The Digital Signage Expert

In my newsletter of the 15th Feb. you will find a link: Digital signage revolution helps ‘revitalise the High Street’ – 90% industry professionals believe retail display technology can increase retail spending. For obvious reasons it did become the most clicked on link of the day.

Since the beginning of the year these kinds of comments have been floating around. This is good to hear, at least for the retail and digital signage industry as a whole. I do wish it for us all. Mind you this stems from a poll taken at a digital signage event, visitors there would be generally positive otherwise they wouldn’t be making the pilgrimage. It seems respondents are for resurgence of towncenters. London for one seems to be destroying it as one shop after another is closing down. The mention of service over convenience, the word service means better employee and product training, not a common practice as costs are climbing.

And there we have it, service. Digital Signage is only part of the service chain; it cannot replace “people”. If we keep optimizing the digital signage element we run into the danger of turning shop fronts into vending machines. We are in essence halfway there. My own experience with in-store service has been usually one of sales not having a clue. I think the phrase most often said on British high streets is “Sorry about that”. It would be an error to think that just nailing some screens on the wall will replace human interaction with customers wildly gesturing in front of video-walls trying to get satisfaction.

As welcome as these figures are, especially stemming from a reputed vendor, we need to remember to earmark marketing spend properly. That goes with training of staff how to use digital signage in everyday situations. That begins with being aware that it is there. You wouldn’t believe how often I was confronted with surprise when I asked about the screen hanging above the salespersons head, in essence they didn’t know it was there! That goes with also noting a reporting when screens are out/down. I’ve walked past a screen on the high street for weeks that contained the “blue screen”, when finally confronting the store manager he said he didn’t know that was a fault!

So what am I on about? The word is education, the shop floor salesperson needs to also know about digital signage, how to use it and be aware of it. If not, then you’ve missed the point. Turn your shop into a vending machine and go home.