Twelve-hundred seconds. The estimated face to face window of opportunity available for store assistants to assist consumers. From the moment a customer arrives, the grains of sand in the hourglass begin to fall. Enter Troy, our eager shop assistant: Every second Troy uses well will mean that the customer will feel cared for, appreciate product suggestions and return. Every second Troy spends in unsurety over whether an item is in stock or fumbling for a shoebox decreases it.

According to studies, the average customer spends about 20 minutes, or 1200 seconds, in a store providing a return of $75. How can Troy maximize his sales time or even generate more? Whilst conventional wisdom may indicate that lengthening the time that the customer spends in the store may be the solution, likely it is not. Customer satisfaction is generally based on the quality of the time they choose to spend in a store rather than the quantity of time they are forced to spend in a store. Retailers are in a de-facto state of needing to count and evaluate how each of those 1200 seconds are spent.

Statistics tell us that it is five times more expensive to locate a new customer than to retain an existing one. Therefore, the key to Troy maximizing these seconds is in clientelling, in using his time to build a continuing relationship with the client, in his retaining customers with the long-term in view. But how can Troy be empowered to manage this?

Assisted selling
Consider a client who wanders in the store looking for an appealing additional purchase. Troy has in his hand-held device real-time data including appealing alternative items in HD quality, the stock level of every item in store, its location in the store, the stock level of this item in each neighbouring store. If the customer has shopped there before then this data from the CRM is available and Troy can suggest items complementary to their previous purchases. Empowered with this, Troy can provide smart, bespoke recommendations to the individual customer. Every second he saves he can spent in up or cross-sales. And this is only the beginning…

This customer is retained. Their visits to the store engender familiarity between customer and retailer. The retained customer provides further data, improving store assistance and accuracy of recommendations. During further visits all this data is in the hands of Troy when he approaches the customer. More seconds are saved, and further sales are generated.

Assisted selling programs and applications make relevant data available that mean that shop assistants, such as Troy, does not lose the attention of the customer for even a second. They complete the shop assistance role.

Shopiassist provides all assisted selling data and put it into the hand of the sales assistant. With minimum training it can provide end-to-end personalized assistance to shop-assistants, instant communication between staff and branch locations and ensure that like Troy they also do not waste any of their 1200 seconds.