Deciding to change the way your team communicates is a big decision. Rolling out a new solution like VoCoVo across all your stores has the potential to be very disruptive, especially if you don’t have an idea of what you are trying to achieve.
That’s why we have designed our POC to be as easy as possible to roll out and to understand the impact it can have on your business once complete. This article will give you the lowdown on what to expect when you choose to carry out a POC in some of your stores.
Preparing for your VoCoVo POC
Setting objectives
Our team will start by helping you set some objectives. What are we trying to prove? What does success look like? What problems need to be understood and solved? We’ll aim to agree 3-4 key objectives, which might be areas such as:
- Improving customer service
- Improving staff morale and security
- Increasing team productivity
- Increasing operational efficiency
- Reducing the number of steps taken by the team
We’ll also conduct a pedometer study aimed at finding out the effect on your team’s movement by using a VoCoVo system for communication.
The setup
As well as setting objectives, we’ll help you select some stores in which to run the POC. They should be local to one another and under a single area manager, ensuring cohesion and better communication.
We highly recommend targeting numerous types and sizes of stores involved in your POC, as it helps build a blueprint for a future roll out.
Survey questions
A key part of the POC is understanding the impact on both staff and customers. We’ll use surveys to help understand your team’s views on communication with each other and with customers, whilst we’ll also aim to understand how your team feel about support, security, and happiness at work.
From a customer point of view, we’ll delve into areas like interactions with your team, queueing in store, and resolution of issues that arise during their visit.
Our team will conduct the survey twice; before you deploy VoCoVo headsets and again once your team has been using the headset for 2-3 weeks.
Getting started with your VoCoVo POC
Installing your VoCoVo system
Our team will help you work out the best configuration for your stores based on your objectives. In our experience, retailers have their own preferred supplier who will install VoCoVo with minimal impact.
Training your team
We’ll conduct training for your team which will cover the specific VoCoVo products you have selected for your POC. We’ll give a full demonstration of how to use everything, as well as cover best practise and answer any questions.
Running your VoCoVo POC
Regular feedback
A VoCoVo POC will typically run for five weeks during which time we’ll arrange weekly calls with the store manager(s) to gather feedback from the previous week and ensure any issues are dealt with swiftly.
Gathering regular feedback allows us to advise on changes to the setup and maximise the impact on your stores and staff. The metrics dictated by the objectives we agreed with you will allow iteration and improvement on the baseline.
Time and motion study
We’ll also visit your stores to conduct a detailed time and motion study. The aim of this study is to understand the amount of time that could be saved when your team conduct particular tasks in-store, for example, the average time it takes to resolve a customer query, locate an item, or deploy security to prevent an incident.
During the POC we will look at the impact of using headsets on the average time of these tasks, as well as how often they occur. This data will allow us to calculate savings in the use of staff time and cost of resources.
Second survey
Once your POC has been running for 4 weeks we’ll conduct the employee and customer surveys again, in order to understand what has changed now that your team are using headsets.
Typical feedback/improvements we see include:
- 88% of staff said using a headset made their job easier
- 450% increase in how effectively the team works together
- 265% increase in how supported colleagues feel
- 112% increase in response time to answering customer queries
The VoCoVo POC in numbers:
- Average cost saving per store per week – £8k + per annum in a store
- Number of steps saved – average 142km saved per annum in a store
- Typical length of a POC – 5 weeks
The results of your VoCoVo POC
During your POC we’ll be collecting data based on the key objectives we set out at the beginning of the process.
We’ll work with you to use this data and produce a detailed business case that shows the potential impact of a larger rollout, focusing on the key metrics defined at the beginning of the process.
Video feedback is a key part of the results we provide and is often the most compelling evidence of the impact VoCoVo has had. During our second visit, we’ll talk to your team and – if they are happy to – interview them about their experience using VoCoVo.
Some of the metrics we’ll be able to present to you might include:
Store colleagues:
- Employee morale/motivation
- Sense of security
- Engagement levels with colleagues
- Ability to find help when required
Your customers:
- Quality of knowledge provided by staff
- Time to find an answer (to a query)
- Improved customer service
Efficiencies in store:
- Time & motion study (shop floor movement, staff time, hours saved)
- Management/colleague productivity
- Pedometer study results
If you’re interested in implementing a VoCoVo POC within your business, download our handy POC guide to assist you through the process, or arrange some time to discuss a POC with Olivia, our Customer Success Manager.