What’s the best way to keep product and store operations gaffes out of the spotlight?Correct them before the

flash bulbs start popping.

Avoid the Retail “Paparazzi” with

Reflexis StorePulse®

Avoid the Retail “Paparazzi” with Reflexis StorePulse®

During the Oscars, Grammys, and other “red carpet” events, the paparazzi are always out in full force, searching for even the slightest flaws in what ce-lebrities are wearing or doing to make a quick buck. Even when it isn’t award season, the paparazzi are constantly watching and waiting to trump up the next big scandal, hoping to make a name for them-selves by ruining someone else’s reputation.

Retailers face a similar problem. Every move is scrutinized, and if a mistake is made, it’s not the traditional paparazzi coming after you — it’s the retail equivalent: reporters, influencers, regulators, bloggers, and many others who constantly look for mistakes retailers make to write headlines for their audience.

Retailers need a way to reduce the risk of scandal arising in the first place. Stores need to be proactive in preventing such scandals instead of being forced to play defense after the fact. What retailers need is a real-time store execution platform and a first line of defense against the retail paparazzi.

As technology has advanced and customers have become more enabled, your stores must plan for two different sources — criticism in print and criti-cism on the web (Blogs, Twitter, Yelp, you name it).

Planning for professional paparazzi is more straight-forward. They look for especially big faux pas like mismanaged product recalls, excessive out-of-stocks, and glaringly messy stores.

While these may happen by oversight, the retail pa-parazzi can make anything look like it is being done due to negligence or lack of caring for associates or customers, as the case may be. A bit of bad news in a major newspaper or journal can have rippling im-pacts that change the way customers view a Retail organization, leading to reduced sales and custom-er defection.

Prevent Recalls From Wreaking HavocLet’s look at a worst-case scenario. A highly pub-licized kids electronic toy is released and every customer wants to buy one for his or her child. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission finds out that there is a live wire issue with the toy. They issue a recall on their website. Your corporate office picks up the notification and sends emails to all the stores notifying them that the product needs to be taken off the shelves immediately. Unfortunately the distribution of and compliance with the email is not immediate and even if the recall begins and products are taken off the shelves, cashiers have no insight to be able to stop sales of the item at the checkout.

While stores have just begun to complete the recall, hundreds of these toys may have been sold. Soon news outlets pick up that the toys are harming chil-dren and the blame lands on your retail chain, for not executing the recall faster and more efficiently. Not only are customers going to view your com-pany as negligent, but the repercussions will also amplify as sales dip, shareholders get upset, and brand loyalty erodes.

How could this doomsday scenario have been any different with a real-time store execution system?

With Reflexis StorePulse®, paired with mobile devices, the instant corporate issues the recall, a high-priority task is sent to all store managers and an alert pops up on their mobile devices. If the Store Manager is busy or unavailable, he or she can assign the recall activity to a Department Manager or a Store Associate performing non-essential tasks.

“Your stores must plan for two different sources — criticism in print and

criticism on the web.”

StorePulse: Retail’s Paparazzi Bouncer• Product Recalls: Complete store-wide recalls in under two hours, alerts prevent sale of recalled

products at register• Social Media Influencers: Gain insight into customer related issues before they occur, develop

influential customers through personalized outreach• Freak Weather: Anticipate and respond to the impact of sudden extreme weather on customer

traffic and merchandise needs

The alert gives them instructions on their mobile device, and once the activity is finished, they can mark the recall as complete. The associ-ate can also be required to take the recalled products to a scanner in the store and scan all the units to ensure that the recall is done.

In addition, StorePulse prevents recalled products from being purchased by a customer. As soon as a cashier scans the recalled product at the regis-ter, StorePulse notifies the cashier that the product they just scanned has been recalled. The associate explains the situation to the customer and allows them to replace the product if they want. StorePulse allows stores to respond to problems before they occur and avoid the potential pitfalls of a botched product recall.

