Do you see any value in keeping our retail outlets running?
Covid proved that we can operate without this channel - what are your thoughts?
PS
Retail folks: I have nothing but respect for you, this ain't an attempt to troll - this questoin is posted out of curiousity about what model may prevail in the future
@1gjs+17xHWBve - You can just download an app to transfer everything from one phone to another. Like the "Transfer My Data" app. Android and IOS also have transferring systems in place. So maybe you were being satirical by saying that has to be done in a store? Because it is obvious to most you don't need a store or clerk to perform that.
You will need COR stores, someone has to fix the AR screw ups, they deal with cust care issues due to lack of communications with everything outsourced and language barriers! The list can go on for sure! You should work in COR as I do and see the mess AR causes! Reputation Out the door horrible!
THis month the store has been CRAZY slow..even with iphone. Everyone seems to go online or over the phone.
Which is odd because the past few months have been decent. I guess my store is gonna close down too.
I was surplussed by ATT so I went to a verizon store. On the spot, they can switch my services and transfer everything off my old phone. You have a rep in front of you to transfer phone data to your new device and confirm and deal with any issues when transferring service. I don't see how this would have been accomplished as well with a strictly online transaction.
They already closed 250 stores with another 500 more in Dec/Jan. Many of those will reopen as AR the day after they officially close. Being former Retail myself, the customer traffic over the past years has steadily decreased to the point some stores see 2 customers a day. Those are the areas where there’s a lot of AR stores surrounding them, but still a significant loss of store traffic. Most people shop online or prefer to go to Apple where buying a phone is a 5 minute transaction. There’s still people who prefer to go to stores, who can’t stand dealing with Care but there will still be stores everywhere, just not corporate (Except Flagship and high profit). Makes business sense but a lot of people will be out of good paying jobs in a bad economy. However- leaving the insanity of the current retail environment is the best thing I’ve done.
I suspect T and all other major Telco's will evolve to the "Apple Model" of retail, which is fewer stores , but the ones that remain will be more posh in high-income communities , catering to a certain segment (ie. rich AF) who will buy all their full-priced products and services without any hesitation or haggling for deals or rebates. Everyone else will be relegated to just on-line where it costs a lot less to operate and all the customer no-service is outsourced to the lowest bidder..