Optimism about 2011 remains high according to a panel of six independent wireless retailers representing both large and small businesses on the second day of IQMetrix’s Wireless Retail Summit in Scottsdale Arizona.
Moderated by Greg Krywulak, SVP with IQMetrix, the panel included representatives of carriers and manufacturers from Prime Communications, Moorehead Communications, Wireless Vision, AT&T, Celcom Vancouver and InTouch, focusing in on industry issues, trends and developments. Representatives from giants RIM, Sprint and T-Mobile also added their valuable input.
Both Pat Button, vice president of consumer sales and distribution at RIM, and AT&T’s executive director of retail sales operations, John Christie, started out by commenting on how changeable the wireless industry was and what that meant for firms trying to ride the wave.
“The points of differentiation carriers and dealers enjoy are narrowing,” noted Christie adding “We can make it easier for customers to connect all of their devices. The challenge will be to bring these different devices together – converging them – and making it easy for them to do business with us.”
RIM’s Button concurred noting “The convergence of industries has never been higher,” but assured his audience that “turbulence and change create opportunity.”
Director of dealer strategy and programs at Sprint, Blair Frock added that wireless was “a wonderful business to be in,” and that despite a perceived barrier of entry (for retailers), the start-up cash necessary to build a successful business was “not that high.”
Meanwhile, VP of retail sales at T-Mobile, Gary Riding, said there were plenty of reasons for wireless retailers and carriers to be excited, having eliminated the need for inventory capital.
“It feels kind of like a dot-com era that we’re going through,” said IQmetrix’s VP of US operations Eric Stachowski, but cautioning,“retail is a pretty scary word. There is concern around investing in retail.”
Having said that, Stachowski reminded retailers to “think about the product you’re selling: it’s sticky, renewable and the cycle of renewal is getting shorter, it’s vital – people need it to stay connected. We should feel good because we’ll stay around – the product is so strong.”
It was also not a bad thing, in Stachowski’s opinion, that retailers had to be dependent on carriers, “but we need to take advantage of that relationship.”
Riding agreed explaining, “There’s now a fully-branded opportunity for retailers (from carriers). You can create a company retail experience. We have eliminated the need for inventory capital. We have added an additional layer of revenue and ‘servicing growth.’”
The discussion moved on to deliberate on the importance of creating a culture which focuses on the customer experience and makes companies a good place to work, with almost all panelists lamenting the industry’s difficulty in finding and retaining great store managers and salespeople.
“The biggest point of differentiation [between retail stores]?” asked Christie, “Knowledgeable and friendly staff.”
“We need to make sure our back office operations can support growth and maintain a focus on delivering a good customer experience,” chimed in Frock, while Riding noted “The customer experience is huge but it’s also important to sell more data. Data revenue is the only way that we’ll continue to be profitable in this space.”
Moving on to a discussion about culture in smaller companies, Akbar Mohamed of Prime Communications, Erik Schlesselman of Moorehead Communications, Saber Ammori of Wireless Vision, Mark Butler of the AT&T Product Center, Levi O’Brien of InTouch and Roger Hinz of Celcom Vancouver touched on the challenges of inventory management and control as well as employee empowerment.
“Our culture is about empowering managers to handle more responsibility,” said Mohamed, with Schlesselman adding, “Passionate energy is a critical part of our success.”
“The way you train your staff is important. We try to make it fun, with games or by coming to the Summit. It’s a lot more enjoyable to train people in a social environment,” explained Butler, while O’Brien said the key for his firm was “making sure everyone understands the company’s core values and goals.”
Does size matter to the modern wireless retailer? The panel was asked. “Definitely grow, but be selective about which doors and pick the best ones possible,” said Hinz, while Butler noted “there are no more open spots in our market, so to grow, we need to acquire some. Keep a good relationship with your carrier, because if someone’s struggling and looking to get out, the information will roll your way.”
Ammori said it all depends on a firm’s infrastructure. “If you want to go from 10 locations to 100 locations, you need to have the right infrastructure in place, first.”
Mohamed meanwhile said it was crucial to focus on the bottom line. “You have inventory, HR, financial and loss prevention analysts available to you. Fine tune your back office so you don’t have a burden on your front office and sales staff. Look into outsourcing analytical work,” he recommended.
“Don’t be afraid to relocate a store,” ventured Eric Schlesselman adding, “Customers like big stores. They just do.”
The panelists were all in agreement that tablets and the app explosion were a good thing for the industry, but there was some discussion as to how best to capitalize on the App mania sweeping the country.
“Apps are still new. There’s an opportunity to train customers on the apps that are coming out,” explained Ammori. “We need to start using our knowledge and the development of apps as well,” added O’Brien, positing that perhaps a loyalty tool that you could install on customers’ phones to keep them coming back would be a good system.
Greg Krywulak summed up the discussion by concluding “At iQmetrix, we try to be an aggregator, to put together tools that you can use to make more money. I think it’s a great fit for us to come up with ideas on how to use or build apps better.”
