Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) seeks to instill the “Smart Life” into its customers with the debut of their redesigned Smart Stores. With a concept different from previous telco hubs, the newest Smart shops enable customers to live today’s highly digital lifestyle.
“The traditional Smart Stores are straightforward, functional areas where people apply for a postpaid plan or have their aftersales concerns attended to. The experience used to be quite impersonal. While customers can still complete these transactions in Smart Stores, they will experience so much more in the coming months,” said Maloo Agoncillo, Vice President and head of Retail Support at Smart.
The Smart Stores in Powerplant Mall, Makati City; Robinsons Magnolia, Quezon City; and SM Aura, Taguig City are the first in the country to feature the telco’s lifestyle nooks. These are digital services catering to various interests and are named Music Hub, Reading Nook, Digital Mall, and Games Station.
“In our new mission statement, Smart promises to enable Filipinos to create awesome moments in life through mobile and digital innovations. We will bring these lifestyle nooks to different Smart Stores all over the country so Filipinos can see and experience what we mean when we say that Smart enables them to live more. The Smart Store is where they will get a taste of the Smart Life,” said Charles Lim, Executive Vice President and head of the Wireless Consumer Business of Smart and Sun Cellular.
Visitors can enjoy music streaming services Spinnr and Deezer for free at the Music Hub. They can also know more about how to subscribe to the services including how to pay for them without a credit card.
The Reading Nook takes the form of a personal library, but instead of physical paper, customers can enjoy their favorite books and magazines via the Buqo app, with each title payable via load deductions or postpaid bill charging.
Gaming aficionados will have a blast at the Games Station where they will be introduced to GameX, an online portal that allows them to buy game credits without leaving their seats. They can pay conveniently using their prepaid load or via postpaid bill charging.
Lastly, the Digital Mall section offers shopaholics and fashionistas easy access to a wide catalogue of items courtesy of Zalora.
“Customers can also look forward to delightful surprises which we will launch in selected Smart Stores in the coming months,” Agoncillo said.
Even before the implementation of these lifestyle nooks, Smart had already renovated a couple of its Smart Stores in order to provide a more personalized experience for customers. These now sport a hip and personal café-style look, inspired by neighborhood artisanal cafés. 78 stores are planned to be redesigned into New Generation Smart Stores by the end of 2015.
“Unlike traditional transaction counters, this design conceptualized and executed by a world-class, all-Filipino team encourages a more personal interaction between customers and frontliners. We won’t just be selling to customers. We want to get to know them better, learn more about their needs and lifestyles, so we could recommend the products and services that are best for them,” Agoncillo said.
The brand new Smart Stores also feature customer service innovations like the Digital Profiler, a touchscreen that allows customers to know more about the features of devices and plans; and the iQueue, an automatic queuing system allowing customers to do something else while waiting for their turn, and then sending them a text message reminding them of their queu.
“All these transformation efforts will lead up to the launch of our flagship store at SM Megamall early next year. The innovation process never ends at Smart. We continue to enhance and revolutionize products, services, and the overall customer experience so more Filipinos can live the Smart Life,” Agoncillo said.