J.C. Penney's Investment in the Shopper Experience (SX)

Penney's began their internal project approximately 2 years ago.

Where does your firm stand in this 2-3 year process?

When are you going to care enough about your customers to invest in them?

Retail has already severed much of the product knowledge and customer service from the retail experience through repeated cost-cutting over the past decade. Investing in an in-store network is not a new investment. It is a replacement investment.

It is one thing to attempt to minimize customer support calls by pushing more traffic to automated email/chat systems to save money. It is quite another to fire a significant portion of your on-floor workforce and then do nothing to fill the resulting void.

There is not a better customer service representative than a well-trained human being. Because these are so difficult to build in retail (due to turnover, etc) interactive, avatar-driven lifelike experiences are the next best thing.

Your shoppers are willing to talk. Are you willing to listen?