In this article, I am going to cover a recent addition to version 4.4 of our RQ Retail Management solution: the “What if? Widget."
What if? Widget
One of the most interesting new items added in RQ4.4 is the “What if? Widget.” This Widget allows your sales associates to view the commissions they stand to make on a sale. To fully utilize the What if? Widget, there is some setup involved. In order to get the Features and Accessories tabs to populate, you'll need to ensure that your Features are linked to Rate Plan Compatibility, and Accessories are linked to Phone Compatibility.
a) Compatibility setup
If you are not using compatibility, the instructions on how to set this up are below. When using compatibility in your database, during a phone sale, the Phone Activation Wizard will pop up 2 more screens. The first screen will prompt a list of features for employees to choose from and the second will prompt a list of accessories to choose from, based on Rate Plan and Phone compatibility. Compatibility not only allows the “What if? Widget” to function fully, but will increase speed at the point of sale.
You can do this through the Rate Plan (add feature) or the Phone (add accessory) or through the Feature (tell it which rate plan it works with) or the Accessory (tell it which phone it should be sold with). Please note: There is no way to tell the system when a particular phone AND rate plan are sold on an invoice, then make this particular accessory or feature available to sell.
a.1. To set compatibility from the Phone or Rate Plan, go into any rate plan/phone, go to the Compatibility tab and then choose the Accessories or Features to populate when this Phone or Rate Plan is sold, making sure to put a checkmark on Suggested sell.
Example of a phone's compatibility list:
a.2. To set cross-compatibility from the Accessory or Feature, go into any accessory or feature, go to the Compatibility tab, then choose Cross Compatibility and choose the Phones and Rate Plans that this item should be added to, making sure to put a checkmark on Suggested sell.
Example of an accessory’s cross-compatibility:
b) Widget Locking
To lock a widget to the employee's home screen, you will want to go into Settings >> Human Resources >> Role Management, choose the employee level, then click the Widgets Tab, add the Widget and lock them in place.
Related help files:
Compatibility
Cross Compatibility
Widgets
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For more RQ4 Tips and other iQmetrix Support materials, check out the iQmetrix Support & Community site
The Support & Community site puts all the RQ4 support and community discussions in one place. It consolidates our RQ4 help files, client suggestions and discussion forums into a single system, making it easy for users to find the information they need.
To access the new Support & Community site:
First-time login: You must go through RQ4 to access the Support & Community site.
Go to the Support tab in the upper-right corner and click on Community & Support.
After that: You can access the Support & Community site from any device, using the following URL: http://support.iQmetrix.com
If you have any questions, please contact your CSM directly.
RQ4 Tips: How to use the What if? Widget
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Reduce Theft, Increase Accountability and Save Money with Biometrics
Employee theft is a growing concern across all retail industries, in terms of both time and attendance fraud (buddy punching), as well as inventory shrink.
According to the 2010 NRF Security Survey, the leading factor contributing to retail shrinkage was employee theft, accounting for 43.7% of retail losses, and a total loss of $16.2 billion dollars. For retailers to ensure they are protected against theft, they need a way to hold their employees accountable.
Exclusively compatible with DigitalPersona U.are.U devices, RQ4 Biometric Authentication is the only way to ensure that passwords aren’t being shared among their employees, or worse yet, stolen.
Support for the U.are.U 4500 stand-alone fingerprint reader and U.are.U 4500 Keyboard with integrated fingerprint reader is tightly integrated into your RQ4 application and is easily implemented into your business to seamlessly provide users with a reliable means of holding employees accountable. Fingerprint biometrics gives you the peace of mind of knowing your business is protected against employee fraud and theft.
Digital Persona Fingerprints can be setup in RQ4 in 3 easy steps:
Download drivers from the iQmetrix Support Site.
Plug in the USB U.are.U Device.
Enroll employee fingerprints in RQ4.
After instituting Biometric Authentication in their stores, Brennan Salassi, IT Manager for Prime Communications said, “The combined DigitalPersona and iQmetrix solution enables us to drive down our labor costs by reducing buddy punching. The U.are.U solution has proven very rugged and reliable. The devices are quick to recognize fingerprint scans."
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RQ4 Tips: Best Practices in Tracking Door Traffic and Conversion Rates
A recent Daily Dose article about foot traffic and location tracking has stirred up interest from our customers around what type of metrics dealers can produce from their RQ4 data. Are traffic counters a good idea? What are the key metrics we see our dealers incorporating into their reports when it comes to traffic counting?
Basic Conversion
A basic conversion rate is calculated by taking the number of invoices over your traffic in the range. It works like this: The number of invoices is the count of unique net transactions and the traffic is how many customers came into the store. At a minimum, we want to know how many customers we converted into sales. A conversion rate gives us insight into this.
Viewing the Store Conversion Rate – By Day, By Week, or By Month?
