Good customer relationships are a company’s most valuable asset. It’s common to focus heavily on attracting and approaching new consumers; however, doing so without thinking about how to win them over for good is a problem.
If your company can impress prospects in those first interactions and convince them that doing business with your brand is worthwhile, you’ll be able to ensure they come back to the store and increase their average ticket.
Optimizing the customer relationship right at the POS will increase your chances of building loyalty and boost your referral rates. Check out some tips to make that happen!
Create a personalized experience
Consumers are more likely to develop a relationship, right at the point of sale, with brands that deliver personalized experiences. Contrary to what many retailers think, loyalty comes from service, not from products.
You can find plenty of solutions on the market that deliver similar results, but only a few of them win customers over for good. Why does that happen?
According to one survey, 23% of shoppers believe poor service is reason enough to turn to the competition. Recognizing that your customers are individuals, and that each of them is looking for something different when they walk into your store, is the only way to create a personalized experience.
Inside the POS, you can create real-time personalization based on customer behavior. If a visitor is looking for product A, it might be a good idea to show them products B and C as options, which fall into the same category but are longer-lasting or easier to use.
If they’re already familiar with what they came to buy, it might be a good idea to let them interact with the product for longer and more freely. Your sales associates should be trained to recognize how a shopper moves through the store and what to do to make them feel at ease.
Think about how your store communicates
Strong communication is essential for a brand to become memorable. Customers are more likely to do business with you again when they remember your name and the experiences they had in your store. However, most stores fall short by failing to build solid brand awareness.
Communication that drives brand awareness should be part of the entire purchase process inside the POS. The first impression should be carefully planned, and when customers walk into a store, they should be introduced to it with a message that welcomes them.
If they have a question, salespeople need to know enough about every product to answer it. At checkout, customers should be reminded that there’s a support service available to help them, and they should become familiar with what to do if they need to exchange a product.
As you can see, clarity in how you talk to visitors is essential to building a relationship at the POS.
Build a dialogue, not just a sales pitch
Sales pitches matter, but they aren’t always enough to build a relationship. A more casual interaction, one that cares about who the customer is and not just what your brand can offer them, is far more effective at creating a lasting memory.
A traditional pitch comes across as a way to “push” a product or service and doesn’t live up to what today’s consumers expect. Talking with customers about their expectations, what solution they’re looking for, whether they’re open to exploring alternatives, and even asking about their day can make a tremendous difference.
Invest in technology to captivate customers
Amazing experiences can be tactile or visual and, on their own, are enough to leave a mark on your relationship with a customer at the POS. When your store integrates new technologies, such as digital storefronts or self-service kiosks, it changes how consumers interact with something that’s a common part of their routine: buying a product.
That change is a huge opportunity to be remembered. People who walk into a point of sale and interact with technology that simplifies the purchase or makes it more interesting or intuitive are more likely to come back.
This kind of experience, which can only happen inside the store, is what makes consumers not only come back but bring their friends along.
21% of shoppers who have positive experiences with a brand recommend it to their friends. Now that you know these numbers, aim to develop a technology integration in your store that isn’t there just for the sake of it. Choose features that enrich the interaction inside the store, not the ones that happen to be trendy.
Go beyond expectations
Delivering the best to consumers is an obligation for retailers. But going further and offering them a service that complements the product you’re selling, or an experience they can revisit later, is what kicks off the loyalty-building process.
When a hotel offers a concierge service, for example, it makes life easier for its guests and makes their trip less complicated and more enjoyable.
What can your company do? Set reasonable expectations based on what you know about the customer and your ability to deliver on them. Then brainstorm ways to enhance what you deliver to increase its value.
It’s important to stress here that we’re not talking about ways to charge more for something you already sell, but rather about offering a luxury or convenience that makes a visit to your store memorable.
Pay attention to post-sale
Think of the post-sale process as something that starts inside the store. Don’t forget to collect the information you need to contact the customer in the future, such as their phone number or email. That’s what will help you successfully maintain the relationship.
Always register the people who buy at your POS and use a CRM system to check how long it’s been since the customer last visited, what types of products they purchased, and what promotion or invitation could bring them back to the store.
Reach out to find out what they thought of the items they bought in the past and ask for feedback. This data is what will allow your store to create increasingly personalized and successful experiences.
Failing to build good contact with customers at the point of sale can hurt their engagement. If they don’t form a bond with your brand, they’re unlikely to become loyal and do business with you again. Ideally, you should offer an experience right at the point of sale that will pay off in the future.
The tips here are fundamental to the loyalty-building process. About 77% of customers are loyal to brands they have long-standing relationships with, and 61% of them go out of their way to keep doing business with those brands. So consider how much profit these initiatives will bring to your company.
Did you like these tips for turning your POS into a customer relationship hub? Then also check out how to collect information in-store and see the benefits it will bring to your business!
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