Consumer Products and Assistive Technology Report (CPAT) - Report to Programs and Services

Consumer Products and Assistive Technology Report (CPAT) - Report to Programs and Services Committee

Key Performance Measures:

Efficiency:

Contact management: During the month of April, the two teams who currently support the national 1-800 helpline were merged to a single business unit, with one line of management oversight. While at an early stage in the consolidation effort, the new model provides the management team with an opportunity to instill best practices in contact management with defined metrics and goals, address underutilization of staff, and increase our ability to respond to enquiries‘live’.

Purchaser/Product review: A comprehensive evaluation of purchaser behaviour and the performance of the product range has now been completed. Recommendations to inform sales and product planning efforts are underway and will be presented to the Committee at the next meeting. Initial outcomes are:

• Apparent areas of duplication with 55 duplicate vision aids and 140 duplicate canes. Identified products will be presented to professional practice leads for initial assessment.
• Identified that purchaser retention year on year is consistently low at approx 14-17% and that, for the most part, the majority of sales are driven by new customers. In FY’10 the total number of new purchasers equated to 13,175, who were responsible for approx. $1.4 million in gross sales.

Effectiveness:

New catalogue: A new 44-page catalogue has been introduced, featuring a contemporary and easy to read design, and a focus on approx. 100 of our most popular products. The catalogue is positioned under the brand “Shop CNIB”, with a supporting tag line of “Products for better living”. The catalogue will be mailed shortly to our most recent purchasers, along with drop shipment to key eye health and allied health care professionals.

Filler ads: Filler ads are in development in several sizes to promote CNIB’s consumer product range. Community newspapers will be proactively targeted to feature the ads with the goal of increasing awareness levels of local stores andthe product offering.

New store opening: At the end of April, CNIB opened a new store in Charlottetown, PEI. This represents the 18th retail presence in communities across Canada.

Store promotions: Over 50 signs featuring the “Shop CNIB” logo were sent out to store locations, together with installation kits and instructions. In addition. a new volunteer t-shirt was introduced and two t-shirts have been made available for every in-store volunteer.

Shop in a box concept: The initial designs for the “shop in a box” concept have been finalized, and preliminary costs are currently being assessed. The concept is a kiosk or retail unit which will provide our smaller store offeringswith some best practices in merchandising and consistency in our purchaser experience. It also allows third-party opportunities to explored, as the concept focuses on the minimal services required to deliver a fully functional operation while keeping the start-up costs to an absolute minimum.

Revamped e-newsletter: In May, CNIB launched its redesigned Insight e-newsletter to CNIB’s 43,000 subscribers. The goalis to deliver a monthly update with a contemporary design that better reflects the CNIB brand and serves as a showcase for accessible design. The newsletter features a product spotlight that aims to generate click-through traffic to the web store.

Immediate Objectives:

Purchaser/Product review: Finalize outcomes of the product analysis and present findings to Committee. Where applicable, management will initiate actions that relate to asset management, inventory forecasting, replenishment and demand forecasting.

Customer relations: Deliver sensitivity and customer service training to 1-800 customer service team, and extend training module to store volunteers.

Next store opening: Target to open Fredericton store in August.

Store promotions: Conduct review of merchandising in each store location, and target best practice improvements. In addition: pilot “shop in a box” concept, supported with cost effective e-pos solution that streamlines the support process and reduces organizational overhead.