Daily View: Pointing Out Outliers
Viewing your weekly traffic, broken down by day, will help quickly identify if you were exceptionally busy one day during the week. This can be helpful if you know that you are never busy on Fridays. Who knows, maybe Fridays are picking up overall?
Aggregate: A More Accurate Daily/Weekly View
It may not be a good idea to judge Fridays by a particular Friday or a single week’s traffic in isolation. When you are evaluating a store’s traffic and see patterns fluctuating significantly, an aggregate view of the day or week will help rule out spikes and provide more accurate insight into what may be going on.
Viewing conversion rates by hour should help you understand when staff are taking breaks -- or when additional coverage may be needed. Once you have pinpointed a dip in conversion, take a look at your punched and scheduled hours and see if it makes sense to restrict breaks during peak high traffic times or maybe call an extra salesperson in. Conversely, if my schedule is consistently higher than my traffic, maybe I can cut back on hours. Taking a look at traffic alongside scheduling will help pinpoint if you have the staff to cover the customers coming in.
What Didn’t Happen?
Just as important as close rate is evaluating “what didn’t happen.” Once you wrap your head around conversion rates, take a look at customers you are leaving on the table. The difference between your traffic and your customers (invoices) is the group of customers who did not purchase anything.
If traffic is 100 and invoices are 40, then 60 Customers did not buy.
If our average GP/Customer is X.
Then converting X * 60 into happy customers should result in Y, additional sales for our company
To take it a step further: If you are managing location revenue goals, reverse the equation and use existing conversion rate to determine how many additional customers are needed to hit your goal.
e.g. Judging by the current traffic volume, I will need to sell this much more to each remaining customer to make my target.
An Expanded View of Conversion
Apart from basic conversion, what are the purchasing customers buying? How successful are the locations in converting traffic into new contracts? Into upgrades? What about into activations or accessories?
A Successful Initiative through Automation and Increased Reach
A new RQ4 feature launching this summer will automate the manual process of importing the door count, thus eliminating the need to manually Import the count. We have clearly summarized the key concepts and data required to successfully manage traffic conversion in an easy-to-use intuitive Store Level Dashboard.
To increase conversion rates means turning non-buying customers into loyal paying customers and making sure you have adequate staff available during peak times. Add in interactive in-store tools like XQ Interactive Retail to help keep customers engaged and IN THE STORE learning about your products, and you will be on your way to turning the walkouts into happy customers.
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RQ4 Tips: Top 7 Highlights of The New BI
The iQmetrix Business Intelligence (BI) Team offers a reporting service that allows you to draw added insights from your RQ4 data.
We recently launched a brand-new BI solution with some exciting new features that both existing customers and new customers are really enjoying. The following are some highlights of The New BI:
1. Email Subscriptions
Clients love this option as they are able to automate the scheduled delivery of their reporting. Not only can a user determine who receives content, but when someone receives it. This is a great feature that ensures employees receive information when they need it and frees up the desk of the person administering time-sensitive reporting.
2. Cross-Browser Compatibility, Accessible Anywhere
Employees are on the go: In the field, between stores and rarely sitting behind the desk -- especially regional and district managers. For this reason, it is critical to access reporting on any available device. Reports can be viewed on phones and tablets, and on any broswer. This includes reports iQmetrix has created or those you build yourself.
3. Minimal Load on IT
We’ve connected BI directly with RQ4 Security Groups. This makes for a very simple login while also minimizing the strain on your IT department to roll out the project. Users will log in using a process they are familiar with -– using their name and their RQ4 login. System admins can grant access at the group level instead of creating individual users in the system.
4. Enhanced Report Writing
Each client will have their own instance of Microsoft Report Builder. Clients have indicated that writing reports is noticeably simpler in this tool. And the steps to build custom carrier reports are very similar. Customers are enjoying new features like the enhanced design options and a simpler drag-and-drop process.
5. Standard Reporting
Drawing from patterns we've seen across the industry and combining those with our own expertise, The New BI comes with a suite of high-value reporting tools. These reports will allow you to quickly expand the reach of your BI project throughout your organization.
6. Training Time is Minimized
We've developed a process to teach your employees the basics of BI and create key reports in 1–3 weeks. This includes full access to a BI iQuniverity Course Track, live web-based training (via WebEx), and a library of new help files developed jointly by our BI and Help File teams. We also offer Professional Services training -- contact us if you're interested in specialized in-person training as well.
7. Deployment is Scalable
The training process, out-of-the-box reporting, and clean connection into RQ4 Securities will allow your organization to train multiple report writers and multiple teams to view reports, so you can quickly launch the product. There is also potential to roll the deployment down additional levels. Reporting that was once only accessible at the "regional" level can now be accessed by the "district" or "store."
To learn more, please visit: www.iQmetrix.com/products/rq/business-intelligence/get-bi
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RQ4 Reports: Tips and Tricks, Customizing and Sharing
In this edition, we will highlight several hidden features within the RQ4 reports module: Customizing and Sharing.
