Retail Solution for Communications

A suite of assets, methods and implementation services to help service providers create a strong physical retail presence.

Recent Accenture research underscores how important a physical retail presence is to a communications company’s competitiveness and growth.1 At least 75 percent of consumers said (1) they want a retail store to visit when purchasing communications products or services, (2) the quality of a communications provider’s store experience is a factor in their decision to do business with that company, and (3) in two years, physical retail stores will still be at least as important as providers’ online stores. In addition, approximately 90 percent of providers said a strong physical retail channel is important to their growth strategy today, and will remain so for years to come. Indeed, more than three-quarters of providers plan to increase their total number of storefronts in the next two years. However, fewer than 20 percent of consumers believe their providers’ stores perform extremely well in product availability or in having knowledgeable, friendly and available store staff while delivering speedy service—the same attributes consumers say stores “must get right.” Providers themselves acknowledge a number of shortcomings, such as integrating stores with other customer channels and using analytics to create tailored assortments and offerings. There is a significant opportunity cost if today’s communications companies fail to address these shortcomings: Our research revealed a strong positive correlation between the maturity of a company’s retail capabilities, its store performance and, ultimately, the revenue generated by the channel. And in today’s increasingly competitive environment, a strong retail presence can serve as a valuable differentiator to help attract and retain customers.

• Customer-centric staff, including improving the organizational structure, discovering and developing talent, instituting new measurement and incentive plans, and labor planning and scheduling. • Products and services, including merchandising effectiveness, marketing planning and execution, comprehensive sales support from pre-sales to ordering to post-sales service, inventory planning and forecasting and supply chain management. • Store experience, including visual merchandising, space allocation, interactive media, Lean Six Sigma processes, loss prevention and store rationalization.

The Accenture Retail Solution for Communications helps communications companies achieve top-line growth by supporting their efforts to attract new customers and gain both wallet and market share. These services also can empower communications companies to deepen their customer relationships through programs that help enhance customer lifetime value while contributing to cost reductions by adopting more consistent end-to-end operations that make it easier and more efficient for customers to conduct business. At the heart of our offering is Accenture’s established Retail Channel Methodology, which we have developed through our work with leading global retailers. This is a comprehensive suite of analytical assets, methodologies and implementation services intended to drive top-line growth, customer retention and bottom-line savings across three key areas: