Most of the time when we talk about Ombori Grid and adding digital experiences to stores, we focus on the customer experience, because that’s the most visible part of what we offer. However, we’re well aware that in order to make everything work and deliver the level of service customers expect, retailers rely on people, not just technology. Store associates need to know what’s going on, so that they can take action, address issues, and prioritize their workload.
Ombori Grid has always incorporated staff notifications into every product. For example, staff are notified when:
- A customer arrives for a pickup or appointment
- A customer in a fitting room is requesting a product
- Recycling bins need emptying
- Occupancy thresholds are reached or virtual queue levels are high
Early implementations of staff notifications have relied on a combination of SMS and dedicated functionality on a staff member’s phone. But as the number of Grid apps grows, this has started to become cumbersome. It’s hard for IT staff to ensure that store associates have the right software installed on their phones, and it’s hard for staff to keep track of several different data streams.
To address this need, we developed the Grid Task App, an Android and iOS app that pulls all Grid notifications into a single stream. This has several huge benefits for both IT managers and store staff.
- Easy deployment for both managed and personal devices.
For managed devices, IT staff only need to install a single app from the App Store or Play Store. For personal devices, the user can download and automatically update the app themselves, with no involvement from IT. The user signs into their Grid account and immediately has access to everything they need.
- Consistent notifications.
All Grid notifications come through a single entry point, in a consistent manner. This makes it easy for store associates to identify when they have a new work-related task.
- Clear task list.
All tasks are put in a single queue so that staff can easily see what they have to do. This may involve tasks relating to many different apps: take this customer’s order to their car, bring that customer’s item to a fitting room, then empty the recycling bin.
- Completion notification.
When they complete each task, they mark it as done so they can move on to the next task.. This also enables managers to track what’s outstanding, current workloads and completion time.
This increases productivity and allows staff to deliver better customer service, faster, with less stress and fewer errors. Managers have better visibility on operations, and IT can be confident that users have the right software. Everybody wins.
We are continuing to work closely with our clients to identify additional functionality to be incorporated into Grid Task App. Future iterations will also add support for wearables, allowing staff who have smart watches to receive notifications on those devices.
