Customer experience is an essential component of generating brand loyalty and new leads. A good customer experience leaves your customers feeling satisfied with their purchase, and therefore likely to not only return to your business, but also let their friends, family, and colleagues know about their experience. If you find your customer experience to be lacking, try these five tips to improve your customer experience.
1. Improve Your POS Experience
The point of sale is where the exchange of money actually takes place. This is usually at the register, but with certain POS systems, this can be a portable table with a card reader. The checkout process can make or break the customer experience, with a lengthy and overcomplicated process generally creating frustration among your customer base (and employees).
An improved POS system starts with the right hardware and software. Ditch the outdated cash register for a more sleek and efficient system, such as an iPad based POS. These systems are quick, secure, and take up much less space than a bulky cash register.
By keeping lines moving with a more efficient POS process, you’ll ensure that your customers leave happy and will be inclined to leave your business a good review. You can even try a self-serve kiosk, which many large retailers have been utilizing for years now. Self-checkout can help speed up the process, as well as encourage customers to purchase more items. A machine will not forget to upsell or ask for an email address, and there’s certainly an advantage to saving money on labor costs.
2. Ask The Customer
Who knows better than anyone what they want from the customer experience? The customer, of course! Asking your customers about their experience with your business provides valuable insight into the wants and needs of the customer, allowing you to tailor your business practices to better meet those needs.
Post-purchase surveys are a great way to gauge a customer’s experience with your brand, and you can ask open-ended questions for specific feedback on certain aspects of the business. Additionally, your social media pages act as a regular feedback platform, so be sure to keep updated with those notifications and respond promptly to any negative feedback.
3. Analytics
Aside from customer feedback, analytics can provide a different sort of feedback. By tracking customer spending habits and preferred items, you can tailor your marketing to those customers to be as specific as possible.
Marketing is most effective when you’re marketing the right items to the right customer. If a customer has never purchased a certain item, but purchases the same items regularly, sending a promotional email for their regular purchases makes more sense than sending one for something they’ve never bought.
Many modern POS systems come with analytics tools, so that you can track this information right from the terminal. Real-time data gives you on-the-spot insight into what’s happening within the store, providing a chance to make quick changes or follow-ups that can make or break the sale.
4. Stand By Your Business’s Morals
An essential part of the customer experience is the ability to trust the business they’re purchasing from. Businesses often drift from their original vision and morals can slip as the business begins to grow, creating a rift between the customer base and the company itself.
It’s important to create a vision and mission statement that your business will uphold. Business practices should reflect this mission statement, showing your customers that your business is moral and will stand by its promises.
If your company promises to deliver specific products or services by a deadline, it’s crucial that you keep that deadline or otherwise inform your customers of any delays beforehand. Surprises are generally not good practice, especially negative ones like missing a deadline.
An outstanding moral code that includes honesty and integrity will serve to set your business apart from the competition, as well as boost your customers’ faith in the brand. The customer experience will be solid, backed by the honest practices of your business and leaving your customers feeling satisfied with their patronage.
5. Creating An Emotional Connection With Your Customers
Now more than ever, customers want to feel a connection with the brands they choose. This begins at the sales floor level, with the way your staff address customers in the store. A personalized relationship with customers helps to make them feel valued and important to your business, which will help create brand loyalty.
Even the smallest gestures can help generate an emotional connection to your customers, such as listening to the customer discuss their work week or memorizing frequent customer’s names. Even a simple “Hello Mrs. Brown” can make the customer experience more personalized than just saying “good morning”.
According to this Harvard Business review, customers that feel an emotional connection to the business are three times more likely to recommend your business and its services or products, and three times more likely to purchase your products in the future. Creating an emotional connection with your customers becomes almost necessary for generating business and leads.
The Bottom Line
Customer experience matters. It is essential to the success of any business. With happy customers, you’ll have increased sales, better reviews, and even new leads when word gets around. Your customers are your number one priority because, without them, your business would not be operational. Always consider their needs and focus on building a personalized relationship with the customer.
