Invent the retail digital future with modern cloud communications

Retailers are not short on names being used to describe what’s happening to them right now. The British Retail Consortium calls it “Digital Retailing,” Gartner’s 2022 Top Strategic Tech Trend” report refers to it as “Total Experience,” McKinsey calls it the “Five Zeros” reshaping stores, KPMG calls it transitioning from “retailing” to “consumer commerce,” and the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) calls it “hybrid shopping” and the “Cognitive Store.” Interestingly, they’re all correct in different ways, as each of these perspectives provides excellent insight into an aspect of retailers’ digital futures.

Modern cloud-based communications will play an increasingly important role in those digital futures. Before demonstrating I want to clarify that when I say “omnichannel” I’m referring to the type of retail that integrates different methods of shopping, for example making purchases online, on the phone, or in store, as opposed to the other use of “omnichannel” which refers to all communication channels like business phone, contact centre, chat, video meetings, SMS and chat apps. The importance of this clarification will make more sense in just a moment.

Why modern communications are increasingly important

With the easing of pandemic-related restrictions, people are cautiously returning to restaurants and shopping, according to the latest insights from the Office for National Statistics (ONS):

• February 2022 retail sales volumes were 3.7% above their pre-coronavirus February 2020 levels
• Non-store retailing sales volumes were 33.2% above their pre-coronavirus February 2020 levels
• Retail online sales were 27.8% of all purchases in February 2022

Unfortunately, due to the current geo-political environment, on-going supply chain challenges, and stratospheric level inflation, consumer confidence has declined to -31 according to the March 25th GfK report.

As if these factors oppressing consumer confidence weren’t challenging enough, recent changes from the pandemic are making it even more difficult to be a successful retailer. Customers today are increasingly intolerant of poor experiences, and customers and staff alike are more concerned about aligning with organisations that support their values. Additionally, with hybrid working being here to stay, employees expect to be equipped with the right tools and technology to be effective at their jobs.

Although it’s always been challenging to be a successful retailer, the retailers we work with are excited about the future. There are four key areas where modern communications are underpinning each retailer’s future roadmap:

1. Evolving to an adaptive work model
2. Enabling digital ingenuity
3. Moving from data to decision intelligence
4. Ensuring customer data is secure

Evolving to an adaptive work model

For many retailers, the term “hybrid work” has never felt quite right. It’s not just about some people working in the office and some people working remotely, it’s also about how to keep employees safe during the pandemic, while still empowering them with the capabilities to deliver an omnichannel customer experience. The learnings from keeping employees safe during the pandemic have translated into new offers and business models that take a more purposeful and explicit approach to providing an integrated experience across the restaurants, stores, contact centre, ecommerce, central office, distribution centres, and warehouse supplies.

In this type of operating model, employees need communication capabilities tailored to their roles so they can more easily and effectively get the work done. Whether that employee is , a contact centre agent working from a home office, a buyer conducting video meetings with potential suppliers around the world, or a distribution centre manager using DECT phones to solve inventory questions, that employee’s communication system needs to adapt to the situation and make it effortless for each person to get their work done. For retailers, “hybrid work” needs to evolve and become an “adaptive work model.” They need the ability to support each role with the required communications, regardless of the type or location of that work. To see an example in action, this brief video demonstrates how the 8x8 Work app supports an adaptive work model.

Enabling digital ingenuity

The other day, I was queued-up at a register at a shop in my neighbourhood. I was ready to wait my turn, pay, and leave, when the phone rang behind the counter and the cashier actually answered it. All of us in line are now standing there watching (and listening) as the cashier attempts to answer an apparently endless list of questions from the caller. We left the experience frustrated, delayed, and less inclined to return — especially when online transactions have become so instant and seamless.

I bring this up to point out that retailers have an opportunity, with modern communications, to unleash the digital ingenuity that is currently locked up in organisational silos across their companies.

It starts with a single directory, with presence, for the entire company, where contact centre agents can quickly see which subject matter expert is available and get them involved to quickly provide an excellent first call resolution for the customer. That modern communications platform will also enable agents to escalate a chat session to a phone call or a video meeting while maintaining content and context with each transition.

Additionally, internal teams will be able to quickly connect, collaborate, and make decisions, they can also move a project forward or resolve an issue using instant video meetings and team chat rooms, regardless of device or location. Modern cloud-based communication systems remove the operating siloes that exist today because people are working with outdated, disparate communications systems or single purpose applications only deployed to a portion of the company.

The ability to use communications that remove operating silos and enable company-wide collaboration will deliver the cleverness, originality, and inventiveness, not to mention the ingenuity that's required to deliver exceptional customer experiences. This short video demonstrates what’s possible through the lens of a customer centre agent experience.

