How AI can transform your retail service desk

Retail is an evergreen industry that has gone through substantial transformation in the last two decades alone.

Gone are the days when someone enters a physical store to purchase, return or exchange a product. Since Covid, 75% of customers use multiple channels (website, app, physical stores) to purchase & exchange goods. With the rise of the internet & social media, trend cycles have reduced too - trends have gone from lasting years or months, to just weeks.

To combat the issues created by a fast-paced digital world, retail companies turned to AI for forecasting product trends & managing inventory vs. anticipated demand.

While the integration of AI for inventory and demand forecasting has become standard practice, we at Atomicwork believe retail underutilizes AI for worker support. Inadequate customer support can lead to diminished brand loyalty and satisfaction. Let’s take a closer look at some issues workers in physical stores face post-Covid:

1. Keeping up with changing demands: Workers must stay on top of evolving trends, stock availability, store policies, and events to deliver optimal in-store experiences. While AI aids in inventory analysis and demand forecasting, employees bring important human feedback to the AI process. Giving your workers the knowledge they need to provide quality feedback can seem daunting, especially in an age of social media.
2. Promptness of assistance: Consumers expect the same level of efficiency in physical stores as they experience online, including speedy checkouts and returns. Additionally, they demand proactive assistance from store staff regarding discounts and promotions. The expectations for both speed and quality of service have surged since the onset of Covid.
3. High turnover rates: Retail roles are inherently demanding, leading to persistent high turnover rates. Simplifying and expediting the onboarding process may seem like a solution, but it can strain workers who feel pressured to support customers while still acclimating to their roles. Inadequate support systems during and after onboarding exacerbate turnover rates, underscoring the importance of facilitating support for retail workers in the most efficient manner possible.

Conversational AI can do a fantastic job of bridging the gaps caused by volatile customer spending trends & high turnover rates. Each of the above issues has one common theme: in today’s retail experience, precise information has to be instantly accessible.

This is exactly what Atomicwork was built to assist with. When interacting with a few of our retail customers, we began discussing the benefits of using AI to unite people, processes and technology. There are already success stories like Boots Opticians, who decided to bring all their frontline workers to MS Teams to unify frontline workforce communication & create a culture of relentless customer care.

In this blog post, we wanted to take that concept even further: imagine a retail company unifying its workers using a platform like Teams or Slack along with Atomicwork. Not only could we eliminate app fatigue, but we would also be giving each employee an AI assistant that is available on phone and computer. Irrespective of the customer interaction, workers can keep Atom by their side to answer knowledge queries, instantly alert support & automate tasks to keep your retail workers calm, collected and happy.

Here are a few examples :

Atom for onboarding & knowledge assistance

When new workers are being onboarded, Atom can guide them on their next steps to complete training. Whether it's reminders to complete coursework, setting up meetings & feedback sessions on their behalf, or assigning tools or tasks, Atom can truly handhold your workers in training, while they get used to their new organization.

Post-onboarding, Atom is still available to your workers as a conversational assistant, serving answers from manuals, guides, and any other knowledge sources that are hard to remember & access instantly.

Enhancing unified customer experience

Whether it is finding a customer’s previous orders, assisting them with a refund or checking if an item is in stock, workers can simply ask Atom. Atom can talk to the different apps in your tech stack to retrieve the right information, give your employees access to the right records and pass on feedback, while your workers focus on building relationships with people instead of hopping between different tools or processes.

Worker support is a DM away

Atom’s enterprise service management capabilities allow your workers to get on-the-job support and personal employee assistance, all in the same app. Whether it's a time off request, getting help with employment documents or accessing employee benefits, allow Atom to personally deliver every ask your workers have, while also talking to systems like your payroll or HRMS.

Leverage Atom Insights to build a happier workforce

Using employee satisfaction surveys & AI analytics, Atom can unearth issues faced by a majority of your workforce. Whether it's a knowledge gap on a specific topic, difficulty in getting support for a service, or frustration with a certain tool, Atom will let you know. This feedback can be used to improve the resources available to your teams and make your workforce happier.

In a rapidly evolving retail landscape, the need for efficient worker support has never been more crucial. Atomicwork recognises this. We believe AI can be used to enhance human experiences - and that happier humans are more productive, eager to learn and offer the best customer experience to your consumer.

Through platforms like Teams or Slack, combined with Atomicwork's AI assistant, workers can navigate complex tasks effortlessly while focusing on the human element of their jobs.

Does this seem like something you want for your business? Join us in harnessing the power of AI to transform your industry and empower workers to excel in their roles.