Did you know? Almost all of the RQ4 reports can be customized and modified based on the way you wish to view the report. You can also modify it to any other group that you wish to share it with. You decide how the report should look and who has access to these customizations. Other users are allowed to view the reports you have customized, but don’t have to spend the time to create it.
Drag and drop the Freeze Columns marker to easily freeze any column to the left of the marker. This is very helpful for reports that may have many columns.
Use the Configure Columns wheel to format your report based on certain criteria, such as <, >, = or search and format for a specific number or word.
Now the report is customized in a way that makes sense for you... Have you ever wanted to share these customized reports with other groups? Now you can.
Once a report has been customized to your specs, it can be saved along with its special formatting by selecting “Add To Custom Reports.”
Create a customized report name and description for your report. Use the default date range to easily run the customized report for a specific date range each time the report is opened.
SHARE the report with members of any other HR role!
Access your custom reports from the “Custom Reports” section in the reports module. You can also see what reports have been shared and with what roles.
To learn more about RQ4 Reporting, be sure to visit our iQmetrix WebEx site and register for an upcoming live webinar.
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Salespeople's Body Language Speaks Volumes
As a wireless retailer, you obviously train your staff on the devices and plans you offer. Salespeople are scripted on what to say in any in-store scenario.
But what about what they don't say?
Retail Minded's Nicole Reyhle recently wrote a blog post about the importance of salespeople's body language and non-verbal communication."We've all heard the expression 'She looks like a (fill in the blank here)' and in the case of retail, you want that blank only to pertain to positive attributes," she writes. "If it’s not, it’s time to do some role playing to help strengthen the 'appearance' of your actions."
These tips are a good refresher for any staff serving customers face-to-face.
Reyhle offers the following three tips:
Stand Openly. "Get out from behind your cash wrap or desk, avoid crossing your arms or leaning on something, and stand up straight and tall."
Use Positive Facial Expressions. Smiling and nodding in agreement go a long way in terms of establishing rapport and trust. They also help to reinforce the customer's conclusions when trying to choose a product or service.
Avoid Dominant Gestures. "Anything too extreme in your body language can scare a customer off," she writes. Respect the customer's personal space. Let the customer finish speaking before you interject, to not appear rushed or scripted. And avoid staring. The key is to make the customer feel at ease.
While these may seem like common sense, a lot of people's natural body language is subconscious. They may not realize the way they stand inside the store is actually uninviting, or that they tend to scowl when bored, etc.
If anything, tips like these are a good refresher for any staff serving customers face-to-face. It's good to be aware that their non-verbal cues might be conveying mixed signals.
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In Time for Spring Break: RTR Solves Common ePin Problems
The first two weeks of March are typically the Spring Break period for U.S. colleges. Given that students are among the biggest consumers of prepaid minutes, it's a great time for wireless retailers to sell ePins.
And with the recent launch of AT&T and Verizon’s real-time replenishment (RTR) prepaid integration, selling eprepaid minutes just got a lot easier.
Previously, it was simple enough to use the integrated ePin service -- sell a SKU, print a pin. But since the RTR update, we've been getting great feedback from clients about how it works.
Sign up today to start selling real-time prepaid minutes by the following business day. Contact your CSM for more details.
The integrated RTR service means an almost instant posting of minutes to the appropriate account for a prepaid subscriber’s service. When clients were deciding if they wanted to invest time in trying something new, the questions that came out were common across the board:
And what if they put it on the wrong number? Answer: Error message if that number doesn’t exist with that carrier.
And what if it’s postpaid account? Answer: Error message if it’s not a valid account.
And what if it’s the wrong carrier? Answer: Error message if it’s not a valid account.
“You would be surprised how often someone buys an AT&T pin only to realize that they are T-Mobile or Verizon. Sometimes they are even post-paid,” said one of our clients.
Another client told us, “We currently have a problem with reps selling ePins to customers that are actually postpaid subscribers."
By entering in the phone number into this system, if the customer is on postpaid, will the system prompt the rep that the customer is not a prepaid customer? It sure will.
It seemed like such a small thing, but as more and more clients inquired about the new functionality, we realized it was really going to solve a number of pain points.
It’s amazing the difference a small automated step can make for customer experience.
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RQ4 Coupons: The Security Setting That Often Gets Overlooked!
Did You Know? You can ensure that a coupon you have set to be sold on an invoice more than once has a security setting to ensure the criteria for the coupon are met more than once in order for it to apply.
This helps with not allowing the coupon to be abused on an invoice if it is able to be used more than once.
When setting up a coupon's criteria, you would check off the Allow this coupon to appear on a single invoice multiple times checkbox.
This will then allow you to see the hidden security setting of Limit coupon multiples to match criteria exactly.
Now this means that while this coupon can be used multiple times on an invoice, the criteria must be fully met for each coupon used!
For more information on this or other RQ4 features, please feel free to contact your CSM directly.
