Carphone Warehouse to invest additional £10m on in-store tariff checker
Figure follows similar amount already invested in its tablet-based Pin Point service
Retailers
March 3, 2014
Retailer reveals it has spent £10 million on the service in the past six months, including £3 million on training store staff
Carphone Warehouse has spent around £10 million on its Pinpoint assisted sales tool and staff training for it, and revealed it will spend many millions more to continue this.
The retailer soft-launched Pinpoint, which enables staff to build contract for the customer that bet suits their needs, launched last August in 30 stores, before rolled out to their entire UK estate of around 800 stores.
Using a tablet with the tool installed, staff first quiz customers on what their current usage is, compare their chosen handset against a similar device along with a full list of specifications and customer reviews linked directly to the Carphone website. In the meantime, customers can use a coverage checker to see the quality of 3G and 4G in their area from each network.
Pinpoint then calculates what a customer would ideally require on both 3G and 4G over the course of a two year deal and how much it would cost each month with the chosen handset.
The trade-in price of the current handset is also shown, which can contribute to the upfront cost of their new handset or monthly line rental of the new contract. The end of the process also explains the service Carphone’s ‘Geek Squad’ provides, such as the transfer of content from the old to new device, and the insurance policies it offered in comparison with others.
Carphone Warehouse has launched a multi-million pound advertising campaign to promote the tool, which began on February 22 and runs until the end of April, with another campaign following at a later date.
CEO Graham Stapleton said that of the £10 million spent in the past six months on the development of Pinpoint, more than £3 million has been spent on training the retailer’s 3,000 staff. He revealed it will be investing “a significant amount” throughout 2014 on the development of the tool and further staff training.
“Pinpoint brings the digital experience into the store and creates a much more modern way of shopping for a mobile,” he said. “Its primary aim to give customers confidence that when they come to us they will leave knowing they are getting the best value on a tariff rather than getting stung by out of bundle costs.
“We have spent around £10 million on the hardware, software and training to date. Of that, £3 million has been spent on training over the past six months and we will be investing a significant amount this year to continue the training and development of this tool.”