How to drive an exceptional and connected retail customer experience

By Génesis Longo
0 min read

What makes a memorable retail customer experience? Talkdesk invited Don Haddaway, from Artisiam, to speak about it.
In the retail space, having connected contact with customers is crucial. But what’s more important is the context of that contact and its underpinning the creation of positive and memorable customer experiences.
That’s something Don Haddaway, from Artisiam Ltd, feels passionate about. For the last 20 years, he’s been focused squarely on how to shape customer experience and contact across multiple industries and how this changes over time.
Chris Wyper, the director of strategy, retail & consumer goods at Talkdesk, is a retail industry veteran with a keen eye for the uses of technology. “I’m always focused on how technology can be used to really help transform and drive the outcomes that retailers really want,” says Chris.
Don spoke with Chris during Building the foundations for connected retail experiences, a fireside chat where he shared key insights into building the foundations for connected and contextual retail experiences. They discuss how to use AI, the role of employees in delivering a memorable customer experience, and why digitization across channels is critical for retailers.
Build the right foundations to drive loyalty and retention.
For Don, the future of retail customer experience is rooted in the past. He views history as a teacher for understanding how humans engage with each other. “Because whilst historically we’re human—we do what we do—it’s important to understand how we behave as humans, to understand how we can then enhance things going forward,” he observes.
One of the driving trends of retail? Creating a customized experience.
“Personalization has faded away over the years, but is making a massive comeback,” Don explains. With mass manufacturing came increasing consumer desires based on a one-size-fits-all approach.
“But with the advent of digitalization and the possibility of true mass personalization—which can be done cost-effectively—people are moving much more towards having things the way they want things, much more towards companies dealing with them the way they wish to be dealt with, their preferences, their foibles, or how or where they want things delivered.”

“Digitalization and customer experience have to go hand-in-hand. So the data that's used, the quality of data is used, and the context of how and when it's used is massively important.”
Don Haddaway, founder and director of Artisiam Ltd.