By Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner
4/15/2008
Last week I got a call from old friend and colleague Greg Girard about his new venture – First Insight. The elevator pitch is straight forward enough: “Social Networks Meet Design and Merchandising.” Essentially, along with a predictive analytic engine, First Insight manages a visualization engine-driven social network that awards prizes for those consumer members who can identify the hottest trends of fast fashion retailers (who also happen to be First Insight’s customers).
During our call, I had an insight of my own. Retailers have a built-in social network – their in-store employees. I asked myself why not make these folks the core of the social network? This is not quite the same as Wal-Mart’s employee blog, where it’s okay for employees to say bad things about some of the company’s products. This would be prospective: a community of employees who can give their opinion on what WILL sell.
Low-tech versions of getting store feedback have been around forever. From the famous (infamous?) suggestion box, to Hot Topic’s well-documented quasi-manual feedback loop, some retailers have recognized their employees, especially those who prize their corporate discounts, are also assets AND customers.
With this epiphany in mind, let’s take another look at First Insight. Following is a quote from the company’s pitch.
“First Insight changes the game with Virtual Customer Viewpoint (VCV). Design and merchandising use ‘wisdom of the crowd’ insights collected across social networks. Merchants make better decisions based on what customers want now. We make successful new item introduction a repeatable and predictable outcome. First Insight [includes] analytic solutions, a unique selling channel to vanguard consumers, and increasing ad revenue at online merchandising and shopping communities.”
It’s an interesting concept, and I think the notion of having employees as an integral part of the VCV is an up-and-coming success factor for any large retailer. It’s almost like a loyalty program. If your employees are using their discount, they probably like your stuff. If they aren’t using it, they probably don’t. Why not ask them?
For the most part, the retail world hasn’t gotten more employee-friendly. RSR’s recent surveys show the divide between headquarters and the workforce is greater than ever. Retailers expect their employees to be their customer-centric face to the world, but they don’t trust them, they can’t get them to stay in their jobs for any length of time, have little to no plans for attracting and retaining the best talent, and, when the going gets tough, they lay off the best of them. For their parts (and yes, this is a gross generalization), employees DO steal from retailers when they have the opportunity, they do the minimum required to get paid and really don’t care very much about their employers at all. The result: a standoff that turns customers off by diminishing the credibility of customer centricity credos.
The obvious question: How can this conundrum be solved? For me it’s a great irony that Greg is Chief Marketing Officer of First Insight, as he taught me the following most graphic example of retailer opportunity lost. It goes like this: Ask ANY room full of high-level executives from any industry to raise their hands if their first job was in retail. Almost every time, over 90% of the people in the room will raise their hands. The observation: Retail gets first crack at the best talent available. How in heaven’s name do they let this talent slip through their fingers?
So while wishing Greg luck with his new venture, we also wish retailers luck in finding and using technologies like these to truly empower their employees. Self-service is important, but it can only take you so far. And who has a better “First Insight” into what customers want than your very own employees?
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