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Introducing iQmetrix’s new RQ4 partner: Chatterspot
iQmetrix’s newest partner, Chatterspot, is a technology and marketing company whose software will soon be integrated into RQ4 (slated for RQ4 v4.13). This integration will grant retailers access to an innovative solution that allows your company to easily and continuously engage with customers throughout their wireless life cycle.
Who is Chatterspot?
Chatterspot is a division of TEGA Technologies, a California-based marketing automation software company founded in 2003. Chatterspot is dedicated to developing marketing solutions specifically for wireless retail. Why wireless? It’s what we know and love! Our team understands the unique landscape of wireless retail and is committed to developing solutions to help you grow your business.
“Chatterspot helps me take ownership of my customers and stay one step ahead of my competitors.” – Rory Kelly, Cellular Only
Digital lifecycle marketing at your fingertips.
Chatterspot understands the need to grow and adapt in order to stay relevant in this lightning-fast paced industry. They also realize it’s difficult for wireless retailers to find time to focus on lead generation, customer retention, customer follow up, consumer engagement and innovative marketing strategies.
In the wireless industry, it simply makes sense to connect with customers on their mobile devices. Chatterspot’s SMS and email marketing solutions give your customers more personal attention while requiring less attention from you.
Consistently connect with customers according to their needs and interests with targeted automated messaging.
Create on demand targeted marketing campaigns in just minutes.
Automatically notify customers of upgrade eligibility
Automatically follow up with surveys, tips & tricks, app recommendations, offers and more.
Realize additional profit from existing customers.
Accurately track marketing ROI.
Leverage customer relationships as a competitive advantage.
Promote each individual location through an enterprise solution.
Cut through the marketing clutter with a 94% SMS read rate.
“Nobody understands our marketing needs better than Chatterspot. Their technology and consultative approach make them our #1 resource for connecting with customers.” – Kevin Tupy, Z Wireless
RQ4 Integration: Coming soon!
The v4.13 RQ4 integration with Chatterspot will provide customized enrollment forms within RQ4 to turn customers into preferred members. Upon registration, the customer will be labeled a “member” within RQ4, and will immediately receive a welcome text and/or email message. The data collected during enrollment will then automatically trigger unique targeted, personalized messages via text and email.
Check out this quick video about Chatterspot and contact your CSM for more information!
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Intranet Tests: Small but Helpful!
Creating tests within your RQ4 Intranet is a great way to make sure that your employees are up to date on product and industry knowledge. You can set a passing grade, view who has taken a test and view the grades received by your staff. If you have the HR Scheduling Module, you will then have the Intranet.
Create a Test
Within your RQ4 Intranet click on Training, then Create New Test.
Create your Test Name and Description. Each question can have up to 6 multiple choice answers.
Once you are done your creating your test, Save and then Preview and finally Publish.
Your test will now show up under Tests.
Click on Assign to assign the test to your employees.
Test Results
Click on Results to view the Test Results.
For more info, check out the Intranet Tests Help File on the iQmetrix Support & Community site.
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Tips for Handling Power and Internet Outages
During a power or Internet outage, you will still need to be able to process sales transactions within your stores. In order to help you prepare for these situations, we have created a list of items you should have in an "emergency box" in case of emergency situations.
Items you should have in your store's emergency box include:
RQ4 Phone Pricing Grid (print out): If your power or Internet isn’t working, then RQ4 isn’t working either. Unless your employees have the phone prices memorized, you should print off a new grid after each price change, so that your employees have the phone prices available in case of an outage.
To print this off, go to Inventory – Tools – Update Carrier Pricing sheet.
Open your pricing sheet up.
Go to the Hardware Prices and Equipment Rebates tab.
Export it to Excel, remove the Equipment Rebates column (if necessary).
Print this grid off.
Manual Invoices: Each store should have an invoice book, so that staff can create customer invoices in case of emergency.
Calculator: Employees always use the calculator on their computer to do any math. In case of a power outage, it is a good idea to have a calculator in the box for times when their computer is down.
Manual credit card swipes, card paper and the phone numbers for Phone Authorization. This is essential if you are using Integrated Payment Processing within RQ4 -- if the Internet is down, you will not be able to process RQ4 Invoices or take credit card payments. Manual credit card swipes allow you to take an imprint of the customer credit card.
Physical contracts from your carrier along with phone numbers for manual contract processing. You will still need to process Activations during an Internet outage, so having physical contracts available for your customers to sign will ensure your sales staff can still process Activations.
After you receive power/Internet again:
Depending on your carrier, your employees may have to enter each Activation into the Carriers Activation Portal. (Some don’t accept physical contracts but are OK with you using a physical contract in emergency situations, as long as it is manually entered afterwards.)
Processing Transactions into RQ4:
For any Cash Transactions, you can process these as a normal RQ4 transaction.
For any Credit Card Transactions (if you are using Integrated Payment Processing), you will need to take the following steps:
Process the sale through as Normal.
