How to create amazing and memorable customer experiences

This article first appeared in the Winter 2017 issue of The Record. Gone are the days where customers visiting US-based home improvement store Lowe's had to flick through multiple swatches of paints and materials, or wander round the store looking at appliances. Now, they simply populate their Pinterest boards with images of their ideal kitchens, send it to Lowe's and the retailer uses analytics and machine learning technologies to find relevant products in its inventory to produce relevant kitchen concepts. When they get to the store, customers use a Microsoft HoloLens headset to finalise a holographic representation of their newly designed kitchen in real scale by switching between different colours and finishes and moving appliances. While Lowe's is somewhat of a pioneer, this is just the start of what's likely to become the standard for retail customer experiences, predicts Pinar Salk, Microsoft's industry solutions director for retail.