Pioneer of customer service that’s out of this world
Orange Spain has become the first Spanish mobile operator to set up shop in the Metavserse. Fittingly, visitors to La Tienda Orange, en realidad virtual, in the town of Metaverso, will be able to buy a lot more than just mobile phones. Full length movies, short films and even trips to the moon are on offer. Access to the store is easy and free from any computer, from 3D glasses or even from a physical visit to a real world store, as long as seniors are accompanied by a youthful sales assistant or support expert.
There should be no stressful delays or parking problems. The data traffic leading up to the virtual shopping centre flies in at 10Gbps and there is no problem finding a parking space thanks to high-speed storage mechanisms. Traffic is well organised by a multiple lane highway dubbed ‘La Red Rabanadas’ by local engineers, which translates as The Network Slices. These run on Orange Spain’s superhighway, the infamous Infinity fiber over XGSPON.
Once visitors are in the Metaverse there are three different areas: the Commercial Area (La Zona Comercial), with advisors, product and service displays, promotional rooms and manufacturers’ displays. There are bargains to be had here through exclusive promotions. La Zona de Ocio, the leisure area, hosts competitions, games and audiovisual content from Orange TV. Finally there is the Amphitheater, a Zona in which to hold events. This enables physical stores to reproduce some of their actions in the virtual space.
A considerable infrastructure will be needed for some very data intensive applications. Orange offers offers Immersive Now, 360 degree event platform that it developed, which is available on IOS, Android and Meta Quest. Users can browse the content and use either virtual reality glasses or the gyroscope on their mobile for over 100 immersive experiences. These come in the form of movies, animated short films and documentaries from major studios such as Warner, Digital Domain, Red Bull and Circus of the Sun. Space exploration fans can experience live the launch of Nasa’s Artemis rocket on its journey to the Moon.
Orange says it’s working to reinvent customer experience through a new culture of virtual commerce in the wake of the emerging Metaverse. This first project is part of a global variety of experiments being shared across the Orange Group. It has also reached an agreement with Meta (the social media formerly known as Facebook) for the incorporation of Meta Quest 2 in its portfolio of virtual reality devices.
Customers to Orange’s store in the metaverse will see brands such as Oppo, Honor, Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi and Google on display. Customer can examine every item in with 3D visualisations, watch demos and promotions and browse the online store.
If customers want to see a sales representative in the store an avatar will dispassionately advise them on Orange products and services. This novel experience lets shoppers interact on a higher level, bringing the Metaverse experience closer to virtual reality as it aims to replicate the possibilities of the physical world, according to Orange. Customers who enter the new store in the metaverse experience will find discounts on the price of any products and services that they decide to purchase and pay for in the physical store. Provided that they’ve registered their email and received the code for redemption at the point of purchase.
Orange Spain invests 20% of its annual income on responding to the evolving needs of the modern customer, as they demand new services and content. Orange pioneered customer service improvements through WhatsApp and invented the ‘proximity proposal’ that has improved its Customer Help in Store service in 144 stores. “With the opening of our store in the metaverse, we have become a pioneer company in improving the experience of its customers who therefore have another point of contact with the company,” said Diego Martínez, director of the Orange Residential Business Unit.