Improving Customer Experience for a National Furniture Retailer through Upgraded In-Store Sales Technology

A local retailer known for offering high-quality American-manufactured furniture as well as famously comfortable recliners was undertaking a major showroom renovation. With new wireless access points and workstations added to the sales floor, their team was hoping to be able to provide more seamless customer experiences throughout their high-touch sales process.

Even after the initial IT upgrades were performed during the renovation project, a bottleneck still remained within the way custom furniture design was conducted: customers needed to cross the sales floor to a centralized large-screen workstation where they could review pricing, features and options. The problem was that the large PC monitors in use were acting as a barrier between the designers and customers, interfering with communication and eroding the customers’ experience.

Vertikal6 stepped in to provide the retailer with strategic guidance. We proposed replacing the PC workstation with a cutting-edge laptop/tablet hybrid, the Microsoft Surface. This would enable the designers to interact with customers from the comfort of the sales floor, bringing both parties closer to furniture samples and allowing them to interact more naturally. From a technology perspective, this was just a small change, but it had a major impact on business outcomes and customer experience.

Results:

• Improved business outcomes without incurring major costs.
• Increased overall sales and provided an easy upsell mechanism.
• Transformed traditional sales process into a technology-enabled one.
• Freed designers from the confines of the PC workstation.
• Saved time formerly spent crossing the sales floor.
• Delighted customers with more interactive, personalized, immediate experiences.