DIGICEL Jamaica customers play games, surf the Internet, take photographs and explore data plans on a giant touch screen inside the retail store at the company’s new downtown Kingston headquarters.

The device is one of two such touch screen facilities and other amenities at the ‘futuristic’ two-storey outlet, as the telecommunications provider looks to engage a new generation of customers for whom high-tech digital interactivity has become part of everyday life.

The fully electronic 5,326 square-foot store features a sales, customer care and business solutions section entirely powered by 4G broadband. Its glass, red and white interior — in the company’s colours — illuminates at nights.

“Customers who experience the service must leave and say ‘wow’,” says Patrick King, Digicel’s head of consumer sales, noting that they wanted the store to embrace the firm’s new tag line, ‘Be Extraordinary’.

“This store caters to every single one of our customer bases,” he tells Caribbean Business Report during an exclusive tour of the recently opened outlet.

Smartphones, ICT apparatuses and accessories dot the sales floor as cashiers execute transactions from portable computer tablets. Thousands of customers are expected to pass through the store daily.

“We are expecting that this store will probably have the most foot traffic of any (telecoms) retail store within Jamaica,” says Bernard Henry, Group President and CEO of FIMI Wireless, which manages the sales section.

FIMI Wireless operates 16 stores for Digicel across the island, but Henry describes the latest operation inside the state-of-the-art downtown building as “one-of-a-kind”.

In an effort to enhance the customer experience, patrons with problems are treated with more personalised services than ever before, adds Debbie-Ann Cheddan, customer service manager at Digicel. The customer care section includes a hostess, couches and a multitouch table on which individuals with complaints can be seen interacting with digital content, including online games, Facebook, and other social networks, perhaps in an attempt to put their minds at ease.

“We think our customers deserve the best and that’s why we decided to change the process,” says Cheddan.

“Before, we called upon customers by (ticket) numbers, now we call upon them by their names,” she reveals.

Corporate clients are engaged privately upstairs in what Digicel calls its Executive Briefing Centre, designed to showcase and simulate ICT solutions required by business owners, such as video-conferencing technology that allows parties to have a true meeting experience via a virtual interface, saving travel expenses and time. The unit features three 60-inch screens, eight seats, Bose speakers, and Avaya and Cisco video-enabled phones, among other devices.

“When we built this room, we built it to show compatibility,” states Kevin Gordon, Digicel project manager, business solutions.

The company refused to disclose how much money it invested in the ‘one-stop shop’ retail outlet.

Digicel opened the doors to its new 210,000-square-foot global headquarters on the waterfront in downtown, Kingston, two weeks ago, just over two years after breaking ground on the project earmarked as a major development in the restoration of the district.

The property houses a 11-storey office tower; a 7,000 square-foot food court; and a 11,000 square-foot two-storey ancillary building over a basement car park.