Moving from data to decision intelligence

This may sound outlandish, but your next decision intelligence tool is a phone call. Before you scoff, how many ways are there to handle an incoming phone call? With a modern communications platform, there are at least eight, all listed in the diagram below. Each of those interactions generates data, and that data can be aggregated, stored, and made accessible for transformation into metrics and analysis. Those insights then need to be presented to the right person at the right time in the right format. That presentation can take the form of five types of information:

1. Descriptive. What happened?
2. Diagnostic. What broke?
3. Predictive. What’s possible?
4. Prescriptive. What’s the next best action?
5. Cognitive. What can be automated?

Those five types of information should drive three types of business outcomes:

1. Automating routine tasks such as reporting with a click, generating reporting that supports decision making.
2. Transforming insight into immediate operational action with real-time metrics that can identify, for example, that call queues and hold times are increasing at the contact centre. Based on that insight, the IVR can be changed to promote the “call me back” capability or provide a discount coupon for those that want to continue to hold.
3. Supporting strategic planning and automating workflows and process redesigns that can be informed with data from call detail and call activity reports to ensure changes are driven based on the realities of what is actually happening in the business.

Now consider the possibilities using data from all communication interactions as a way to better understand customer sentiment, deliver real-time coaching, and drive relevant recommendations from AI-powered capabilities. More comprehensive, accurate, and timely data will provide better information that will power your organisation’s ability to make better decisions faster. Are you taking full advantage of the communications data available to your organisation? Is it even possible or is all that data locked up in the different communication applications used across the organisation? This brief video demonstrates how a modern platform provides conversation insights and professionalism, from the front desk to the back office, to transform communications data into actionable decision intelligence.

Ensuring customer data is secure

As we progress to an integrated digital world where data is the red blood cells of our economic, institutional, and lifestyle circulatory systems, there's increasing risk for cyberattacks. Leading cybersecurity threat research firms reported that in 2021, critical attacks increased from 18% to 24% and the number of successful breaches also dramatically increased. Even well known tech companies were among the notable breaches. The research also reveals there are about five million records of personal data on the dark web. Those records, containing a name, phone number, Social Security/ National Insurance number, and address, can be purchased for less than a McDonald's Big Mac.

Given this increasing potential for risk, protecting customers’ data and intellectual property is a priority for retail CIOs. This is a broad topic that is a primary way that 8x8 develops and delivers its cloud-based communications services. I’ll just introduce the scope of the challenge and rigour 8x8 applies to security and privacy with these eight key components of the 8x8 security and compliance program:

• Dedicated Team. 8x8 has a dedicated team of security and compliance experts with experience from WhiteHat Security, Apple, and Facebook that are focused on security management, technical investigation, guiding industry policy, and securing third-party certification and validation to provide the highest level of protection for your data.
• Third-Party Validation. 8x8 focuses on ten certifications and standards starting with NIST 800-53, the gold standard for security controls.

• 24x7x365 Scanning and Monitoring. The 8x8 network and security operations centre is actively scanning and monitoring for potential threats 24x7x365 to ensure 8x8 service resiliency.
• Data Encryption. From a data transmission and storage perspective, 8x8 uses the strongest commercial encryption capabilities available including AES 256 and encryption types that are compatible with the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) as well.
• Pen Testing. It's important that 8x8 understands where the vulnerabilities are and their origination, so the environment is constantly tested from the outside through continuous pen testing conducted by leading pen testers.
• Shifting Left. Securing 8x8 products begins at the point of initial design. 8x8 starts with architecting for data regulation and privacy. This approach is based on a philosophy in the security realm that recommends practitioners need to shift left (not politically, but earlier in the process) and get closer to the developers and legal as a way to move from reactionary to proactive.
• Enabling Organisational Design. The right organisational design facilitates the ability to include security at each step of the development process. For example, at 8x8, the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) reports into the chief legal officer. This structure is very intentional and ensures clear separation of duties so that security decisions and investments are not constrained by, but incorporated into, product priorities.
• Proactive Participation in Policy Development. The 8x8 security team are members of committees and advisory boards to actively participate in shaping regulatory policies to ensure there’s never a gap between 8x8 practices and regulatory requirements.

Taking payments over the phone in the contact centre is a typical use case requiring specific security capabilities. This brief video demonstrates how 8x8’s Secure Pay supports secure credit card transactions in your contact centre.

A final word

The pandemic drove heroic levels of responsiveness and action that has changed all of us forever. There are no words to appropriately describe what we’ve all endured. But, it is clear, the rate of change only accelerates from here. McKinsey estimates that by 2026, 50% of revenue will come from products, services, and business that don’t exist today. The geo-political situation continues to be increasingly dynamic and scientists are strongly suggesting significant changes are needed now to limit our impact on the environment. All of this uncertainty can cause a “wait and see” attitude. For retailers, that’s absolutely the least advantageous approach. Now is the time to predict the future by inventing it. A modern cloud communications platform is critical for a digital future due to its ability to support an adaptive work model, enabling digital ingenuity through company-wide collaboration, using data to drive decision intelligence, and ensuring your customer data is always secure.

It’s an exciting future ahead of us. We look forward to building it with you. To learn more about how to invent the digital future with modern communications, request a quote today.