Ruben Alonso, Systems Manager, Crew Clothing Co

We asked Crew Clothing's System Director - Ruben Alonso about his role in the company, the retailers he most admires and plans for the rest of 2012.

Q: How do you feel your job role will change/develop over the next 3/5 years
A: As users become more tech savvy, the role of IT professionals and departments will need to evolve to provide value to organisations. That will force professionals to turn into either specialists in highly technical areas, or functional analysts that can define how to best harness new technologies to the benefit of their organisations.

Q: Which On-line retailer do you most admire?
A: Grocery stores in general, Tesco’s in particular. The main reason is they have given me 2 hours of my time back every week. Tesco’s example is good in particular because their offer is always evolving into making their customers’ experience better and pioneering new initiatives. 1-hour delivery slots (which they usually keep), better tracking of expiry dates, favourites, integration of loyalty card, etc.

Q: Which In-store retailer do you most admire?
A: John Lewis. Regardless of which store or department I have been in, I have always felt I was treated exceptionally well.

Q: What are the greatest challenges you have faced in your job at Crew over the last year?
A: With the growth that we have experienced there are so many interesting challenges in the pipeline and so few hours in the day that you have no option but to sacrifice some

Q: What’s the next big thing in retail?
A: Usage of [customers’] mobile phones. Possibilities are endless. Potentially a phone could be used to scan the goods and pay for them. A self-serve checkout without the till.

Q: What are Crew Clothing’s plans for the rest of 2012?
A: We are always looking into ways of improving our customer service. We are going to launch reserve online & collect in store pretty soon. That way customers can avoid the disappointment of travelling to a store to find the item is not available there.