Dealing with shoplifting, theft, and crime on top of daily priorities can be overwhelming in a busy retail store. Many retailers could use added resources for their asset protection teams, especially boots-on-the-ground support, to help them address store challenges and bridge communication gaps between store managers, law enforcement, and the legal system. That is where the ALTO Alliance and, more specifically, ALTO’s Customer Success Specialists (CSS) come in.
Marcos Rodriguez is an operations manager with ALTO USA. Below is his perspective on the important role CSSs provide for the retailers ALTO Alliance supports.
An Advocate to Stores and the Community
I first began as a Customer Success Specialist in San Francisco in October 2020. I immediately saw the successful role we play in the Alliance as store and community advocates driving real change.
As part of the Alliance, it’s every specialist’s job to own their relationships with each store in their designated region (about forty to fifty stores). At least every two weeks, CSSs visit each store in person and work with staff to listen to store issues, follow up on incidents that have been reported, and to further encourage and educate staff on the impact of complete incident reporting.
To address store concerns, CSSs escalate them to the appropriate people—the company’s asset protection team, corporate leadership, or law enforcement—and facilitate exploratory meetings to brainstorm solutions. CSSs also work closely with local ALTO staff attorneys and use the data they’ve collected from stores in that area to help build stronger cases on repeat offenders.
The most important part of a Customer Success Specialist’s job is to provide a consistent communication stream, so store managers and staff feel supported. CSSs update stores on the next steps for specific incidents, related criminal cases in their area, and recent successes to create a safer community.
Bridging the Gap between Retail and Law Enforcement
CSSs help educate store staff on the best and most effective ways to communicate and work with law enforcement. Typically, when store staff calls the police or files reports on incidents, they often don’t understand how to communicate with officers to help them charge a criminal. Educating store staff on how to work with local law enforcement can increase the number of opportunities to press charges on criminals and initiate the next steps needed to take that case to court.
CSSs help facilitate meetings and positive interactions between store staff and law enforcement, which helps law enforcement understand the store’s challenges and foster trust and a collaborative relationship between a store and its local officers.