In the case of digital retail audits powered by Picture Recognition, nothing is extra highly effective than sending a well timed alert to the sector reps on gaps in shelf execution in the most straightforward and actionable method. At ParallelDots, our response to this drawback was sending real-time push notifications to the reps inside 1-2 minute after he has submitted his retailer test.
Whereas we proceed to reinforce our real-time push notification service to ship shelf insights, we’ve got additionally launched WhatsApp alerts to ship this vital info over the world’s hottest messaging platform.
Why the necessity for a unique alert platform was felt to energy Retail Audits ?
WhatsApp is a broadly common messaging app that’s used throughout platforms. It supplies instantaneous messaging to share content material like docs, photos, media and is utilized by over 2 billion folks worldwide. Due to its widespread utilization, WhatsApp is probably the most acquainted interface for nearly any consumer on the planet.
Thus, by offering WhatsApp alerts, we felt that we are able to attain out to the sector reps on a platform which they’re very conversant in and would have interaction probably the most. In our personal inner evaluation, we’ve got discovered that area reps have to familiarise themselves with the user-interface of a brand new app when attempting to understand actionable steps from a digital shelf audit report. Advanced UI with information and visualisations have low adoption with reps, particularly when they’re on a gross sales name and should not have sufficient time to determine actionable steps.
With WhatsApp alerts, we wished to take away any friction between sending a report and reps taking motion on it. At any time when a key shelf execution KPI is discovered to be under the compliance threshold, reps will get an alert message on their WhatsApp in their very own language. For instance – in one in all our challenge, reps obtain out of inventory alerts on WhatsApp the place they see the outlet title, class title and an inventory of SKUs that aren’t obtainable on the shelf. The sector reps have been getting these alerts inside 2 minutes of submitting the checks utilizing ShelfWatch cell app.
In comparison with push notifications, we discovered that reps have been two instances extra more likely to take actions once they obtain an easy-to-read message on WhatsApp with an inventory of SKUs that they should replenish on the shelf. Buoyed by the success of this challenge, we’re popping out of beta and launching WhatsApp alerts publically!
How WhatsApp Integration will assist manufacturers conduct retail audits –
In our expertise, we’ve got discovered higher adoption of WhatsApp alerts with the reps. Resulting from this, reps usually tend to have interaction with the retail audit reviews and take motion on them.
Moreover, these alerts are extremely customizable – be it any language or supporting a number of templates for various situations as outlined by the client. Utilizing WhatsApp alerts, CPG prospects can rapidly create a template and ship it to a focused set of customers.
Whereas we explored just one use-case of offering real-time out-of-stock alerts after shelf audits, CPG groups can leverage this for different use-cases corresponding to alerting reps on deployment of latest planograms, share ad-hoc duties and surveys. Equally, they’ll use the service to enhance the engagement with their area reps by sending them weekly and month-to-month updates on their efficiency and the incentives they’ve achieved.
How WhatsApp Integration will assist Merchandising and SFA Firms –
When merchandising and SFA corporations combine their resolution with Picture Recognition (IR) know-how, one of many points confronted by them is to combine the real-time reviews from IR inside their SFA utility. This may imply they must combine an API from the IR provider and develop a user-interface to show the response from the API.Â
Growing this UI is an exhaustive and time-taking course of. With ParallelDots ShelfWatch WhatsApp alert system, this step may be bypassed. Insights generated by our AI can now straight be offered to the WhatsApp accounts of the related customers in real-time. This may imply that reps can take photographs utilizing their present SFA apps which is then processed by a third-party IR resolution like ShelfWatch via backend integration, and so they can obtain real-time alerts on WhatsApp.
What in case your organisation doesn’t enable WhatsApp?
In case your organisation’s IT insurance policies doesn’t enable use of WhatsApp for sharing info, we are able to additionally ship such alerts in your enterprise messaging platform like Microsoft Groups, Slack and Google Chat.
If you’re an present ParallelDots buyer or a brand new buyer and keen on trialling this characteristic, please drop us an e mail at gross sales@paralleldots.com, and we’d be completely satisfied to set this up for you.