Building strong, evolving customer relationships is essential for turning shoppers into loyal customers. There are lots of little things your staff can do to make your store a great shopping environment, - like providing your customers with confident, personalized service, or sending them a birthday discount. We've put together 5 ways to help you build customer loyalty in your store.
A loyalty program is a great way to reward your customers for returning to your business. It can also be a handy way for your staff to keep track of your most regular shoppers and how much they spend. A loyalty program, like Collect Loyalty, that’s integrated with your point-of-sale and eCommerce store makes it easy to sign customers up, reward points for spend and redeem rewards hassle free.
Top Tip: Make sure your staff are trained to ask each customer to sign-up to your loyalty program, and have them tell your customers about all the exciting rewards and benefits of joining!
Good staff are an essential part of your business, the experience of great customer service stays with your customers long after they’ve left your store. To create a great shopping environment, you need to make sure your staff have thorough knowledge of your products and can assist your customers with ease. Confident, friendly customer service is the key to making your customers feel comfortable.
Take time when your customers are in-store to really listen to their needs and respond based on what they’re looking for. Encourage your staff to be creative when serving customers, and approach every customer with the mindset of delivering the best customers service. Building long-term loyalty is about making your customers feel special and important. Whether you're a small boutique or a chain store, it’s possible to provide your customers with personalized service.
Franchise United Sweets pride themselves on delivering top notch personalized customer service both instore and online. From day one CEO Finn Puklowski has made their shop “all about the customer” utilizing a loyalty program and surprising their customers (more about that later!).
“We want that small town barista approach, but in our lolly store, we want to be able to connect to our customers no matter what outlet they’re visiting, no matter what city they’re in,” he says.
With the majority of your customers online, shoppers expect consistant customer service online too. Marketing resource Dazeinfo published a report that found that 70% of customers surveyed on Twitter expect a response from brands they reach out to on Twitter, and of those users, 53% want a response in under an hour!
Having your staff checking store emails and your social media throughout the day is a vital part of providing good quality customer service. Answering customer questions online is a great way to let your customers know you’re up-to-date and attentive to their needs, after all, online service is still customer service.
It’s important to remember to keep your service positive and consistent across every channel, no matter how your customers interact with you, they should walk away feeling good about your business.
Having a regular email newsletter full of exciting content, exclusive offers and store updates is a great way to stay in touch with your customers even when they’re not shopping with you. Exact Target found that 91% of consumers access their emails at least once a day, so that's a lot of potential opportunity to be engaging with your shoppers. Email Marketing is a great way of reminding your customers what they love about your store while they’re at home, or at work.
Retail store Mr Porter excel in their email marketing. They offer two separate, customized newsletters for men and women, each with different relevant content. For their welcome email they send out a beautifully designed messaging which thanks customers for signing up, and lets them know what to expect in their upcoming emails.
Surprising your customers is a great way to get them talking about your business and ensuring their shopping experience personalized. Birthday discounts make your customers feel extra special on their birthday. During the holiday season, handwritten notes, gift wrapping and elegant packaging is a great way to make your customer service really stand out.
United Sweets like to surprise and delight their customers by drawing quirky illustrations on their shipping packaging. It’s a great way to personalize your customer's experience and pleasantly surprise them simultaneously.
Looking for some inspiration? Check out our blog on creating a personalized customer experience here.