We often talk about how important it is nowadays to “create innovative new customer journeys” or “improve the customer experience”. We know how vague that might sound, but the reason we use such catch-all terms is that there are so many possibilities it makes no sense to try to list them all every time we mention it. But it’s still a good question! So, in this post, we’re going to look at some examples of “innovative customer journeys” - because you can create them, even for something as ‘everyday’ as groceries shopping.
First: exactly what do we mean by a customer journey?
We are talking about providing customers with options, offering them choices so you can better meet their expectations. Perhaps you can increase convenience somehow? Perhaps you can increase the range of choices available to them? Essentially, the objective is to remove barriers to conversion (i.e., increase conversion) by making the process of purchasing “work” for as many customers as possible - or, to put it another way, by making customers “work” as little as possible during the purchasing journey.
Illustrating what this means in practice, here are some innovative customer journeys to consider.
Promoting shopping on foot in the city
For some years now, ordering groceries online has been entirely normal - the ultimate time-saver for busy people in particular. More recently, there has been a dramatic increase in groceries retailers offering a service whereby online orders are, instead of delivered, collected by customers in their car - perhaps on the way home from work, for example.
But “drive-thru” collection is rarely offered in cities, where space is at a premium. It’s also pointless for car-owning city dwellers to waste time leaving the city for a location that does offer it. And it’s clearly not a convenient option for city-dwelling customers who don’t have cars.
Filling this void: “walk-thru” collection (a new customer journey). Customers whose preference or choice is to not drive simply order online and select a pick-up time from the store of their choice. At no extra cost to the customer, and saving them precious time, their basket is picked by in-store staff. The customer then collects their order on foot at the time they chose - perhaps, for example, on their way home from work. It’s the ultimate convenience for these shoppers.
Great - but still not all! It’s a fact that city center stores are often small and offer shoppers a reduced range of products. Orchestrated by an OMS, walk-thru baskets can easily be picked at a central warehouse or a nearby larger store that offers the grocer’s full range of products. Then it can be transported to the customer’s chosen city center store in time ahead of the pick-up time. The upshot is that the foot customer doesn’t need to compromise between convenience and choice - and unlike Click & Collect, the walk-thru option does not require the customer to get into the store and wait for someone to be available. It’s the speed and convenience of the drive-thru, without needing a car.
A genuine choice of delivery options
“A genuine choice of delivery options” might sound like a naive suggestion: almost all online purchase journeys include a choice of delivery options, don’t they? (Although this shows just how varied the expectations of customers are, and how quickly customers become accustomed to choice.)
There are at least two options that are not, currently, offered frequently.
One option is to offer customers the choice to use a delivery service to which the customer has already subscribed - i.e. a service that isn’t the result of a direct partnership between the grocer and that service/provider. This is, in effect, a collection service, except that the person collecting the order isn’t the customer themself, but a delivery company chosen by the customer. To implement this journey, a level of integration is needed to enable the customer to “link” their delivery service subscription to their grocer/order.
A second innovative journey might be to offer “collaborative delivery”, in which environmentally- or cost-conscious shoppers (who are therefore unlikely to be overly time-sensitive) can choose to be matched with other shoppers whose deliveries are making the same, or near-same journey.
Delivery of your order to your office
Shopping for food and other fast-moving consumer goods is not how most people would choose to spend their evenings after a long day or long week at work. Most of us would prefer to spend our valuable free-time on something other than a chore.
The option for a customer to take delivery at his/her office of a grocery order placed online is, therefore, a compelling offer, returning shoppers’ spare time to them. And it’s an option that French grocery chain Cora implemented.
Employees of companies that have signed up to Cora’s EasyBox service order online and subsequently pick up their order from the automated and refrigerated containers located in their own offices. Cora reports 98% user satisfaction and over two-thirds of customers reordering after their first use of EasyBox. For partner companies, it’s a perk offered to employees
Automated basket population based on recipe choices
Many people today prioritize their personal time carefully and dislike “wasting time” on what they classify as the chore of grocery shopping. The prevalence of such attitudes has spawned services such as HelloFresh, HomeChef and QuiToque, in which precisely the necessary ingredients are picked and delivered to enable the preparation and cooking of a specific dish chosen by the customer.
Grocers can compete with this (and some do) by enabling their customers to keep the process of shopping/ordering simple: they offer customers the option to choose one or more recipes from an online catalog and, without any further effort on the shopper’s part, the grocer can “populate” the shopper’s online basket with all the necessary grocery products - in a single click.
What do you need to create innovative customer journeys?
There are two aspects to this question: human (including management) and technological. Among the human qualities a modern grocer needs are:
- Engagement with (and listening to) customers. Customer engagement is a whole discipline in its own right, often with the objective of reinforcing customer loyalty. Listening is a key part of engagement, as is asking the right questions. New customer journeys should respond to genuine customer expectations, rather than “maybe…” speculation.
- Imagination. Customers who engage with the grocers with which they shop may well articulate the problems or challenges they face (the reasons why they abandon their basket, or don’t even shop with a specific grocer any more); they may not articulate the solution they are looking for. This presents e-commerce and marketing departments with the challenge of devising solutions (new customer journeys) that address those customers’ challenges.
- Management support. Grocery retailing - even e-tailing - are mature activities; grocery sales themselves tend, also, to be dominated by mature brands. In view of the potential impact on a grocer’s brand, it takes active management support to encourage a test-and-learn culture in respect of introducing new customer journeys, and a willingness to be patient to see the pay-off.
From a technology view, you need a single, endlessly flexible, core platform that supports the development and implementation of innovative customer journeys. That’s what an Yes, you need a high-quality Order Management System is.
As the examples above suggest, offering innovative customer journeys may mean disregarding the very idea of online and offline; such journeys may well be a hybrid. An OMS enables you to manage what are, inevitably, omni-channel orders through a single solution, in the form of:
- inventory optimization, reducing out-of-stock situations
- creating rules for order management per channel and optimizing order fulfillment taking all orders and supply chain capacities into account; and
- allowing, through this "middleware" position, the easy inclusion of new processes and rules without wider disruption, enabling both test-and-learn and full implementation at a minimal cost
For example, French grocer Cora added two categories - "caterer" and "cafeteria" - to its website, in which the products are managed differently (for example, by weight instead of by unit) but are still included in the same order and delivery as "regular" products.
An OMS also means that, iIrrespective of the choices made by a customer, the process is conducted via a single ‘basket’ and concludes with a single payment. People, after all, expect even the most innovative customer journey things to be simple for them! And an OMS allows grocers to provide that simplicity, without complexifying their own supply chain.
Identifying new or changing customer expectations and reacting to them has always been part and parcel of business; it’s a key aspect of attracting new and retaining existing customers. To find out how Kbrw can help you future-proof your business by making it easy to implement new, innovative customer journeys, contact your Kbrw account manager or get in touch using this form.
