3 ways retailers improve the customer experience with help from Chromebooks

In an increasingly competitive market, delivering outstanding customer experiences is top of mind for retailers. Companies that lead in customer experience (CX) are three times as likely to have significantly exceeded their top business goals for 2019, according to the “Experience Index: 2020 Digital Trends” report by Econsultancy and Adobe.

One big way to improve the customer experience is to give retail associates shared devices, like Chromebooks, that enable them to work securely from wherever they are, whether on the store floor or in the back office. Here are three ways retailers are using Chromebooks to offer better customer experiences.

1. Ensuring customers receive high-quality products

Providing consistent quality is critical to delivering superior customer experiences. Take Panda Express for instance. The company wants customers to enjoy a consistent taste experience for its signature dishes like Original Orange Chicken and Broccoli Beef. That’s why in almost 400 locations, Panda Express workers take training courses on these recipes with the help of Chromebooks. Restaurant associates used to frequently be interrupted when watching training videos by other workers. Now, they have access to touchscreen, flip-capable Asus Chromebooks for training purposes.

“Our restaurant associates work hard to show customers that our food isn’t from an assembly line, and cook it to order each day,” said Dorothy Shih, IS Senior Project Manager, and Young Kim, IS Network Administrator, at Panda Restaurant Group. “With the help of Chromebooks in our training, we’re making sure that our Original Orange Chicken tastes great, no matter which restaurant guests visit.”

2. Reducing customer wait times

More than 3,000 workers at eCommerce company Mercado Libre take calls from customers, helping them place an order or resolve an issue. When contact center employees used Windows PCs, a power outage or transit strike could stop them from helping customers since there was no way to quickly enable employees to work from outside the office. 

In contrast, Chromebooks make it easy for them to work from anywhere because unlike traditional laptops, employee files and customizations are primarily stored in the cloud. As a result, employees can move seamlessly between different Chrome devices to stay productive. And the fast boot up of Chromebooks saves 250 productivity hours each shift, according to a company review of the number of logged customer cases. Contact center employees have gained more time to take orders and answer callers’ questions.  

In another example, at family-owned grocery store chain Schnucks Markets, associates staffing the meat and produce departments had to leave the counter to use Windows PCs in back storerooms to check email or follow up on orders. This left customers waiting for assistance as associates walked back-and-forth from the back room to the counter. With 100 locations across five states in the United States, this impaired its customer service.

To help, Schnucks rolled out about six Acer Spin Chromebooks per store. Now, associates can check email and orders right behind the counter, keeping them front and center when customers approach, speeding their customer service and saving about eight hours a week.

“As a grocer, we have to be ‘best in fresh.’ That means the customer experience has to be 100% efficient and quick, which Chromebooks has helped us accomplish,” said Mike Kissel, Senior Manager of Endpoint and Cloud Security, at Schnucks Markets. “People still want to go to a brick-and-mortar grocery store, but the last thing they want to do is stand in line and not be served quickly.” 

3. Offering personalized customer experiences

Eighty percent of shoppers say they’re more likely to do business with a company that offers personalized customer experiences, and the right technology can make this possible both in storefronts and as part of product development.

That’s the case for pet food retailer NomNowNow, which uses Chromebooks to customize pet meal portions. Workers on the company’s kitchen, packing, and inventory teams prepare, pack and ship personalized pet food based on online profile details from pet parents, such as a pet’s name, age, weight, and breed. 

“Based on these [pet] details, we’re able to make NomNomNow’s personalized customer experience possible,” said Lynn Hubbard, Vice President of Operations, and Dan Massey, Vice President of Data, Product, and Engineering, at NomNomNow. “And for an extra personal touch, every NomNomNow shipment gets a packing slip with the pet’s name and food details.” 

Learn how Chrome Enterprise can benefit your retail business

Many retail businesses use Chrome Enterprise to securely power better customer experiences. To learn more, visit our website. Or if you’re attending NRF 2020, stop by the Chrome Enterprise booth #5065 on Level 3 and check out our session on Monday, Jan. 13, 2020 on the benefits of cloud-powering retail associates.