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How to Improve Customer Satisfaction In Retail Store
In this blog, you`ll learn 15 ways to improve consumer satisfaction. However, each method is helpful to enable you to satisfy consumers and turn them into raving fans.
1. Justify the sale with social proof
Recent research demonstrates that customers purchase 100% of the time because of emotional reasons, not rational. After they have purchased, they want to justify their purchase with logic. They have to convince themselves and the people that they`ve made a smart decision.
Often testimonials get used in the sales process. To take this to the next level and improve consumer satisfaction, provide a printed sheet of testimonials or other social proof.
Shoppers would then use the data to justify their decision.
2. Give customers a gift, and surprise them with another
When you gift a customer, you automatically activate their reciprocity reflex. This reflex has been described in Robert Cialdini`s book called as, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. It is triggered when you offer shoppers something free, and causes them to feel committed to do something in return.
Offering gifts is a long time established way to boost sales. However, an experiment in restaurant has shown a way to improve results. For instance: give customers a gift, then, return a couple of minutes after with a second one. Servers who gave diners a mint and then returned unannounced and gave a second mint saw a 23% expansion in tips.
3. Take notes
There`s a valuable lesson in the self-help classic How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Everyone feels that he/she is the hero of his or her story. Everyone needs to feel significant.
For example: your staff can make customers feel like they matter by valuing what they need to say. Staff shows they think customers are important by paying attention to them and taking notes when customers are speaking.
4. Train staff to handle disgruntled customers
The way to taking care of upset customers comes from that same Dale Carnegie rule about people. People like to feel important.
Sometimes employees handling with the initial complaint can make the customer feel valued and take care of the problem. At other times, the only way your staff can do this is to escalate the issue to a senior staff member.
When they will do this, they have to take care about not to offend the customer further.
It`s not in human nature to be empathic towards somebody when they assault us. That is the reason you need to train staff to solve the problem for the customer even when under fire.
5. Treat the customers as if they are the "boss" by staff
When employees see themselves to be working for you, they probably won`t feel that they owe you something other than the work they are paid to perform. Teach your staff members a new mindset: they are leader of their company, a professional service firm. They work for themselves. You are simply their first, best customer.
In that situation, customers will benefit from excellent service and your staff will push to increase their quota. The employee`s success in his company gets attached to the ability to improve your customer’s satisfaction.
6. Celebrate customer birthday
Does remembering customer’s birthday celebrations make a difference? A study shows that this simple act leads an 88% increase in brand loyalty.
You have three different ways to acknowledge birthday. By sending them with a birthday card signed by you and your team. Send them a card to collect from your store. On the other hand, send them a birthday offer.
Test which strategy gets the best results and use it.
7. Customization satisfies customers more than standardization
Customers search out customized experiences as the world turns out to be increasingly homogenous.
On one hand, you need to know the experience customers have in your stores to be consistent. After all, you make your brand through these experiences.
However, you want to come up with different ways for customizing the customer experience. Target did only that recently, they deploy a beacon technology at their stores to engage in customers personally while they browse the aisles.
8. Create a customer satisfaction survey
The reason you need to create a customer satisfaction survey is that it gives you a benchmark. It says, "This is the place we are now." Before you can get to where you want to be, you have to know your starting point.
Surveys allow you to track your progress, identify issues and create a frictionless customer experience.
9. Teach employees to be more service oriented
Have you ever went to a store and asked any of the staff to assist just with having them tell to you it isn`t their job?
Try not to commit the same mistake in your stores. Train employees that everyone is in customer service. If they can`t tackle the customer’s problem, they must walk the customer to the person who can.
10. Delight indirect purchasers
In many of the cases, purchase decisions are influenced indirectly. When customers are in the toy aisle, the person who chooses what to purchase is the child.
Are you engaging and delighting this kind of indirect buyer?
11. Set up self-service checkouts
Some of the things are more frustrating for shoppers than long queues. In most of the stores, many checkouts are often not opened.
Why not transform your manned checkouts into self-serve checkouts? Have a staff member available to help people when they buy and let customers immerse themselves in a `wait free` experience.
12. Entertain shoppers during long waiting times
If your customers need to stand in line for quite a while, why not engage with them? Business is all about building relations, not blasting people with marketing messages. Why not hire a magician, a comedian or even a musician to provide some amusement during this time? Simply keep it consistent with your brand and entertaining for your customers.
Keep things in mind that emotions are main source responsible for purchasing and also to have a great experience while waiting can lift customer spirits and by improving their overall experience.
13. Establish an employee mentorship program
Why not to set up a new employee mentorship program?
Most of the retailers fail in tapping into the knowledge and experience of their senior staff. Every week, a junior staff can get together with a senior colleague. In their free time together, they can analyze performance and also can have a bonding.
Employee bonds are pivotal for good. It`s one of our most fundamental needs, we love to be a part of something and feel acknowledged.
14. Using Customer Relationship Management software for managing customer experience
I`m sure that every business uses Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.
Did you know that your CRM can enable you to manage customer experiences, not just customer data?
Your CRM alerts you on a regular basis that elderly shopper has not come to the store for quite some time.
Your employees call her and say "Howdy. I saw you hadn`t been in our store for a couple of weeks. I needed to offer you a ride."
Tune in to what she says before you respond. If she has not able to visit as she is not feeling well, you can send her a gift. If that she`s healthy, you could offer her a coupon that will be valid in the following seven days.
What she will remember is that friendly store that cared enough about her to check of her.
15. Identify potential pitfalls
Here`s one last tip to improve consumer satisfaction. There`s a core advantage you get from hiring a secret shopping company: An unbiased outsider`s view on how customers experience your store.