Ensure Social Media Doesn’t Stymie Success With the rise of Social Media and consumer tech-nology, there is another avenue to watch out for — customers with influential media presences. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, among others have given individuals a vast and powerful platform to reach out through and share opinions.

Analyzing social media can be used to a Retailer’s advantage to help stores avoid potentially disastrous situations. Social media has redefined the concept of “word of mouth.” Now a single individual can influ-ence thousands of people to take decisions on what they will buy and where they will buy it.

If a highly influential customer comes to a Retail store and receives bad service or is stuck in a check-out lane for too long, they may share that informa-tion with their followers. These influencers may drive traffic away from Retail stores and to competitors. With Store-Pulse, combined with social media analytics, store man-agers can gain insight into issues in the store and can re-direct labor to relieve pressure at the checkout, or address other areas of concern.

Stores can then follow up with these influencers on their platform of choice and engage as per corporate policies to ensure the customer comes back to shop. Effectively, your store managers can rectify poten-

tially serious problems that are impacting many customers and win back the business and loyalty of influential social media users, and their followers.

StorePulse can also use weather feeds to look be-yond the four walls of your store to anticipate prob-lems that might occur if your store doesn’t take ac-tion in the moment. For example, if a big snowstorm is coming, it might be good to have that knowledge to account for changes in customer traffic, late truck arrivals, and for the positioning of key products like shovels, roof rakes, and salt, etc. Without insight into the weather, your stores may be caught off guard and run out of key merchandise, driving customer traffic away.

With StorePulse, your store managers would be alerted to such situations and would be able to relocate key products making them more visible to customers and would also be able to place orders to DCs to receive larger supplies of key products to keep shelves stocked and customers satisfied.

In an age where reputations are worth their weight in gold but where a single mistake can balloon into a fiasco waiting to be covered by journalists or social media influencers, your stores need a first line of offense to preempt problems before they happen. Whether it is a task sent down from corporate, cus-tomer service, or a surprise coming from outside the four walls of your store, retailers have to be able to figure out strategies to problems before they occur.

Real-time store execution and mobility give your stores the power to make sure tasks are carried out on time and that problems are solved before they erupt. Put Reflexis StorePulse in the hands of your store managers and associates and stay ahead of the retail paparazzi!

Avoid the Retail “Paparazzi” with Reflexis StorePulse®

“Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, among others, have given individuals a vast and powerful platform to reach

out through and share opinions.”

“Store managers can rectify potentially serious problems that are impacting many customers and win back the business and

loyalty of influential social media users.”

Avoid the Retail “Paparazzi” with Reflexis StorePulse®

Contact ReflexisReflexis Systems, Inc.3 Allied Drive, Suite #400Dedham, MA 02026Phone: +1 (781) 493-3400Fax: +1 (781) 493-3999info@reflexisinc.com

About Reflexis Systems, Inc,Reflexis is the pioneer in real-time store execution and workforce manage-ment solutions that enable retailers to execute their customer engagement strategy flawlessly and uncover profit. The Reflexis platform of real-time store execution, task management, KPI/compliance, time and attendance, and la-bor scheduling (including budgeting, forecasting, and employee self-service)

enables retailers to align store labor/activities to corporate goals and institu-tionalize best-practice response to real-time metrics and alerts.

For the past 14 years, more than 200 of the world’s best companies in multiple vertical categories such as retail, hospitality, and Quick Serve Restaurants have reported dramatic improvements in compliance with corporate strategies; higher productivity of corporate, field, and store employees; and increased revenue and profitability after implementing Reflexis workforce management and real-time execution solutions. Reflexis StorePulse® (patent pending) synchronizes activities with real-time KPIs, alerts, and customer de-mand. Stores, hotels, and restaurants can systemically execute best practices to provide a greater quality of customer engagement, leading to higher revenues.

Reflexis Systems, Inc. is privately held and headquartered in Dedham, Massachusetts and has offices in Atlanta, London, and India.