Article

RCEES: How AT&T brought an invisible product to life

Customer experience managers from AT&T's Chicago flagship discussed brand evolution.

August 15, 2013 by Natalie Gagliordi — Editor of KioskMarketplace.com, Networld Media Group

SAN DIEGO - How do you create a brick-and-mortar store for a company whose main product is invisible? That was the question put to AT&T during the creation of its flagship store on Chicago's Michigan Avenue.

During this week's Retail Customer Experience Executive Summit, AT&T's Amanda Collins and Lindsay Wadelton led a presentation on the company's store design challenge and its Magnificent Mile solution.

As the flagship store's Customer Experience Manager, Wadelton began the session by asking the audience what came to mind when they thought of AT&T, and expectedly, most of the room responded with thoughts of telephone lines and smartphones.

"The brand is age-old but focused on evolution," Wadelton said. "We're not just the old phone company, but people didn't know everything that AT&T was working on."

In order to reshape consumer perception of the former Southwestern Bell Corporation, the experience store was nestled between high-end and everyday brands on the famed commercial street that attracts some 66,000 visitors on a typical Saturday.

Visitors to the store can learn about various apps in the Explorer Lounge, and in the Apps Bar, "app-tenders" serve up one-on-one and group demos which are also displayed on multiple video monitors on the Apps Wall. An 18-foot high Connect Wall shows interactive content and product information, visible to the entire store and passersby.

"The goal with this area was to have people walking away knowing something that they didn't know before," Wadelton said.

The store also features products, apps and accessories organized and showcased in the Lifestyle Boutiques, including Get Fit, Be Productive, Share Your Life and Chicagoland, which includes local apps and Chicago-themed accessories exclusive to the AT&T Michigan Avenue store.

The store also aims to educate shoppers on AT&T's various products for home security and automation, entertainment, music and automobiles at the Experience Platform. Customers can see how AT&T Digital Life services can enable them to control their home using AT&T wireless devices with a demo in the Family Life area. The Street Smart area features a 2012 Nissan Leaf and shows the future of automotive connectivity, safety and efficiency.

"The connected car lets customers know that we are developing technology that will change their life," Wadelton said.

The presentation also focused on the importance of the store employee. Wadelton explained that they recruit nationally and position each associate based on their unique individual strenghts. She showed an employee-made video that oozed enthusiasm from the store's workers. At the end, one employee proudly boasts, "The store isn't a store, it's an experience."

Check out the video below released by AT&T during the launch of the experience store:

Read more about store design and layout.