Retailers reported saving an average of 34 minutes per employee per shift after switching to Zello, a push-to-talk communication tool used by frontline teams. The number comes from a recent customer survey we fielded in May 2026. We asked retailers what their operations looked like before and after deployment. Their responses point to consistent patterns in what was costing them time before Zello, and what improved after.
The biggest pain point retailers named with their old setup was customers waiting too long for help. Wait times ran from two minutes on the low end to 10 or more on the high end, with two to five minutes the most common answer. Often, long customer wait times were tied to an associate needing to reach a coworker first. An associate needing a manager for a price check or approval had to track one down before the customer could be helped, and the customer waited while it happened.
The second-most-named pain point was poor coverage across stores and locations. In some stores, the gaps were physical. Radio signal dropped in parts of the building, leaving sections of the floor cut off from the rest of the team. In others, the gaps were organizational. Employees on the sales floor couldn't be reached by a manager in the back office, or teams at one location had no quick way to coordinate with another.
In an effort to make every team member in the store reachable, retailers were often using multiple communication tools at once. Two-way radios, personal cell phones, and consumer messaging apps like WhatsApp were all in the mix at the same store. However, using multiple tools caused a problem of its own. The tools didn't connect to each other, so information that came in on one tool didn't reach anyone using a different one.
How retail teams communicated before Zello
Share of retailers using each method. Many retailers used more than one.
Source: Zello customer survey, May 2026
And the result was that retailers ended up right back where they started. Even with multiple communication tools in the mix, traveling the floor in person was still the third-most-cited method retailers reported for reaching another team member.
When retailers were asked to name the single biggest operational improvement Zello brought, customer experience came in first. 33% of retailers picked it as the biggest impact, more than any other answer. Fewer missed communications was the second-most-chosen improvement.
77% of retailers said employees traveled the floor to find someone less often after Zello. Reaching a manager no longer required crossing the store. A price check that once required tracking a manager down could be settled while the customer was still at the shelf.
If your team is still traveling the floor to find each other, even with radios and phones in hand, you're running into the same problems that the retailers in this survey solved with Zello. Talk to our team about how Zello can work for your stores.
What do retailers use Zello for?
Retailers use Zello as a push-to-talk communication tool across store teams, replacing or supplementing two-way radios, personal cell phones, and consumer messaging apps. Common use cases include reaching the right employee quickly to help a customer, coordinating across departments, and responding to incidents faster.
How much time does Zello save retail teams?
In a recent customer survey, retailers reported saving an average of 34 minutes per employee per shift after adopting Zello, with most responses clustering between 20 and 60 minutes.
How long did customers wait for help before Zello?
Retailers in the survey reported customer wait times ranging from two to over 10 minutes when associates had to track down answers or locate products, with two to five minutes the most common answer.
Does Zello replace two-way radios in retail?
Most retailers in the survey were using radios before adopting Zello, often alongside personal phones and other tools. Zello replaces the radio function while also connecting employees who don't carry radios, including managers, stockroom staff, and team members across multiple locations.
What's the biggest problem Zello solves for retailers?
Retailers most often named customer wait times as the biggest pain point with their pre-Zello setup. The second-most-named problem was poor coverage across stores and locations. The most common improvement after deployment was reducing the time employees spent traveling the floor to find one another, which directly addresses both.
Methodology: Findings in this post are drawn from a Zello customer survey conducted in May 2026 across retail, food service, and multi-site operations.