Why Customer Loyalty is a Critical Component of Retail

To be liked is important but, in retail, to be loved is everything.

Loyal customers will come back to your store, time after time, without you having to spend money persuading them. They will spend more and more, and – in many cases – be delighted to pay premium prices. And they will voluntarily tell their friends about you – if they believe it will increase their social standing – which is the very best kind of marketing, and can’t be bought.

So how can you make that all happen? What can you do to cultivate such strong affection among your customers?

Deliver a consistently outstanding customer experience

Give your customers the experience they want, when they ask, via whatever channel they choose. And make it easy for them to have just one seamless interaction with your business.

Tie up your customers’ online activity – via the web or their mobile devices – with your in-store experience. Equip your sales-floor associates with mobile devices that enable them to provide amazing customer service.

With the right systems in place, customers who logged in online can have their activity brought up in store and receive personal help with their enquiries. Indeed, their existing orders can be brought up and amended. And you can also make special offers to specific customers, perhaps based on their participation in your loyalty scheme.

More generally, those mobile devices will also enable your people to perform stock searches and look for product information, wherever they are, so they can give your in-store customers more immediate help. Indeed, with the right handheld devices, your sales-floor associates will be able to accept contactless card payments, and handle sales transactions in the moment.

As well as helping the customer, handheld mobile devices can also make your employees far more productive, satisfied with their work and better trained – so more able to assist customers. You can help automate in-store processes using the devices, schedule tasks with employees and provide instructions, and reduce manual work while improving accuracy. Indeed, technology is available that can talk your employees through complex tasks, one step at a time, ensuring that the work is done right first time.

At a time when retail workforces are ever harder to retain, mobile devices can keep employees loyal, and help your business deliver more consistent and improved standards of service.

Ensure that all your operations work in concert

Of course, customer experience isn’t just about how you look in-store and online. It’s also about keeping all your promises to customers. And that depends on effective back-office and supply chain operations.

A key objective is building strong and lasting direct relationships with your customers. To achieve that, you’ll need a technology platform that can capture customer data and share it across every part of your business. Every interaction between your business and your customers should be recorded so that you can build up as complete a picture as possible of their preferences. That will enable you to give them personalized service and make offers that they will find hard to resist – and do so automatically, at scale.

Moreover, you will be able to run targeted campaigns – such as ‘refer a friend’ programs, for example – where you can exploit relationships between acquainted customers. Indeed, with modern advanced analytics tools, there are a whole range of different ways of analyzing your customer data to pinpoint opportunities and try innovative new sales approaches.

Your supply chain operations can also be improved through the use of technology. Just as on the sales floor, handheld devices can fulfil a wide range of purposes in the warehouse and across your distribution networks. Barcode readers can accurately scan stock shipments onto vehicles and into storage depots, so you can keep track of all your inventory at all times. Handheld devices can similarly be used in the warehouse to help workers pick and pack orders. And, as noted above, your sales-floor associates can also find stock items and move them around from their mobile devices to satisfy customer requests.

The overall effect of applying these technologies will be customers that are very impressed and satisfied, and can have complete confidence in your retail experience. As well as having service tailored around them, they’ll know that you are as good as your word when it comes to delivery.

Start your transformation today…

Honeywell’s collection of solution offerings can help you enhance and then perfect your customer experiences over time. You can gain access to innovative solutions that bridge your physical brick-and-mortar environment with the digital environment. You can build powerful bases of information on your customers and their preferences, and apply advanced analytics to help you target them in new ways.

You can equip all your employees with powerful handheld devices. On the sales floor that means effective customer service and greater sales success. And across your wider business it will mean improved operations and guaranteed delivery. Ultimately, your customers will have no choice but to fall in love with your business.

To find out more about reaching your full potential, please reach out to Honeywell today.