When the Swipe card dialogue box comes up, choose Manual Entry.
Manual Entry allows you to process a credit card in RQ4 without processing a 2nd charge to the card.
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A NEW Inventory Management Program: OFFWIRE’S Power50
By Kelly Young, Marketing Coordinator, OFFWIRE
In today’s economy, the cost of doing business continues to rise—shipping costs, product costs, rent and advertising expenses all affect the bottom line. All of this contributes to lower or decreased margins. Partner with OFFWIRE to experience real significant growth.
A Training Manager from Canton, MI says, “Since we started using this model, our profit per handset has gone up $23 and our accessory profit per handset has increased $8.13. This is an awesome program and if used properly, other clients of OFFWIRE’s will benefit greatly.”
Power50 Key Benefits:
Power50 – Inventory Management Program - A uniquely collaborative and opportunistic partnership.
Power50 is an easy and profitable program designed to help wireless companies increase enhancement accessory sales beyond the more common case, screen protector, and charger, or as we call it, “The Suit.” With diverse training, seeding, and promotion program, Power50 will help your sales staff think outside “The Suit” and successfully attach more phone-enhancement products and increase profit per opportunity, thereby adding increased profit to the company’s bottom line. In other words, OFFWIREtransforms your sales associates from simply selling “The Suit” to successfully selling “The Powersuit” which can be attached to all devices walking out of the door.
Since we started using this model, our profit per handset has gone up $23 and our accessory profit per handset has increased $8.13.
Flexibility & Time Saving - Design your own inventory plan and save time.
Power50 permits you the flexibility to design your own custom inventory plan. You decide and control what products to carry and the quantity levels available in all retail locations. Save time as OFFWIRE generates your purchase orders with accuracy and reliability. No more inconvenient, open purchase orders in your point-of-sale system.
Training & Seeding - Give your sales associates the skills they want and need to sell more accessories.
Power50 offers a unique variety of product and sales training courses hosted within our proprietary JumpStart Certification Program. JumpStart consists of well over 20 online courses designed to teach your staff the skills needed to understand the wireless industry, provide them with up-to-date information on new products and trends, and help increase sales. Training valued at $300 along with $100 in free product seeding.
This is an awesome program and if used properly, other clients of OFFWIRE’s will benefit greatly.
Promotions - Reward and motivate your sales associates with exciting and practical incentives.
OFFWIRE will collaboratively sanction quarterly sales promotions to motivate your associates with competitions while rewarding them with prizes and complementary products. In turn, this consistently provides them with necessary product knowledge to help you collectively move more products and increase profit per opportunity.
Product Positioning - Provide hands-on training from OFFWIRE and vendor partners to your entire staff.
Receive complementary, bi-annual product positioning training for your entire staff and management with face-to-face training and seeding with OFFWIRE and vendor partners.
BI-Annual Planning -Executive meeting to review and evolve our collaborative Power50 program and partnership.
OFFWIRE will visit bi-annually to propose and discuss the following 6-month Power50 planning. OFFWIRE will deliver a customized 6-month plan and work together to maximize enhancement accessory sales.
For more information on this new program, please call iQmetrix Support (1.888.888.8170) or contact your CSM directly.
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iQmetrix Support Community: Join the conversation!
There are many great aspects of attending iQmetrix events, such as the Summit or Retail Success Workshops.
For us… the best part is getting to meet our clients face-to-face!
For the clients that attend such events… we overwhelmingly hear that their favorite parts are meeting iQmetrix staff face-to-face (awww shucks… you’re making us blush!) and getting the chance to meet and network with their peers in the wireless industry –- sharing processes and best practices, comparing concerns and issues and having a few laughs together along the way. It’s exhilarating and enlightening for all involved… and we’re so happy we can be a part of it.
So, let’s keep the conversations going!
The iQmetrix Support & Community site has discussion forums for just that! Users of iQmetrix software can interact with each other on the site, as well as with iQmetrix staff.
Questions Section: Ask a question, add your thoughts to a discussion or provide a solution for someone else’s query. This section was created so that any user of iQmetrix software can ask a question and then get some different views and possible solutions to consider.
Some tricks for the iQmetrix Support Community Questions Section:
Search questions to see if someone has already posted the same question… and then see what kind of responses are already available for that question.
Show your support for a question that hasn’t been answered yet by clicking the ‘Me Too’ button.
Sort questions by Most Asked, Recent, Needs Answer or Answered depending on what you want to contribute to the conversation.
How do you access the iQmetrix Support Community?
First-time login: You must go through RQ4 to access the Support & Community site.
Go to the Support tab in the upper-right corner and click on Community & Support.
After that: You can access the Support & Community site from any device, using the following URL: http://support.iQmetrix.com
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Exciting New Reports in the New BI
The iQmetrix Business Intelligence team recently deployed a new version of our New BI solution. The new version includes new reports, new custom-report templates, a support community site, and additional training opportunities.
