Simplification Of Service-Oriented Retailing

Consumer demand for shopping and services convenience has resulted in a rapidly increasing number of high-margin service-oriented retailers occupying prime real estate in shopping centers and big-box stores. For instance, walk the inner walls of any Wal-Mart in America, and you'll be presented with opportunities to book a vacation, get an eye exam and buy glasses, have the oil changed in your car, sit for a family portrait, get a haircut, or even see a doctor. What these retail service offerings have in common is that they all, to at least some degree, require consumers to schedule an appointment.

Proex Portraits, a division of Ritz Camera, is one retailer that understands the importance of consumer scheduling software in a service-oriented business. Since 2001, Proex Portraits has operated 20 portraiture studio locations in the greater Minneapolis/St. Paul area as a division of photography super retailer Ritz Camera. Last fall, in anticipation of the ultrabusy holiday season, Proex Portraits implemented a new appointment scheduling system to make more efficient use of resources, including photographers, studios, and camera and lighting equipment. The system was also designed to improve customer relationship management.

The modern trend toward personalized holiday greeting cards is in large part responsible for the fact that Proex Portraits makes 60% of its annual sales in the two months preceding Christmas. Bryan Engblom is general manager at Proex Portraits. He says the chain schedules thousands of portrait sittings each November and December. "This amount of traffic can result in discord, and as our business volume and number of locations grew, we recognized the need for a standard scheduling platform," says Engblom. The retailer had been handling scheduling primarily via manual means at its stores.