The art of quintessential British queuing has been tested once again, this time by Asda, after a nationwide systems fault caused its card machines to fail.

What Asda’s Sunday slip-up proved was the critical importance of proactive IT support and the damaging effects of a failure to get systems up and running quickly after an outage.

With the convenience provided by ecommerce and click-and-collect delivery, patience in store is wearing thin for the time-poor consumer.

Perceived waiting time and inconvenience at the checkout are key predictors of ‘shopping cart abandonment’ – or a full trolley as the case may have been.

IT issues can hit anyone at any time – even highly organised retailers like Asda.

But by adopting a proactive approach to incident reduction, retailers can prevent simple technical issues from damaging their sales potential.

Prepare for peak

Retailers know when to expect a sales surge and when IT infrastructure must operate consistently at 100%.

“IT issues can hit anyone at any time – even highly organised retailers like Asda”

Dan Smith, Retail Assist

Venturing into the peak retail season, putting the correct processes in place is critical.

Although things can go wrong, it’s how you put them right that matters.

Trend analysis

It’s all about the data.

By analysing incidents and identifying patterns, simple trend analysis can prevent future issues from recurring.

This might also involve identifying where costs are being incurred and reducing the number of chargeable hardware call outs.

Don’t neglect the power of knowledge

In the ‘tweetstorm’ of customers taking to social media to vent frustration, many complained of the lack of staff knowledge regarding progress of the resolution.

Faced with a long queue of shoppers and unable to provide updates, customer expectations couldn’t be set.

Communication is king, so IT support providers must ensure regular updates to the end users, keeping them calm and confident to reassure customers that the problem is in hand.

Support 24/7

Consumers have the ability to transact anywhere, at any time, and retailers’ IT support must reflect these expectations.

Outside of the weekday nine-to-five remit, Asda’s Sunday outage happened during what some may still deem “out of hours”.

“Consumers have the ability to transact anywhere, at any time, and retailers’ IT support must reflect these expectations”

Dan Smith, Retail Assist

Turning to outsourced service providers for extra weekend support can bridge the gap between in-house capabilities.

Don’t take systems for granted

Improved systems availability, enhanced customer service, reduced overall service cost and, most importantly, increased profits, are all benefits to be expected of a well-resourced IT support service.

Dan smith ceo retail assist

Dan smith ceo retail assist

Don’t take working systems for granted. The painful customer experience shared by Asda shoppers across the country could stick fast.

When you consider losing out to another retailer, the size of a customer’s lifetime basket is much more detrimental to lose.

  • Dan Smith is chief executive of retail IT solutions business Retail Assist