Longs Giving Shoppers Multichannel Service Options

Many retailers talk about multichannel retailing, but Longs Drugs is actually doing it.

Longs, the nation's sixth largest drug store chain, is in the process of implementing a cross-channel solution that includes more targeted, personalized service via the Web, in-store or any other customer touchpoint, based on a customer's interaction with the chain.

This personalized customer service will be based at least partly on specific health-related profiles drawn from the customer's prescription drug history (used for that purpose only with the customer's permission, according to the company). Customers will be able to access these profiles online via a secure connection.

The solution is designed to integrate a retailer's customer interaction across all sales channels, whether it be brick-and-mortar, contact/call centers or the Web. It allows transactions and information-gathering to be conducted through in-store devices, speech recognition, interactive voice response (IVR), live operators and the Internet, according to Harvey Braun, global industry leader with Deloitte Consulting, which developed the system with Nextlink Interactive.

Braun says the system is expected to improve customer service and relationships in the retail industry, as well as profitability, by giving customers the flexibility to buy in one channel, change an order in another and check status in a third. "For the customer, it can cut down on the hassle, the waiting on line," says Braun.

It also targets the high rate of shoppers who leave the store without making a purchase, estimated to be anywhere from 60 to 75% depending on the class of trade, Braun says.

The initial phase of the system, already up-and-running, is called E-Fills, and allows customers to order their prescriptions via the Web and pick them up at a Longs store of their choice. As part of this initial phase, Longs also uses its Web site to target the customer with health-related information based on concerns he or she has communicated to the chain. The next phase will allow the customers to have the prescriptions mailed to their home.

"This really is the very beginning of what we hope to expand upon not only on the Internet, but back in our stores and however else we choose to get in touch with the customer and focus our products and services on their stated health goals," explains Longs' CIO Brian Kilcourse.

"Our desire is to engage the consumer in a meaningful conversation that is so compelling that the consumer wants to work with Longs to solve their health-care needs as opposed to just shopping low-price. That's our goal and we think we're well on our way to achieving that."

Kilcourse offers an example of a customer with diabetes. Longs is designing the system so that eventually the chain might be able to provide this customer not only online prescription ordering and information about managing the disease, but incentives to buy other diabetes-safe products, such as sugar-free cough syrup.

Longs turned to an application service provider (ASP) solution provided by Deloitte Consulting and Nextlink for the system. Nextlink is providing the communications network capability, while Deloitte is actually building the infrastructure. The architecture consists of a front-end for Longs' ecommerce offerings, integrated with the chain's central customer database, and tied into Longs' pharmacy system.—Andrew Kaplan