Here are some of the highlights of the new version and where you can go to check out training and resources available from the BI Team as part of the update:
Stock On Hand Report
You want to ensure that your stock stays consistent –- avoiding an excess or a shortage of items. The ability to compare sales with inventory will help establish if you need to increase stock on hand, or alternatively, decrease it in order to meet the demand of items.
Top 3 reasons you’ll love this report:
Ensure item's demand is met.
Ensure stock availability stays consistent.
Provide insight on how well items are selling in relation to inventory availability.
Dead Stock Report
This report will show you the age of items that haven't moved for a period of time -- allowing you to see both how many items you're sitting on, as well as how old they are.
Keeping excess inventory has a cost associated with it: product value depreciates over time. The Dead Stock Report will help you in establishing a strategy to get rid of products that are underperforming and keeping products that perform well.
Top 3 reasons you’ll love this report:
Display aging of items (Including Accessories!).
Help rebalance stock across locations.
Reveal the cost on hand of keeping dead stock in inventory.
Order Forecast Report
The BI Order Forecast report will assist you in accurately ordering for inventory items. You will be able to see movement of the individual items in the last 4 weeks and what status the current stock is in (In stock, On PO, In Transfer... etc.).
Top 3 reasons you’ll love this report:
Rebalance inventory.
Forecast inventory.
Display data in order to calculate metrics to assist with ordering.
Templates for Custom Reports
Drawing from patterns we have seen across the industry and combining those with our own expertise, the New BI now comes with a suite of pre-built templates. These pre-built templates allow you to more quickly create custom reports and thus expand the reach of your BI project throughout your organization.
The BI Team will walk you through building reports using these templates in the Level 2 BI training class, which is offered on Fridays at 1:00 p.m. EST.
Support Community
iQmetrix has recently implemented a BI Support Community, containing BI specific information in a single central spot.
This central point of reference for BI users will:
Provide you with information on the BI Product.
Give you a chance to provide feedback about the new BI.
Find answers to common BI questions.
Find BI support documentation.
View details about upcoming BI training events.
To check out the new BI section of the iQmetrix Support Community (only accessible to BI clients):
Go to the Support Community site at http://support.iqmetrix.com/forums
Scroll down the page to the Community tabs (shown below) and click on the New BI logo.
Demos, Trainings & Professional Services
Demos
If currently do not have BI or simply want a quick overview of what the product offers check our our Weekly New BI Product Overview. The sessions take place every Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. EST (iQmetrix webex: Why the New BI?).
An Expert from the BI Team will take you through a walk through of the New BI providing a demonstration of the features, how custom reports are created and what comes pre-built for you by the iQmetrix BI Team. And of course, there is room for questions! To learn more about BI, please visit: www.iQmetrix.com/products/rq/business-intelligence/get-bi
Trainings
As part of our launch process, the iQmetrix Business Intelligence team is running weekly live trainings. These sessions have been designed to help all new users become comfortable using the New BI.
The trainings have been divided into two sessions: Basic and Advanced. Basic sessions are held every Thursday at 2:00 p.m. EST (iQmetrix webex: New BI - Launch Training). Advanced sessions take place every Friday at 1:00 p.m. EST (iQmetrix webex: New BI - Level 2 Launch Training). However, we generally advise our users to get more familiar with the New BI prior attending an Advanced session.
Professional Services
The iQmetrix Business Intelligence team also offers Professional Services which cover the following:
Custom Onsite: to align user's key reporting needs with our product, while also applying our expertise
Workshop: to create a learning experience for the user which is interactive
Custom Reporting Development: to assist the users in building custom reports
Please feel free to contact our Professional Team at BITeam@iqmetrix.com for more information.
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RQ4 Tips: Analyzing Store and Employee Productivity
One of the best things RQ has to offer is the ability to take pieces of different modules and tie the info together.
A great example of this is the productivity graph in the Executive Dashboard. This combines your scheduled hours in RQ4 with your sales and non-customer activity. The intention is to help you staff your stores based on customer demand and other duties required by a sales associate.
RQ lets you take pieces of different modules and tie the info together.
At a glance, the productivity graph will show you hour-by-hour the customer activity (sales, refunds etc) and non-customer activity (receiving a PO, transfer, etc.) versus your scheduled man hours for all stores combined.
Here’s the tip: To get even better more detailed info, click on the productivity link that will bring up a new report called “Hourly Productivity Report.” You’ll notice it defaults to your entire company. Narrow it down to a single store and a single day (no date range). In this example, I’m looking at the Broadway location on June 24th (which happens to be a Monday).
This is important: Click the 'Analyze' button.
This is important: Click the 'Analyze' button. What this button does is take the date of the week you have selected (e.g. Monday) and the location you have selected (e.g. Broadway) and it will compare productivity over the last four Mondays.
