Exploring Retail
Summarize
Summary of Exploring Retail
The Retail application in ServiceNow enhances retail organization operations by optimizing communication and workflows between stores and headquarters. It builds on Customer Service Management and Field Service Management to streamline both frontline and backend activities, enabling efficient issue reporting, task management, and performance visibility across retail locations.
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Key Features
- User Roles: Supports various retail roles including Store Associates, Store Managers, Regional and Area Managers, and Central Operations Support teams, each with specific responsibilities for issue reporting, store management, and coordination with headquarters and vendors.
- Retail Workflow and Case Types: Provides multiple case types tailored for retail needs:
- HQ Communications Case: Manages large-scale coordination across multiple stores.
- Store Inquiry Case: Facilitates streamlined store-to-HQ communication and issue resolution.
- In-store Operations Case: Standardizes reporting and resolution of in-store operational issues, improving assignment and resolution times.
- Customer Complaint Case: Captures and resolves customer complaints efficiently.
- Retail Data Model: Includes a unified case and task data model specific to retail, supporting operational activities like retail tasks and in-store operations tasks that ensure smooth store functioning and compliance.
- Retail Portal and Mobile Application: Offers a self-service Retail portal for case tracking and metrics visibility (accessible via
<instance>/rspURL) and a mobile app for frontline teams to manage store activities and monitor KPIs in real time on Android and iOS devices.
Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
- Enables frontline employees and managers to efficiently report and manage store issues, reducing reliance on call centers and truck rolls.
- Improves operational visibility and performance metrics at store, regional, and area levels, supporting data-driven decision making.
- Streamlines task assignment and issue resolution across multiple retail organizations from headquarters, enhancing coordination and reducing resolution times.
- Supports comprehensive case management tailored to retail scenarios, integrating with existing Customer Service Management structures for seamless operations.
Next Steps
ServiceNow customers can explore configuring and using Retail features such as managing customer complaints, handling store inquiries, and tracking cases and tasks via the Retail portal. Installing the Retail core plugin is required to access the portal and mobile capabilities.
Whether you're starting or expanding your implementation of the Retail application, learn more about the features available to optimize your retail organization.
Retail overview
The Retail applications streamline operations and optimize communication within retail organizations and with headquarters. By building on the existing functionalities of Customer Service Management and Field Service Management, this application optimizes workflows, improves coordination, and supports both frontline and backend operations to run smoothly and efficiently.
- Enable front-line employees and managers to report issues on behalf of the stores they're associated with.
- Help reduce calls to the call center, reduce or eliminate truck rolls, and enable store-based case management.
- Get better visibility into store performance, which can also drive improvement in metrics for store support.
- Streamline task assignment from teams at headquarters(HQ) to multiple retail organizations at once.
Retail users
| User | Description |
|---|---|
| Store Associate | Store associates who perform store tasks, organize the store, are often the first to notice and report issues, and engage with customers. |
| Store Manager | Store managers who manage the store, address issues, or request help from the central operations team if needed. If issues aren't resolved in time and manage staff and schedules, they step in to contact local vendors. |
| Regional Manager | Regional managers who oversee multiple retail locations, staying aware of issues and their resolution status across the area's hierarchy. |
| Area Manager | Area managers, also called market managers,who oversee multiple regions and stay aware of issues and resolution status across their store hierarchy. |
| Central Operations Support | Central Operations Support or the HQ Operations team who addresses store questions and needs, performs issue resolution, and interfaces with company field staff or third-party vendors in coordination with Store Manager. They’re responsible for creating tasks and standard operating procedures. They're acting as the fulfilling agent for cases routed to them, including the cases related to security, IT Service Management (ITSM), and Central Customer Support. |
For more information on the roles that come with Retail Core, see .
Retail workflow
Retail case types are designed to address various business needs and streamline workflows for store-level and HQ-driven task management. Each case type is essentially a new case application with its own table, workflows, and UI experience that drives the end-to-end flow from issue to resolution.
- HQ communications case: Initiate and coordinate large-scale actions across multiple stores with the HQ communications case type in the Retail HQ operations plugin.
- Store inquiry case: Streamline the process for contacting HQ for store-to-HQ cases with the store inquiry case type in the Retail Store Services plugin, which provides a clearly defined workflow for resolution at HQ.
- In-store operations case: Standardize the reporting, tracking, and resolution of in-store issues with the in-store operations case type in the Retail in-store operations plugin. This case type contributes to structured assignments of store cases and tasks, reducing the time to resolution.
- Customer complaint case: Help ensure quick and efficient customer service resolutions by capturing store-related complaints from customers using the customer complaint case type in the Retail customer complaint plugin.
Retail data model
| Benefit | Feature |
|---|---|
| Helps to create and maintain Retail organization and Retail specific attributes on it. | Retail organization data model |
| Covers the unified data model of cases and tasks in Retail. It helps in solving the Retail workflows. | Retail unified case and task data model |
- Retail task: A retail task is an operational activity in a retail environment that ensures smooth store functioning, customer satisfaction, and compliance. These tasks can be manual or system-generated and are typically part of broader workflows managed by HQ or regional teams.
- In-store operations task: In-store operations task is used to support daily in-store activities. These tasks are typically tied to a store-level case and are executed by store associates or managers.