RingCentral for Retail

One way that retailers can endear themselves is in the area of customer service, and RingCentral’s Engage Voice platform can be used to this end.  With the additional bonus of the API, retailers can have their customer service call center react to inbound calls based on an agent’s experience level, the customer’s recent purchase history, the customer’s call history, or the priority of the call. Having this historical background information made readily available to the call agent helps to prepare the agent for the incoming call and, therefore, can help them in solving any issues more quickly. 

If the incoming communication from a client is text based, then messages of that type  can be picked up by the system. It can also then be scanned for content allowing the system to respond by text if its a simple request for information like an order status. If the message is more complex then the information can be forwarded to a call agent, customer data retrieved, and a return voice call can be placed to the customer to discuss the issue. 

Research has shown that 13% of unhappy customers will share their negative company experience with 15 or more people. While even less, 1 in 26 customers (4%), will complain directly to the source of their issue. While on the other hand, if an issue is resolved quickly by a positive service experience, then a happy customer will either remain a customer, become a better customer, or even become a brand ambassador for that company. So trying to be helpful, courteous, and informed while resolving customer issues is the best approach to retaining your hard earned customer base.

New retail experiences are coming into play all the time; curbside pickup of online orders for instance. Integrations with RingCentral’s SMS messaging API and order management and fulfillment systems can be created where the retailer receives a text message when the customer has arrived on site. That message can then be routed to the in-store team via SMS or team messaging, informing them to deliver the prepaid merchandise to where the customer is waiting in the parking lot.

Internal store operations are just as important to the survival of a retail operation as customer interaction. Tasks like making sure inventory is received, processed, and placed on the shelves; that signage and pricing is current; that shopping aisles are clean, presentable, and navigable; that staff scheduling is up-to-date; and so on. All these tasks can be managed and assigned through a task management system and integrated with RingCentral’s SMS or Team Messaging platform with their respective APIs in use if needed. Tasks can be assigned and sent to the appropriate staff member via messaging, and once the task is completed the staff member can reply to the message to have the system be updated with the task’s completed status with any additional notes. This can be especially beneficial to big box stores that cover a large square footage of retail space. 

For a real-life example of this in action, you can see what Waitrose & Partners have done in the UK to fully automate their large grocery stores, convenience stores, and international locations. They have implemented RingCentral MVP™ and Team Messaging on a unique mobile device known as a Zebra device which also has a barcode reader in it. With this combination, they can check stock levels, communicate with anyone in-store or further afield, and help customers all from one hand-held device.

With GPS and location services becoming more mainstream, retailers can now even be aware of what general area of a store a customer is standing in or moving through. With SMS capabilities at the ready, retailers can send out a coupon or sale notification for a particular item that is in close proximity to the customer. 

For many other retail CRM needs, RingCentral also has out-of-the-box integrations of prebuilt apps with many partner suppliers like Salesforce, SugarCRM, Hubspot, Zendesk, Oracle Sales Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics, and many more. Check out the many CRM integrations on our App Gallery.