This will help you make faster better staffing decisions. Looking at the previous four-week comparison will help you ensure you are staffing appropriately -- based on the amount of customers in your store who are buying. And when no customers are in your store, you should see a spike in non-customer activity.
When no customers are in your store, you should see a spike in non-customer activity.
Should you stay open later? Should you really be starting an extra shift at 11 a.m. if your busy time doesn’t start until 2 p.m.? Why have 3 people on hand until 9 p.m. when you see a decrease in activity at 7 p.m.? Let RQ4 help you make those decisions with the data to back it up!
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The Ability to Prevent Duplicate IMEIs in RQ version 4.14
A highly anticipated feature has been added to version 4.14 following a large response at last year’s iQmetrix Retail Summit. This feature is the addition of a setting which will provide you with the tools to prevent duplicate IMEIs from being added across any regular product.
With the addition of a setting for used inventory it is no longer necessary to adjust serial numbers which was prone to cause errors.
Why are we doing this now?
At last year's Retail Summit this was voted as being a very important change that people wanted to have applied to RQ.
In the past some clients had to adjust serial numbers between separate SKUs in order to distinguish new and used inventory. With the addition of a setting for used inventory it is no longer necessary to adjust serial numbers which was prone to cause these errors.
There are fraudulent situations where duplicate serial numbers could be used to hide a device that was then stolen from inventory. This will become impossible with the activation of the new setting.
What is changing?
In the Settings Console > Inventory > Miscellaneous a setting has been added to activate duplicate detection on any serial number that is being brought into inventory. This will only apply to serialized regular products which are currently in inventory in any status.
How will this duplicate detection work?
Duplicate detection will be applied anywhere that an item can be brought into inventory. Rather than only checking for a duplicate in the same SKU, a comparison will be made against all serial numbers in inventory for any regular product. This will affect the following product areas so that the duplicate is prevented from entering the system.
Receiving Purchase Orders
Completing RMAs
POS – Refunding into Inventory
What if there has been an actual mistake that I need to correct?
An employee with access to make an Inventory Quantity Adjustment or Correct Receiving Invoices will have the ability to correct any duplicate situation manually using this tool. In the event that there is a duplicate that would be created because of an adjustment a notification will appear to provide details on any SKUs which are duplicated. This will allow them to begin an investigation on the reason behind the duplication and make the necessary adjustments to correct the situation.
When will this change happen?
This change is already part of the 4.14 version which is available upon request.
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New Phone Releases: Reserving Phones within RQ
New phone announcements create tremendous opportunity for businesses to increase revenue by transforming that customers excitement into Sales. RQ allows for deposits from customer Activations without having to have the serial number of the phone.
To set this up:
Create your new phone like normal, and add it to the pricing sheet.
Within the Settings Console, click on: General Settings - Location Setup - Sales Setup. Then check off Launch PAW on sales orders. Do NOT check off Force serial # entry on Sales Orders. You will need to do this for each location that reserve sales will be performed at.
All workstations will need to be logged out of RQ for these changes to take effect.
This will allow your employees to take a deposit from customers on a Sales Order and then start the activation process, giving the customer a feeling that they purchased their phone and not just that they have placed a deposit on a phone.
Employees need to create a Sales Order at the point of original sale with the customer.
o Creating a Sales Order Help file http://support.iqmetrix.com/entries/502105?challenge=koek4002qo3co2h
o Updating a Sales Order Help file http://support.iqmetrix.com/entries/502106
When you receive those phones in on Purchase Order, RQ will alert you that you have Open Sales Orders for these Phones.
Clicking YES will open the Products Committed on Sales Orders Report. You can then see which customers are waiting for these phones and have your staff call to inform them that their device has arrived.
So, with just a few simple settings in RQ you’ll be all set to increase customer satisfaction, reduce customer churn and better control your inventory of new devices!
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Daily Dose of iQ: eBay says Data Can Improve In-Store Experiences
The Retail TouchPoints blog published a post today from an event at which eBay's Head of Retail Business Strategy, David Geisinger, was speaking.
Geisinger said that as retailers accumulate customers' transactional data, "They should use it."
Failure to act upon customers' data is a missed opportunity to personalize their experience.David Geisinger, eBay's Head of Retail Strategy
He proceeded to give an example: It typically takes three months for his dog to finish a bag of dog food; then Geisinger heads to the pet store to buy more. The pet store has access to this information and has an opportunity to re-engage, he said, but it has never sent him a message."This is a huge missed opportunity."
Geisinger encourages retailers to send personalized push notifications and alerts when consumers are reaching the point when they need to replenish a product. For wireless retailers of course, this means reaching out to customers when it's time for them to upgrade their phones.
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Increasing Holiday Revenue: Integrated Handset Protection
The holiday season is in full swing and companies are strategizing to improve margins and boost revenue during this busy time. As a part of your holiday strategy, there is great opportunity to focus on handset protection revenue.
A good handset protection attachment ratio is 40%.
