Garrido of TEMPOE Comments on the Current Health of the Retail Industry

Chris Garrido, the president of Cincinnati-based company TEMPOE, recently shared his thoughts on the health of the retail industry. According to Garrido, many retail businesses have been closing down of late. He attributes this to their failure to follow current trends in the industry.

“The retail industry is witnessing a major shift in how retailers acquire, retain and attract their customers,” says Garrido. “Customers are now more demanding than ever before, with over 53% expecting to engage with their brands on social media and complete their orders online. Retailers have no choice but to rethink their overall business and sales strategy because what once worked just doesn’t anymore.”

Garrido explains that TEMPOE is gearing up to face this challenge by leveraging state-of-the-art technologies to enhance the customer experience. He explains that the company is keen on innovation with the ultimate focus on becoming The Obvious Choice for an alternative to traditional financing. According to Garrido, TEMPOE is partnering with retailers to help create a more satisfying experience for their customers.

The company provides seamless Point of Sale integrations that enable retailers to present their customers with a leasing option during checkout. Garrido states that TEMPOE provides a no-credit-required leasing option that has helped many credit-constrained individuals over the years. The application process for a TEMPOE lease is a simple one, but it leverages sophisticated decision-making models for lightning-fast approvals. The company has even launched a new Risk Advantage Engine (™) that speeds up application approval with higher approval amounts. The company has also developed a text-to-apply feature that allows consumers to learn of their application’s eligibility easily.

Garrido states too that sales associates are the ones driving sales. He explains that it is important for them to clearly understand the payment options that are offered by the store. They play a major role in creating a positive experience and influencing repeat business. According to Garrido, most consumers tend to go with TEMPOE leasing rather than traditional financing options whenever given a chance. This conclusion was made after a thorough assessment of TEMPOE retail partners. Garrido claims the reason behind this consumer behavior to be a desire to forego the possibility of rejection and credit inquiry.

TEMPOE capitalizes on this by encouraging their associates to follow a particular pattern. This includes welcoming every customer, asking what brings them in today, and showing them the products. After that, associates need to remind the customer about the promotions being offered and inform them of all leasing and payment options available. Customers can then ask questions about the payment options they are interested in.

“We also implement proven reward programs and marketing initiatives with a focus on driving repeat business to our retailers,” says Garrido. “Our efforts tend to drive up lease volumes for our retailers every year. Most of the customers even come back for another lease. In fact, 33% of our business is from repeat customers. These customers clearly appreciate the way we’ve transformed customer service and retail support. This has contributed to the strides we’ve made in the FinTech field.”

Garrido is a known industry leader in rent-to-own, retail, and consumer finance with more than 25 years of experience. Seventeen of these years were in executive roles at recognizable brands like ACE cash express and ZEC financial. At TEMPOE, Garrido oversaw the company’s landmark achievement of reaching 1 billion lease originations in 2017.

Garrido encourages retail companies to leverage technologies such as those provided by TEMPOE to stay competitive. He explains that TEMPOE provides a leasing option that creates a win-win environment for both its retailer partners and the customers. The company allows retail partner applications as well as consumer no-credit-leasing on the TEMPOE website. Garrido assures consumers that TEMPOE only partners up with reliable and trustworthy retail brands. He also welcomes all cash- or credit-constrained individuals to experience the TEMPOE leasing program. Lease approvals can literally take mere seconds when consumers are working with TEMPOE.