Zabal's team put in a lot of effort to ensure the website was responsive and otherwise optimized for mobile. But one critical piece was still missing — the ability to give customers the most up-to-date information no matter where they looked. "The most important aspect for us is data accuracy for all of our stores," he explains. "Making sure all of the critical facts, including NAP information — that's store names, addresses, phone numbers — is up-to-date is essential."
The team's challenge stemmed from a lack of accurate and consistent brand information across the web. "We used several other vendors in the past who used the aggregator method of submitting, but we felt like the updates weren't in real time or instantaneous," Zabal says. "That's one of the most important pieces for us. So we were looking for a company that had direct connections to Google and all of the major publishers, instead of using the aggregator method, which may take up to a couple of days. We also wanted a company that had a centralized, enterprise-level analytics and reporting dashboard that we could reference. Only Yext met all of our requirements."
"Customers looking for suits or other menswear are often on-the-go," he continues. "Over half of our online visits were from mobile last year, and they're looking for a nearby store they trust — often for a highly specific item, like a belt or a shirt of a specific color. Capturing that consumer is all about reaching them in the right moment with the latest information, and for us that means we need to control and update our brand information across the web in as close to real time as possible. Having our hours and other store information up to date is extremely important to getting the customer the last mile to our door."