Operating below the ideal handset protection attachment rate poses a challenge and an opportunity for dealers to realize substantial increases in revenue. A good handset protection attachment ratio is 40%. An outstanding ratio is 60%. We have a number of clients who reach a 60% attachment rate, including the stores involved in our recent Project Retail consultation.
We are committed to the success of our retailers and, as such, we have created a list of steps you can take to increase your own handset protection attachment rate.
If you have any ideas of your own, not listed here, please feel free to share those ideas with me.
Talk to your handset protection provider and ask for refresher training for all employees. Your provider will be equipped with ideas and materials that will make the selling process easier and more intuitive. They will provide ways to overcome common objections and, in some cases, have a formal training program your employees can take.
Stress the importance of focusing on handset protection at all levels of the organization. Make sure the message is clear and consistent. Involve managers and district managers in the process to ensure the training is collaborative, meaningful and important at all levels of the organization.
Your CSM has tools available to assess your company's handset protection revenue potential.
Consider an increase in employee compensation for handset protection sales. Perform a cost-benefit analysis to weigh the benefits of increased revenue versus the time and resources it will take to train and properly incentivize employees. Note that even one hour of effective employee training can easily be made up with the potential increase in handset protection sales.
Set up milestones in RQ with an extra bonus awarded for outstanding performance. Use the re-training process in tandem with this to further engage employees during the training process.
Talk to your CSM! We have the tools available to look at your particular handset protection attachment rate and we will do the math to see how much revenue potential you have!
If you are not currently integrated with one of our handset protection partners, please reach out to your CSM. We can discuss the options available to you.
Happy selling!
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Chatterspot Helps Retailers Drive Holiday Traffic
Interview with Brandon De Jong, Vice President, Chatterspot
iQmetrix sat down with Brandon De Jong to discuss SMS and email marketing best practices over the holiday season.
iQ: In a previous article, we discussed how Chatterspot helps retailers (and specifically RQ users) connect with customers via SMS and email marketing campaigns. The holiday season is of course a great time for retailers to reach out to their existing customer base. Do you have any tips for our retailers on how they can use Chatterspot to drive in-store traffic over the holidays?
BD: We always like to provide a few ideas to our clients help get their creative juices flowing. Here are a few sample text messages we previously shared with Chatterspot users to help them prepare for Black Friday:
ACME Wireless' Black iDAY sales event has now begun! Show this msg at {clientaddress} to save $10 on any iPhone accessory. Exp. 12/1 {CouponCode}
Even we are shopping this Black Friday! Show this msg to your {ClientCity} Acme Wireless by 12/1 & we will pay you an extra $15 on your phone trade!{CouponCode}
Even if these sample messages aren't quite right for our users, we always are available to provide insights on messaging times, frequency, copy, offers etc.
At Chatterspot, we get super excited about all of the holiday shoppers we can help stores capture.
While we can all appreciate a spike in holiday sales, we also try to focus on the bigger picture: lifetime value. In addition to driving traffic, all of us at Chatterspot get super excited about all of the holiday shoppers we can help stores capture through Chatterspot. Regardless of why a customer shops at one of our client's stores, we want to ensure our clients have a direct connection with each customer to invite them back time and time again.
iQ: Do you, for example, have a client that has succeeded in using Chatterspot to attract holiday shoppers? What strategies, promotions, incentives did that company use?
BD: Of course, last Black Friday a wireless retailer who had only been active with us for about 60 days sent a text and email campaign to their 1,862 Chatterspot members and generated over $7,000 gross profit from this 3-day campaign.
One wireless retailer generated over $7,000 gross profit from a 3-day text and email campaign.
The text message was positioned as a "members only" Black Friday offer and used a shortened URL in the text messages to link to an online flyer which promoted an aggressive phone & accessory bundle.
iQ: Looking ahead to 2014, why should mobile and email marketing play a prominent role in retailers’ strategy? It should be a no brainer for wireless retailers, shouldn’t it? (i.e. marketing to customers on the very devices they’ve sold them) What are your thoughts on the future of mobile and email marketing?
BD: We believe SMS and email marketing will play a critical role in wireless retail marketing this coming year.
The wireless industry is moving forward at break-neck speeds. Lead times involved with traditional media just can't keep up. By the time a retailer's marketing campaign goes live, it may already be irrelevant.
Given the speed at which the wireless industry moves, automated and digital marketing are increasingly important.
Wireless operators are some of the busiest professionals, so automation capabilities and the immediacy of digital marketing are becoming increasingly important. We don't expect to see any drastic changes in how we reach customers through SMS and email, but we expect a continual evolution as to why the customer is being reached.
Data insights will continue to evolve, which will allow us to progressively profile customers in order to increase relevancy. Due to a recent update in SMS marketing regulations, we also anticipate a drastic decrease in SPAM or non-permission-based SMS marketing which will help maintain the integrity of the medium as a whole.
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