The K3 Imagine Companion application is so much more than an app – it is an all-in-one solution designed for retail businesses to improve store clerk efficiency and provide greater customer service by allowing them to work from anywhere.

Companion app is designed to empower store staff to work on the fly. Businesses simply open it on any device – be that mobile, tablet or something else – without the need for a download or complex installation, and boom, they’re ready to go.

What’s included in Companion app?

Companion app is an all-in-one portable solution that enables store staff to become more efficient while offering a much better level of service to customers.

The following is included in the solution:

• Item Information including in store stock levels and stock in nearby stores
• Stock taking
• Replenishment
• Store Information (Sales/Ave Value/No of Transactions/Sales Comparisons)
• Transfers between stores
• Receiving
• Click and Collect
• Stock Adjustments
• Returns to vendor

Companion app can also run a mobile Point of Sale system (mPoS) – either in part or whole – on a mobile device within a store.

It is even ERP agnostic when it comes to mPoS systems, so there’s no need to worry about spending money needlessly just to find a compatible solution.

Efficiency enhanced

Since it contains all relevant information about your business, like stock levels, Companion app removes the need for staff to continually run between the shop floor and stock room to search for items. Instead, they simply scan a bar code to search for real-time stock levels in you stores and warehouses – meaning products can be found for customers far quicker.

Further, stock itself can be managed entirely from a mobile device using Companion app. Staff are enabled to make stock counts, order products and even conduct product adjustments from their fingertips, allowing them to truly become more efficient.

We find these features to be invaluable on a portable device because, ultimately, 90% of retail employees are “non-desktop-workers”, as most of their duties do not require them to use a desktop.

While much of their work involves creating orders and stock takes – tasks traditionally reliant on powerful machines like desktops – today, portable devices can facilitate all this and more. Companion app empowers staff to complete these tasks on the fly and removes the need for them to flicker back and forth between the shop floor, desktop spaces, and the back room.

Further, Companion app can tap into the camera on portable devices and allow them to double up as a scanner. This allows employees to scan products to receive goods and transfer them to another location – thereby allowing them to conduct their day-to-day duties without having to sift through bureaucratic processes on a desktop.

Companion app was designed to be ‘plug and play’ software, meaning businesses can seamlessly and quickly deploy it wherever they need to. All data is securely backed up on the cloud to ensure it can always be accessed at the click of a button. Its plug and play nature also means that it can neatly integrate with existing ERP software and therefore remove the need for a tedious setup. To add the cherry on top, multiple user profiles can be established on a single device so that smaller businesses do not need to purchase various devices – saving them significant sums of money.

CX – the right way

There is no denying that impeccable customer experience is key to any successful business. This is why we designed Companion app to improve CX and ensure customers are left happy.

Companion app constantly has access to live information on products, payments and stock – meaning teams on the shop floor can always respond to customer queries right there and then.

For instance, they can scan a product’s barcode to instantly pull up granular details on an item to increase their knowledge, quite literally, on the spot. Additionally, since employees can scan a product to check whether it’s in stock, customers do not need to wait for them to head into the back room – giving both them and the staff valuable time back. Items in stock at a nearby location will also be flagged to provide customers with an alternative, should the product itself be out-of-stock at the original store.

It’s well documented that customers hate queueing. Luckily, Companion app can completely remove this friction from the customer journey. Staff simply scan or enter a customer’s order reference number for an online order, and mark it as collected for a third-party eCommerce system to handle – allowing customers to collect the item when it’s ready and beat the queues altogether.

Companion app also allows staff to instantly check stock regarding particular sizes and colours to ensure this information is readily available and not contingent on an additional stock check to be conducted.

Perhaps the best advantage of switching to Companion app is that during peak hours, ‘pop-up’ PoS systems can be established to lessen the burden on cashiers and allow customers to queue for less time.

Needless to say, Companion app is an incredibly powerful tool that can be leveraged to truly take businesses to the next level in terms of both efficiency and customer experience.

Interested in learning more about Companion app? Contact one of our experts to find out more today!