Maintaining the Brand
Retailers spend countless time, money and energy building their brands.  They promise customers a certain experience – whether it be impeccable, personal service each and every visit or consistently low prices and wide product availability.  To maintain their investment in the brand, happy customers, and long-term viability, retailers should support their brand with every available resource – including video. 

Most retailers put policies in place to fulfill their brand promise at every customer touchpoint, but it can be difficult to ensure that policies are followed consistently, particularly across hundreds of stores.  By providing the power to see events at each store, video lets managers verify that procedures are being consistently followed at every location.  Whether it’s safety compliance, in-store displays, merchandising, employee training or customer service, video gives managers a powerful tool for evaluating what is actually happening on the floor.  While traditional data from POS and other systems are available, that data is often delivered without context and is therefore harder to analyze and make improvements after evaluation. 

For example, the POS system may show the number of registers being used at a given time within a store. However it will not be able to clearly show the customer wait times or other vital information that would help improve customer service. The combination of video and data gives managers the ability to understand the situation, and ultimately gain a deeper knowledge of how stores are operating, leading to better management and a more consistent experience across multiple locations.  Video goes a long way toward ensuring fundamental expectations that represent the brand name are met for every customer – every time.

Improving Performance
Video is an excellent tool for improving training and associate performance and satisfaction, yielding a better-operating, more pleasant retail environment for employees and customers.  Video gives managers the ability to identify problems and issues that occur with employees in stores by capturing examples of actual incidences. They can then use specific video to train other employees.  This is much more effective than merely painting a picture for other associates of a scenario.  Video examples can augment other training processes to visually demonstrate real-world examples of how to handle or how not to handle particular situations. 

Employees may also perform to maximum potential if they are aware of being monitored.  Loss prevention studies show that monitored employees are less likely to steal or conduct personal business during work hours.  Some retailers are also using video as a way to provide incentives and reward employees that are performing well and going the extra mile.  Evaluated across multiple stores, video can capture outstanding performance, allowing managers to reward those individuals.  For example, a business may have a focus on certain types of transactions within its stores.  By using video, retailers can effectively evaluate cashier activities during these targeted transactions and reward or train the operator accordingly.

Maximizing Customer Service
Both of the previous applications for video contribute to ensuring a positive customer experience.  However, video can be used in other ways to improve customer service. 

For example, demographics can be captured with video, giving retailers a better understanding of their customers.  This is valuable information for implementing the most effective marketing programs and also for procuring and stocking products that are of interest to that market.  A review of video over time reveals who is shopping at the store, the effectiveness of end caps and other in-store promotions, and the peak shopping times. 

Video can also be used to ensure readiness during peak store hours. Managers can view video of any store to verify shelves are stocked, floors are covered with retail associates, aisles are clear and accessible, shopping carts are stacked and available, cash registers are fully staffed, and that each store is ready for the rush of customers. Video can be reviewed remotely by the corporate office to ensure that customers are being well-served.  The power of network video to provide easy remote access to a wealth of information is unmatched by any other source of data. 

Retailers who apply some creativity to their investment in video can use it as a tool to differentiate themselves and to maximize their efficiency and revenues across the board.