Apergu Unboxed: Episode 2 – The Retail Wake-Up Call with Rangga Ahsana, CX Consultant

As your business grows, so does the complexity of your internal operations. For many retail companies, this complexity becomes overwhelming—especially when systems aren't equipped to handle the surge in customer interactions.

Sales Silos & Scattered Data

One of the most common challenges faced by retail businesses is the fragmentation of customer data. Information lives across multiple platforms—emails, spreadsheets, social media, messaging apps—making it nearly impossible for sales teams to track customer interactions in one place. Without a centralized system, managing a clear sales pipeline becomes a guessing game, leading to inefficiencies that slow down growth.

Customer Service on the Brink

While sales may be struggling, the after-sales process often reveals even deeper cracks. Many businesses still lack a proper ticketing system to manage complaints or refund requests. The result? Frustrating experiences for both customers and support teams—manual processes, delayed responses, and disconnected communication channels like WhatsApp, email, and Instagram DMs. Worse yet, without a centralized view, complaints slip through the cracks, and customer trust begins to erode.

Automation is rarely in place to prioritize cases, send real-time updates, or enable structured follow-ups. This leads to poor customer experiences—and in the retail world, those can be fatal.

Why Businesses Turn to CRM Consultants

When asked why more companies are now partnering with CRM consultants, Rangga points to two key reasons: limited in-house resources and a lack of technical expertise. Businesses need experienced implementers who can translate operational needs into the right tools, workflows, and integrations.

Often, companies don't want to start from scratch—they want to bridge their legacy systems into more modern platforms. Beyond the technical setup, consultants also play a key role in guiding and training internal teams, ensuring smooth adoption of new systems.

What Retailers Actually Want From CRM

At its core, CRM is not just about technology—it’s about outcomes. For sales, the goals are clear:
✔ Higher customer retention
✔ Better conversion from leads to closed deals
✔ Smoother, more efficient pipelines

For after-sales, it’s about:
✔ Improving customer satisfaction
✔ Reducing pressure on customer service teams
✔ Making faster, data-driven decisions

CRM Is No Longer Optional for Retail

In Rangga’s words, CRM is more than just a system—it’s the foundation of a customer-first, scalable retail business. Without it, key processes like selling and supporting become slow, manual, and vulnerable to failure.

For any retail company looking to level up and compete in today’s digital era, CRM is not just a nice-to-have. It’s an absolute need.