivery after making a purchase, potential customers calling to check on delivery before they decide on a sale need reassurance. By analysing which responses are working most effectively in this scenario retailers can act swiftly, training all agents to respond consistently to put customers at ease and confirm the purchase.
The phone call is the missing piece of the puzzle for furniture retailers looking to bridge the gap between online and offline. Even without global supply chain issues and the Covid-19 pandemic, reassuring and converting customers over the phone should be a key part of a retailer’s sales and marketing strategy. Faced with these additional challenges, it’s vital.
Add a Comment
No messages on this article yet