Technology innovation is constant, allowing retailers new ways to better the customer and employee experience, create a smoother and more convenient interaction, and perform more efficiently.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been the backbone to many of these new endeavors, and for 35-store chain Cubby’s, that’s no different.
Located in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota, Cubby’s installed InStore.ai’s audio solution in each of its stores, allowing the chain to record conversations between employees and customers to better understand any issues and gain valuable customer insights.
CStore Decisions is acknowledging Cubby’s use of AI in the store and subsequent ability to take timely action with a Tech Innovation Award. Cubby’s is a testament to how even smaller chains can take big steps with technology.
The AI
De Lone Wilson, president of Cubby’s, has found a new way to connect with front-line employees.
“We don’t have an IT person,” Wilson had said.
Yet, although many of Cubby’s existing processes are manual, the chain has taken the leap into the AI world to test and work with a new voice analytics technology.
Cubby’s stores have microphones at the cash registers and foodservice area. Small devices are either connected to the chain’s WiFi or hardwired, and the microphones are attached. These are always recording, allowing the technology to pick up conversations and pinpoint areas of concern.
Maintenance is the area in which Cubby’s primarily uses the software, although Wilson can now turn on his computer in the morning and hear, “Hello, De Lone,” from staff at the start of their shifts.
For maintenance usage, the chain receives alerts for issues before the stores report them, and Cubby’s is able to investigate where there might be a problem.
Cubby’s can access a dashboard where users view the triggers that prompt an alert for different categories.
“For instance, in terms of maintenance, everybody in the industry has a lot of problems with pin pads,” said Wilson. “So when you’re seeing multiple issues of people talking about having trouble at the pin pad with their card, or the cashier having to give them specific instructions on how to make the pin pad work, or, say, we’ve been having problems with that for the last couple of days, that triggers an alert.”
Cubby’s then recognizes the issue and makes a decision on how best to solve it, such as resetting or replacing the pin pad to keep the process from slowing down, in this example.
The challenge, Wilson noted, is that issues that crop up a lot aren’t reported immediately, as a “That’s just the way things are” attitude tends to manifest.
The dashboard gives users a synopsis of conversations, and when multiple conversations appear throughout the day with similar problems, Cubby’s knows to investigate them. The chain proactively searches through the dashboard while also responding to alerts.
The synopses prevent Cubby’s from having to sit and listen to hours of recordings. Alerts will crop up every day.
Another area in which the chain uses the AI tech is employee greetings.
“We want the people behind the counter to greet the customers when they show up, when they walk in the door. We want them to thank them for their business. We want them to talk about our loyalty program,” said Wilson. “Right now, we’ve got a roundup campaign for the local food bank, or for a couple of different local food banks who are in our footprint, and we’re asking (employees) to talk about it, and so we can actually see if that’s happening or not.”
Cubby’s has been using this technology for almost one year, and during that time, the software has improved and learned much.
Each of the chain’s stores receives a daily score that represents different categories, including maintenance, offensive language (which might pertain to employees, but more often than not pertains to customers) and more.
One of the bigger challenges Cubby’s encountered with the new technology was a small amount of pushback from store managers and employees, as there was concern that “we’re just sitting here at the office listening to their conversations, which we tried our best to assure them that that is absolutely not the case, that nobody has time just to sit around and listen to conversations,” said Wilson.
What’s helpful, Wilson maintained, is the AI’s ability to listen for keywords and send the alerts when issues crop up.
Cubby’s can also gain valuable insights about promotions or limited-time offers through its use of AI. Sales data provides information, but this technology allows the chain to hear what customers are saying about these.
It’s also been helpful at times when customers have mentioned out-of-stocks.
“If you’re getting an alert that tells you that there’s conversations going on in a certain store that they’re out of Diet Coke or Diet Mountain Dew, then we can go in and talk to our manager, talk to our supplier, kind of figure out why we’re out of that,” Wilson said.
One other example of how this technology can be useful presented itself to Wilson through a different retailer. This retailer had a workman’s compensation claim at a store.
“There was an injury, and the person was saying this and that and that they were injured and wanted a financial settlement and all that. So they went back to the day of the incident and listened to the recordings and heard a conversation about the manager trying to get the person to go seek medical attention, and (this person told) the manager, ‘I’m fine. Nothing’s wrong.’ And so they were able to head off that workman’s comp claim,” Wilson said.
The information gleaned from this tech might not only be useful to retailers. Wilson noted there is the thought that some consumer product companies might be interested in paying for information from the system to hear what customers are saying about their products, although he noted that Cubby’s specifically might not be large enough to be involved in this type of project.
Still, this voice analytics technology has been helpful in the time Cubby’s has installed it, and the chain has every intention of keeping it in place for the future.
Beyond Audio
The use of AI to record audio and break down the conversations into triggers, keywords, summaries and alerts is not Cubby’s only use of AI.
Cubby’s also installed AI-enabled security cameras in the stores last year, and it’s still in the process of outfitting each store.
Wilson noted this has been very helpful from a loss-prevention standpoint, and it has the potential to be an asset for defense from injuries and “slip and fall” allegations.
“(Another) big thing for us is just making sure that all our warmers are full of the right type of products at the right time, so we’re able to go in there and see that,” said Wilson.
Outside of AI, Cubby’s has plans to expand self-checkout.
“We’re about to remodel the interior of one of our larger stores, and once we do that, we’re going to greatly increase the number of self-checkouts in that store and do that on a go-forward basis,” said Wilson.
Although most of Cubby’s food is grab-and-go, and customers will be able to use self-checkout to pay for food, the chain will likely move to online ordering kiosks where applicable. It currently offers online ordering for its pizza, with 20% of these sales coming via this method.
Cubby’s has five Godfather’s Pizza restaurants, and in some other locations it offers its own Cubby’s Pizza.
While today Cubby’s experiments with self-checkout and AI, the possibilities for the future are numerous. “I’ve got to think (AI) is going to help us schedule labor better,” Wilson shared as an example. Time will tell what more Cubby’s can do with new tech and how the chain chooses to utilize it down the line.
