Stores Magazine - October 2007 - (Page 28) EXECUTIVE SUITE / DIGITAL SIGNAGE digital screens. Katherine Toll, director of consumer and employee experience for Kurt Salmon Associates, uses NikeTown golf pavilion as an example. “Let’s say you’re in the golf pavilion, and you see a video of Tiger Woods hitting the 18th hole at the Masters,” she says. “In that way, you’re clued in to something you can aspire to. You start to think, ‘I could be that person.’ That really gets you involved. But for it to work, it has to be very tailored, and has to mean something to the environment you happen to be standing in.” In most other stores, however, digital signs may be put to better use in helping the consumer cut through the clutter to find the exact product or service she desires. Customer specialists Best Buy – a company that Platt lauds for “understanding” the concept of the customer store experience – approaches the topic from several angles: It includes everything from consistency in colors and employee uniforms to its Geek Squad technical support. But it’s not just the fact that the Geek Squad exists, Eastman says: “It’s that the Geek Squad agent can ask you the right question to understand what you really need. It’s that we have customer specialists rather than … product specialists or salesmen. It’s about how I, as an employee of Best Buy, find out what you want and make this experience for you not just one of being in another big box. How can I adapt to fit whatever it is you need as a customer? It’s all about … how we can paint a picture that you can see yourself in.” For digital signage, this includes everything from PowerPoint-like presentations to whatever is playing on the hundreds of TV screens on the shelves. In the case of the latter, this could mean making the programming more relevant – and less annoying – by showing local events, family movies when parents are likely to be shopping with young children and edgier content in the evenings. Regardless of what’s playing, however, retailers must keep in mind that customers are likely to see it for a few brief moments. It not only has to be relevant, it has to be immediate. Consider a woman shopping in a shoe department, waiting for a sales associate to bring her a pair of shoes, Platt says. A nearby sign might read, “Thank you for shopping at Kohl’s. We have a two-for-one special on dress heels … and have you considered shoe polish to protect your purchase?” “We think this will be huge in time,” Platt says. As more and more retailers offer digital messages, it might seem that they could lose their effectiveness. But Platt disagrees. “Have you ever been in a store that doesn’t have a sign?” he says. “It’s not just that the sign is digital that makes it relevant; 28 STORES / OCTOBER 2007 it’s what’s on the sign that’s relevant. And if people aren’t leveraging those signs to maximize impact, then they’re just static signs that change [every] so often.” And maximizing that impact means providing the right message at the right time. An upscale merchant like Neiman Brand equity: Marcus, Platt says, might “kill a customer’s perceived the brand” with a sign about value of a product two-for-one shoes, but a video or service based of a fashion show featuring on name, image, characteristics and highlights of the upcoming personal preferences season could be “helpful, useful and entertaining.” Digital signage doesn’t stand apart as the only way to create a relevant, positive and effective customer experience – and it’s not likely to in the future, either. Just adding an audio/video presentation – as pertinent as it may be – is not the sole way to increase sales or build customer loyalty. But the hope is that sometime in the near future, retailers will learn how to take full advantage of technology to bring it all home. Picture this Toll offers up a “wouldn’t this be fabulous” scenario. “Let’s say a person comes into The Home Depot, and that person is building a deck,” she says. “The associate hasn’t the faintest idea where to start in helping the customer, but that associate does know there are resources to go to. They could pick up a book, or they could go to a kiosk and use a Google-like function, and enter ‘build a deck.’” What would appear on the screen, she says, would be a list of necessary tools, where they’re located in the store, some general instructions and even a few tips to keep in mind. “That way the associate role moves more toward navigating the customer,” she says. “And on the selling floor, those kiosks turn into both a selling tool for the consumer and a learning tool for the associate. “Retailers will say, ‘Service, service, service; we’re known for our service,’” says Toll. “But nine out of 10 people, if you polled them right now, would tell you that they still don’t experience that when they walk into a store.” And most retailers would be hard pressed to find a shopper who actually wants to stand in front of a screen that’s obviously aimed at the sale – not to mention employees who won’t tire of that same three-minute loop. “If what’s on the screen is annoying, it will tend to require more frequent repairs,” Eastman jokes. “We’re not sure how StORES that happens, but we have some guesses.” Fiona Soltes, who splits her time between “retail therapy” and freelance writing, lives near Nashville, Tenn. 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