Richard Shapiro, Business 2 Community

Richard Shapiro

Business 2 Community

New York, NY, United States

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Recent:
  • Unknown
Past:
  • Business 2 Community
  • CustomerThink

Past articles by Richard:

Retailers Underestimate the Value of the Telephone

Once upon a time, a very successful department store owner answered the telephone one evening. On the other end of the line was a customer who needed help but the store was already closed. Yes, there was a time when customers could reach, even the owner of a prestigious store, day or night. That’s When Retailing Was Very Personal. In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Bob Greene, an American… → Read More

2019 Customer Experience Trends

Customer Experience trends are bigger and better for 2019. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tops the list, with a virtual army of app developers working around the clock to help us excite, entertain and educate our clients. With AI, shopping will be more highly personalized than ever, potentially quashing any lingering doubts that customer service and experience are very different animals. But in… → Read More

2019 Customer Experience Trends

Customer Experience trends are bigger and better for 2019. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tops the list, with a virtual army of app developers working around the clock to help us excite, entertain and educate our clients. With AI, shopping will be more highly personalized than ever, potentially quashing any lingering doubts that customer service and experience are very different animals. But in… → Read More

2019 Retail Trends

If we don’t look ahead we risk being left in the dust, and perhaps nowhere is that risk greater than with the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a practical retail technology. AI has left… → Read More

2019 Retail Trends

If we don’t look ahead we risk being left in the dust, and perhaps nowhere is that risk greater than with the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a practical retail technology. AI has left the lab, and although its long-range impacts and unexpected consequences remain the domain of science fiction writers, brands and retailers have seized upon it to predict individual consumer behavior… → Read More

Many E-Commerce Sites Are Stupid

E-commerce sites don’t make sense. In many cases they look like every other site, cluttered and not easy to search for the Contact Us number. If a telephone number can be located, it is usually bur… → Read More

Many E-Commerce Sites Are Stupid

E-commerce sites don’t make sense. In many cases they look like every other site, cluttered and not easy to search for the Contact Us number. If a telephone number can be located, it is usually buried in a maze of other categories or only available through the company’s search engine. Even when you find a telephone number to call, the menu options make it almost impossible to ask a basic… → Read More

Is it Worth Paying Experienced Retail Associates Higher Salaries?

In a recent article in The Washington Post, Minimum Wages are Rising, Pay for Experienced Retail Workers is Not, the authors write,“Retailers have made headlines for raising their minimum hourly wages in quick succession — CVS to $11, Costco to $13, Target to $15 by 2020 — while 29 states and the District now require that employers pay more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. But… → Read More

Is it Worth Paying Experienced Retail Associates Higher Salaries?

In a recent article in The Washington Post, Minimum Wages are Rising, Pay for Experienced Retail Workers is Not, the authors write,“Retailers have made headlines for raising their minimum hourly wa… → Read More

10 Tips for Effective Networking

According to Webster’s dictionary, networking is “the cultivation of a productive relationships for employment or business.” The key word is relationship. Unfortunately, the majority of people… → Read More

Talking About Repeat Business is Worth Repeating

It’s rare that retailers ever talk about or report statistics on repeat customers. Stats are publicized on store over store results, year-by-year. But, that’s it. If you google repeat business, a… → Read More

Retailers are Focusing on The Wrong Experience

Retailers can learn important lessons from studying kiranas, mom-and-pop stores in India. In our present-day quest to design the most efficient and enticing shopping experience, complete with the lat… → Read More

Retailers are Focusing on The Wrong Experience

Retailers can learn important lessons from studying kiranas, mom-and-pop stores in India. In our present day quest to design the most efficient and enticing shopping experience, complete with the latest technology, retailers miss what is really essential. Kiranas are small spaces, packed to the brim with merchandise. Catering to a neighborhood population, the kirana offers personalized service… → Read More

Self-Service Brick & Mortar Stores Leave Your Brand Vulnerable to the Competition

Self-service brick & mortar stores don’t make sense. Removing the human component from the transaction results in just an exchange of goods and services for money, devoid of any connection. Customers want a human touch, even if they don’t know it. Once it happens, the customer looks forward to a repeat performance. The associates make a difference and without them, you leave your customer… → Read More

Self-Service Brick & Mortar Stores Leave Your Brand Vulnerable to the Competition

Self-service brick & mortar stores don’t make sense. Removing the human component from the transaction results in just an exchange of goods and services for money, devoid of any connection. Customers want a human touch, even if they don’t know it. Once it happens, the customer looks forward to a repeat performance. The associates make a difference and without them, you leave your customer… → Read More

Invite a Human To Sit at the Table

Every time I go to a trade show, I get a bad feeling. There are a thousand booths and each one is exhibiting “the most innovative technology” focusing on improving the customer experience. Early on, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO and founder, brought an empty chair into his meetings so leadership teams were forced to think about the crucial, missing element who wasn’t in the room – the all-important… → Read More

Amazon’s New Return Policies Give Brick & Mortar a New Life

It finally happened! It could be a watershed moment for retailers, but more importantly for the consumer. How so? The old adage, measure twice, cut once. Consumers can be more thoughtful and precise… → Read More

Amazon’s New Return Policies Give Brick & Mortar a New Life

It finally happened! It could be a watershed moment for retailers, but more importantly for the consumer. How so? The old adage, measure twice, cut once. Consumers can be more thoughtful and precise about how they order and how much. Amazon’s return policies allowed customers to make returns hassle-free. Now they are internally reviewing this process and cancelling accounts of customers who they… → Read More

The More, The Merrier! Staff to Help Customers in Grocery Stores

We all have to eat. Where we buy our groceries is a matter of choice and there are many. However, even with the option of the digital marketplace, Americans shop at the physical grocery store and spend a good portion of their budget there. According to a Wall Street Journal article by Heather Haddon, on April 11th, Kroger, one of the largest supermarket chains in the country, is bulking up their… → Read More

The More, The Merrier! Staff to Help Customers in Grocery Stores

We all have to eat. Where we buy our groceries is a matter of choice and there are many. However, even with the option of the digital marketplace, Americans shop at the physical grocery store and spend a good portion of their budget there. According to a Wall Street Journal article by Heather Haddon, on April 11th, Kroger, one of the largest supermarket chains in the country, is bulking up their… → Read More