Specialty Retailer Jo-Ann Stores Enhances Employee Productivity And Efficiency To Enable Focus On Customer Service

Company overview: Jo-Ann Stores, Inc
Providing crafting, decorating, sewing and seasonal merchandise, Jo-Ann Stores, Inc. is a leading specialty retailer founded more than 60 years ago in Cleveland, Ohio. Jo-Ann Stores has nearly 20,000 employees in more than 850 stores and multiple distribution centers. With locations in 47 states, Jo-Ann Stores offer fashion and decorator fabrics, related notions, patterns and other materials for creative projects. The Jo-Ann "superstore" format provides a vast array of items to inspire creative crafts of all kinds. The company aims to meet its customers' creative needs not only with products but also with the ideas, inspiration and advice to help with their projects. Thus, customer service is an essential element of Jo-Ann Stores' successful retail model.

The challenge: Choosing technology to support superior customer service
The management of Jo-Ann Stores has long been aware of the value of advanced technology to help employees focus more on assisting customers and less on transactional tasks. Handheld devices have been used for over a dozen years to simplify such activities as product ordering, receiving, price checking and inventory, and to automate the creation of cutting slips in the fabric department. When that hardware was discontinued and sourcing parts became a problem, Jo-Ann Stores sought a more reliable, more advanced technology that could support existing applications.

"A key goal was to take advantage of the state-of-the art 802.11 wireless network for future technology innovations here," said John O'Donnell, Director of Systems Development, Jo-Ann Stores.

Over a three-week period, handheld products from several vendors were evaluated in a lab environment. "We brought in key users and people from the fi eld to try various units and grade them based on ease of use and the ability to run our existing applications effi ciently," said O'Donnell.

This resulted in Jo-Ann Stores selecting the Motorola MC3000 mobile computer. The Motorola MC3000 mobile computer is a small, lightweight and rugged handheld that can be used for bar code scanning and wireless mobile computing, and is designed to help employees complete their work faster and with better results.