Product requests were called by walkies, an outdated tool. A customer asks for a product,t and an associate radios over for a runner to bring it out from the stockroom. It worked but sometimes didn’t. Walkies created three distinct problems:

Walkies increased noise on the sales floor and reduced time with the customer. Multiple requests coming at once left the stockroom runner confused and helpless.

Walkies are customer-facing, hearing repeated requests and unrelated chatter, and can see firsthand when there is an issue in the stockroom. A tool that was thought of as internal was actually part of the customer experience.

Because requests were verbally made, there was no way of tracking how many requests were coming in, what fulfillment time looks like, and what products are asked for but not available.

Walkies became not just an inconvenience but also a problem that needed to be addressed to better support employees and create a hospitable environment for customers.