Nearly 89 percent of companies are focusing on the customer experience to separate themselves from their competition instead of price, product availability or other factors, reports Gartner. The customer’s shopping experience needs to be smooth, seamless and stress-free to help drive customer loyalty. Additionally, 40 percent of consumers also want companies to build relationships with them for a personalized shopping experience across channels, according to HubSpot. A customer management system gives merchants the tools they need to improve the shopping experience, deliver highly relevant offers and build an ongoing relationship.
Customer History
A retail management system tracks detailed purchase histories. When a shopper comes back to the store, the merchant can see the complete history, the customer’s name and reprint receipts as needed. Greeting customers by name and having quick access to the products they continually purchase helps create an effort-free shopping experience.
This system can break down the customer’s total purchases by department, brand, style, price point and size. Retailers can track location-specific trends, demographic-specific trends and overall trends when optimizing inventory using these reports. This information is also helpful for retailer’s marketing efforts, as personalizing an email with the customer’s name improves open rates by 29 percent, according to Marketing Land.
Customer Relationship Building
Customer records go beyond purchase history and name. Non-merchandise related details, such as the customer’s birthday, loyalty club membership number and business affiliations, provide deeper insight into the shopper. Instead of treating clients with a one-size-fits-all approach, floor staff can use these details to build a better shopping experience and relationship for the customer.
Location Agnostic Shopping Experience
Cloud-based POS systems help retailers create a consistent shopping experience at every physical location and shopping channel. The customer data is shared between locations, so all stores have access to relevant information. Creating brand consistency across locations helps improve an omni-channel experience, which is important to 60 percent of millennials, according to Social Media Today.
The shopping experience does more to set retailers apart than most other factors. A retail management system helps merchants improve the customer experience through purchase history tracking, complete profiles and providing a centralized data source for all locations.
Sources:
- http://blogs.gartner.com/jake-sorofman/gartner-surveys-confirm-customer-experience-new-battlefield/
- http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/data-personalize-marketing-li
- http://marketingland.com/study-70-brands-personalizing-emails-missing-higher-transaction-rates-revenue-73241
- http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/millennials-expect-consistent-brand-experience-everywhere