Why Retail is Moving from Transactional to Magical – And What That Means for Telcos

Walk into most telco stores today, and you’ll still find the same tired formula - walls of phones, sales reps behind counters, and a queue of impatient customers who want to get in, upgrade, and get out. Transactional, predictable, and utterly forgettable.

Now imagine this instead: a spacious lounge with coffee, flexible seating, and people actually enjoying being there. A customer sipping an espresso while playing a racing game on a next-gen console. Families testing connected home products in a mock living room. Screens showing live leaderboards of who’s got the fastest lap time this week.

That’s not a tech expo or a pop-up in a trendy mall - that’s EE’s new retail concept. It’s one of the first real signals that telecom retail is finally waking up to what other industries have known for years: customer experience is the last remaining differentiator.

I’ve spent 25 years watching telcos obsess over systems, billing, and margins while neglecting the thing right in front of their noses - the in-store experience. And it’s costing them loyalty, NPS, and ultimately revenue. The world is moving from transactional to magical. But most telcos are still serving lattes with instant coffee powder.

The Problem: Retail Built for Throughput, Not Emotion

Globally, telecom sits near the bottom of customer satisfaction rankings. The industry’s average NPS hovers around +30, while best-in-class retailers (like Apple and Sephora) score in the 70s and 80s. That gap translates directly into money - a 7-point NPS increase typically correlates with a 1% revenue lift, according to multiple CX benchmarking studies.

Yet, walk into most telco stores and you’d think their main KPI was “reduce dwell time.” Managers boast about transaction speed, not connection depth. That obsession with throughput is the very reason customers treat telco stores like dentist visits - necessary, but never enjoyable.

The irony? Dwell time drives sales. Studies across multiple sectors show that a 1% increase in dwell time can raise sales by over 1%. The longer people stay, the more they discover. The more they discover, the more they buy. It’s that simple. EE understands this - and they’ve rebuilt their stores around it.

The EE Example: Designing for Dwell

EE’s new store concept flips the old model on its head. It’s not designed for queue efficiency; it’s designed for curiosity.

Sofas, small tables, barista coffee, ambient lighting - all the cues of a premium retail lounge. Customers can settle in, not rush out. It’s targeting a slightly older, wealthier demographic - those who remember when retail was an experience.

But they’ve balanced that sophistication with fun. Their gaming zones feature flight simulators and racing setups with leaderboards showing top scores. It’s a brilliant behavioral move. Games tap into competition, dopamine, and exploration - all the emotions that make people stay longer and associate your brand with excitement, not hassle.

EE also created a connected home zone, a space where broadband, TV, and security solutions come to life in a realistic living-room setup. Customers can see and feel what convergence means. They’re not being told about bundles - they’re experiencing them.

That’s the difference between telling and showing. And it’s exactly what telcos worldwide need to relearn.

Why This Matters More Than Ever

Let’s be blunt: telcos are fighting on too many fronts - margin pressure, converged offers, rising churn, and AI-driven digital competition. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: most customer defections don’t happen online; they start with a poor in-store experience.

And it’s getting worse. Post-COVID, retail has been hollowed out. Many experienced staff left the sector and never returned. The replacements are often young, untrained, and uncertain. They know how to process a sale, but not how to build rapport.
One U.S. retail survey found that 65% of frontline workers say they’ve never been formally trained in upselling or handling objections. Most are given a system login and told to “get on with it.”

That’s not good enough. Not when products are converging and every competitor has the same handsets, same bundles, same offers. Your differentiator isn’t your price. It’s your people — and how they make customers feel.

The HEROES Way: Turning Interaction Into Performance

Every magical retail moment follows the same pattern. I call it HEROES — Hello, Explore, Recommend, Objection Handling, Excite, Sold. It’s how great interactions are structured.

Hello - The greeting sets the tone. Not a robotic “How can I help you?” but a warm, confident, human welcome. EE’s coffee lounge environment does this before a word is even spoken. The design itself says “we value your time.”

Explore - Give customers permission to wander. Let them discover the experience. Every zone should invite touch, play, and imagination. That’s the moment where emotional engagement begins - and where most telcos fail, because everything is locked away behind acrylic.

Recommend - Stop the hard sell. Modern retail is about context, not pressure. “You enjoyed that game? Here’s the broadband package that powers it flawlessly.” That’s relevance - not retail theater.

Objection Handling - Train your staff to listen, not defend. When someone says “I’m just browsing,” it’s an opportunity to ask, “What kind of browsing do you enjoy most - movies, gaming, or social?” Suddenly you’ve reframed the entire conversation.

Excite - Surprise and delight. A leaderboard, a giveaway, a high-score photo wall - these create emotional memory anchors. People will tell their friends, “That store was fun.” When was the last time anyone said that about your store?

Sold - Simplify, don’t rush. Express tills have their place, but don’t make them the main event. Too many telcos make it too easy to leave - and too hard to linger.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Telco Retail

Here’s what most execs won’t admit: telco retail is boring. It’s corporate, cautious, and 10 years behind customer expectations. Stores are designed for compliance, not creativity. We measure the wrong metrics. We train for process, not persuasion.

And we’re paying the price. Customer loyalty is eroding faster than ever. In the UK, average mobile churn now sits around 1.8% per month, meaning a fifth of your base could leave every year. You won’t fix that with another tariff tweak. You’ll fix it with feeling - with stores that give people a reason to come back even when they don’t need to buy.

The uncomfortable part? Making this shift doesn’t start with design. It starts with behavioral training. If your staff can’t deliver warmth, curiosity, and confidence, all the sofas and coffee in the world won’t matter.
You can’t architect emotion without people who know how to create it.

Training for Emotion, Not Compliance

I’ve seen firsthand what happens when retail teams are trained to perform, not just transact. When employees are taught to see themselves as heroes - as performers whose job is to create moments, not process orders - everything changes. Sales go up. NPS climbs. Staff retention improves because people start taking pride in their craft again.

Yet too many telcos treat training as a box-ticking exercise. “Completed module? Good. Next.” That’s not learning - that’s digital paperwork.

Real behavioral training is continuous, practical, and rooted in psychology. It’s about teaching staff how to read the room, adapt to personalities, and make the experience memorable. Retail isn’t a transaction anymore. It’s theater. And every good show needs rehearsal.

So, What Now?

If you’re a senior leader in telecom reading this, here’s my challenge:

Walk your ten busiest stores this month. Don’t bring a clipboard. Bring curiosity. Sit down. Observe.
How long do people stay?
How often do they smile?
How many staff make eye contact before you reach the counter?

If you leave without feeling anything — that’s your problem.

Then, (if you are near the UK) go visit an EE experience store. See how it feels. Notice how much longer customers stay, how often they laugh, and how naturally conversations happen. That’s what the future looks like.

Retail is no longer about selling SIM cards. It’s about selling feeling. Telcos who don’t grasp that will lose to those who do - not because of network speed, but because of emotional speed.

The industry has spent decades mastering the art of connection. Now it’s time we learned the art of human connection.

Final Words

We can’t cost-cut our way to greatness. We can only connect our way there. EE is showing us the playbook - coffee, couches, gaming rigs, and genuine smiles. The question is: will the rest of us follow, or keep hiding behind counters and call it “efficiency”?

If you’ve seen brilliant new tactics to increase dwell time or re-energize your retail teams, I’d love to hear them. Drop me a comment or message - because the next great retail transformation won’t come from systems. It’ll come from people.