News

Kiosks, PDAs help sporting goods customers

May 11, 2005

The Globe and Mail: If you ask the sales staff at the Broli La Source du Sport store for help finding the right piece of extreme sports equipment, you'd be surprised at how knowledgeable the staff is.

The truth is they're using high-tech crib notes.

The workers in the St-Hyacinthe, Que., store use a sales automation tool that you won't find just anywhere - at least not yet. It's a pilot site for an interactive digital sales force technology developed by Montreal's Dakis Decision Systems Inc. Called the Dakis Humanized Expert, the software uses artificial intelligence to provide product and cross-selling recommendations for sales staff and/or customers. The program, which runs on a Microsoft.net platform, uses a detailed questionnaire customized to determine the best sales processes for various products. The questionnaire is based on detailed input from the stores' suppliers and employees.

In Brolisport's case, the information is accessed through a handheld personal digital assistant, as well as an in-store kiosk that sales staff can use to help customers make purchase decisions for highly complex ski and cycling equipment and accessories. Staff, for example, can ask potential snowboard customers a series of questions about their height and weight, skill level, budget, snowboarding style, aggressiveness and so on, feeding the responses into the Dakis system. The software assesses the pros and cons of different products available in the store, based on all the customer's variables, and instantly provides a "third party" recommendation of what products best fit their needs. Then it also lists complementary products that might be a good cross-sell, such as various types of snowboard gear.

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