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Epicor Introduces New Tablet App for Customer Engagement on the Retail Floor

By Tracey E. Schelmetic
TMCnet Contributor

While tablet computers had a few false starts (remember Apple's (News - Alert) Newton?), the portable yet not-too-small devices are burning up the consumer electronics market. More and more businesses are finding uses for tablet computers as well, putting them into the hands of employees for whom it's impractical to remain tied to a desktop computer, but who required more functionality and a better interface than a smart phone.

While we worry about our customer engagement in the usual places – on the phone, online, via e-mail and across the sales counter in a retail store – fewer retailers have paid attention to the important interface that happens between a customer and a sales associate on the sales floors, or in the aisles.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) provider Epicor has announced a new mobile app for tablets called Epicor Retail Clienteling. It delivers critical customer insight from the retailer’s CRM database directly into the hands of sales associates engaging with customers as they move throughout the store, says the company.

When a sales associate is on the floor with a customer, it would would help him or her to know this customer better. Is this a regular customer? If so, what's the customer's buying history? What are the customer's needs likely to be, given his or her past purchase history? Has the customer bought warranties? Is the customer a “do-it-yourself” type, or does he or she require a lot of service calls?

The answers to all these questions can be found in the company's CRM database, and knowing the answers can help an associate immensely in better understanding how best to sell to that customer.

The mobile app is the newest advancement in Epicor's retail CRM software suite. It was designed to help retailers leverage customer information from previous interactions on the Web or in-store to better engage the customer and create a more personalized experience, which can lead to greater sales.

The app also allows the sales associate to enter new customer information into the database on the spot, which means he or she is more likely to do so. Waiting until after the customer engagement is over is risky, particularly if the salesperson is busy and quickly engaged by another customer. This way, when that sales associate leaves, the valuable customer information doesn't leave the store, as well.

“Epicor Retail Clienteling allows retailers to provide a much higher level of personalized service to each consumer, offering compelling information about shoppers as soon as they step into the store,” said Ian Rawlins, VP of marketing for retail software at Epicor. “Having an understanding of a customer's specific style, sizes and preferences enables retailers to foster richer, more successful sales engagements that encourage customers to return through the doors to again be part of an ultra- personalized shopping experience.”

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