Article By Sophie Jillings, Head of Asia-Pacific at TruRating.
Sourced from the ARA.
In business it’s all too easy to focus on the bottom line and gradually lose touch with the ever changing and developing needs of your customers. Although 72% of businesses say that improving their customer experience is their top priority,* it’s easy to get stuck in a rut and fail to implement new strategies for improving your customer experience. This can be a huge mistake, with a study from NewVoiceMedia indicating that companies lose more than $62 billion in the U.S alone due to poor customer service.**
The great news is that new technology is entering the market to help retailers gain valuable data and insights from individual customers in seconds. If you want to succeed in today’s market, not only do you need to embrace data, you also need to follow where it leads. This can be tricky to do, with SAS finding that only 23% of companies were able to integrate customer insights in real-time.***
To help you gain insight, TruRating has shared exclusive research on five facts you might not have known about your customer and tips on simple ways to make improvements:
1. Customers feel like just another number
Whilst a staggering 1 in 10 retail customers are disappointed by the service they’ve received, those who were impressed by the customer service spent 10% more on average per transaction. Some of the biggest bug bears of poor customer service include the perception of rude or inadequate attention from staff.
A potential resolution for this challenge is a reminder that customers are far more likely to purchase from someone they both trust and like. So train your salespeople to be active listeners, and consider what’s best for the customer, starting from your management team. How they treat your staff and the values they pass down is more than often passed down to the customer.
2. They feel like they’re being duped instead of getting value
Only a third of retail customers believe they’re getting great value from their purchases. Don’t get sucked into the mindset that offering better value only means offering lower prices. The value proposition of good customer service can make the price less relevant. To alleviate this perception focus on the customer experience instead and train staff to sell products that solve a customer’s need or problem by asking the right questions.
3.Customers are bored with their experience
Retail customers who are impressed by their overall in-store experience spend a whopping 43% more (on average) than those who are disappointed. However consumers are feeling there’s room for improvement. Get on top of the latest business buzzword “the experience economy” and create a store experience better aligned with your customer’s personalities. Engage all five of your customers’ senses; being able to touch and feel the products and see them in use is an easy first step, but did you know that playing music with a slow tempo has been proven to aid spending? Whilst using the calming scents of vanilla and lavender can also help create a relaxed atmosphere.
4.They still leave disappointed
Whilst you might be trying your best to offer the best customer experience, 18% of customers in retail still leave disappointed. Luckily, technology has made it easier than ever to track the happiness of customers.
Solutions include technology platforms like TruRating, which offers a simple way for customers to give you feedback on a range of business aspects at the point-of-purchase. This gives you valid real time insights on how to improve without having to engage other potentially expensive or in-effective feedback functionalities.
Customer experience will continue to be a top priority for retail businesses, as it should be. What we must remember is that you don’t have to go it alone, there are many services which can help you track customer experience and help implement strategies that create better, more memorable experiences to improve your customer satisfaction.
