The lockdowns put in place during the spring hit brick-and-mortar stores hard. All but the ones deemed essential were forced to stay closed for months and had to scramble to shift their usual customers to their online platforms.
It was a particular challenge for stores to deliver the personalized customer service which is what makes the trip to the physical stores worthwhile for some shoppers. The individual, one-on-one experience makes it easier and more fun to make a purchase, in that sense.
At least one store found a solution in offering the in-person experience online. A British electronic retailer: Currys PC World.
When Currys PC World had to shutter its stores under the UK lockdown, it created the ShopLive solution. While many sites have live chat, this solution lets you see the person you are chatting with to make it feel more like the human interaction people enjoy in visiting actual stores. Brilliant?!
The site guides those who want personalized buying advice to set up a video chat with an expert through the site. Customers are then assured that they can talk to a real live person about which features are most important to them in selecting their tech gadget. And they have the ability to get truly personalized recommendations – mimicking the instore experience.
Dan Rubel, Customer Communications & Brand Director, Dixons Carphone was quoted in an article on the marketing campaign for the feature. He described it as based on the “real human insight – that people prefer to get their tech advice from real-life people.”
He continued to explain that even with so much information literally at our fingertips online, “there’s still nothing quite like talking face-to-face with a real-life expert who knows their stuff.”
I’d certainly find that appealing. How about you?
