How Tesco uses loyalty to drive customer lifetime value
Creating value for customers in order to earn their lifetime loyalty is the strategic vision of the UK's leading food retailer, Tesco, and two important elements of that vision are being customer-centric and reducing queue times - both at the checkout and at in-store food counters - according to retail technology supplier Conchango.
When the time came to upgrade the ageing weighing scale infrastructure, Mark Green of Tesco's service productivity team recognised the potential benefit of introducing a more intelligent weighing scale application that would improve the customer experience at in-store food counters like the delicatessen, butcher, fish counter, bakery and hot chicken counter.
So, using Microsoft's .NET technology, Tesco and Conchango developed a counter scale application that not only makes shopping easier, but also automates routines at the point of service, simplifies pricing integrity, centralises system support and provides real-time purchase information to other systems and timely summarised data to headquarters.
Faster transactions Within twelve weeks Tesco, Conchango and Herbert Retail (the scale suppliers) were preparing the system for an in-store trial. This successful trial led to an extended trial in 17 stores. The system is now being deployed to all UK Tesco stores.
Transaction speeds have increased by 42% and staff are now able to answer a wide range of enquiries with greater confidence, including an item's country of origin, whether it is organic or not, and provide suggestions for cooking methods and recipes. An international trial will take place over 2004 and 2005 with three stores already live in the Republic of Ireland.
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