Kroger CIO and SVP Yael Cosset discussed how tech deployments improve the customer and associate experience at Kroger, during ShopTalk 2023 in Las Vegas.
"Investment in data and innovation during the last two decades–focusing on the customer experience–created immense value, saving customers $1.4 billion just last year," said Cosset. "Kroger pioneered the personalization approach because we wanted to understand how customers engaged with our offers to make them better and more relevant. Our best-in-class data science program creates personalized experiences that provide important savings on the very specific items we know our customers love. The ability to personalize every single aspect of the customer experience is critical to Kroger's commitment to a zero-compromise, seamless experience.”
Cosset explained how the grocer seeks to improve the associate experience by making their jobs more efficient and satisfying while increasing their impact on customer experience. Kroger digitized associate processes, comparable to the models built to personalize the customer experience, to improve onboarding, training, and the prioritization of daily activities.
"We are using technology to provide comprehensive training, simplify tasks and give our associates the support they need to do their jobs well. In turn, this enables associates to understand their roles better and achieve faster career growth,” he said.
The pandemic impacted Kroger’s ecommerce customer and associate experience. A push to innovate the process led to innovation around both the customer and associate capabilities, including a 50 percent decrease in customer wait time, a 30 percent order pick time improvement, and the elimination of the use of paper in ecommerce store operations, according to the retailer.
Asked what new technologies he found most exciting, Cosset said he is excited to continue to bring data science to the Kroger organization, with associate engagement driving innovation to create better customer and associate experiences.
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