Customer loyalty is no longer the powerhouse that it once was. In the digital age, consumers expect top-notch customer service, and the ability to buy what they want, anywhere, and anytime, through various channels, offline and online. With brick-and-mortar stores seeing fewer and fewer purchases while online sales continue to enjoy meteoric rises, retailers must face the music, and it’s a whole new dance card.
The human touch is important, and many business leaders equate great customer service with a customer’s ability to reach an actual person quickly. But company leaders who aspire to deliver excellent customer support should be aware that today’s customers increasingly demand the tools and resources to resolve problems themselves.
Keeping customers engaged with your rewards program can be tough. In order to keep them interested, your customers need to be constantly reminded of your program’s benefits. Otherwise, they might forget why they joined the first place, potentially costing you business and having a negative effect on your bottom line.
Around 80% of consumers use mobile phones inside a physical store to check product reviews, according to a recent study by website design firm Outerbox, underlining the advent of the omnichannel shopping era.
Combine this with the growing spending power of the notoriously choosy Millennial generation and it is easy to see why some commentators have branded the concept of customer loyalty as dead.
It is clear from the study that consumers want speed, convenience and timely communication for a better BOPIS experience. Currently, a small portion of total purchases are completed through click and collect, but it is growing in use, with 49% of Americans trying it for the first time in 2016.
Retailers can benefit from creating a winning in-store experience — 59% of buyers expect to purchase additional items at least some of the time. Retailers should explore if they can provide incentives to convert the 41% of customers who are not likely to purchase additional items.
It is interesting to note that 77% of shoppers did not want to be dragged all the way to the back of the store to pick up their items. Businesses should balance their financial motives to upsell patrons entering their stores to pick up their items with the speed and convenience that they expect.
Retailers should focus on creating a winning in-store experience by enabling what matters most to click and collect consumers: speed, convenience and timely communication.
The store of the future will become the most powerful media channel available to a brand, offering customer experiences that are the most profitable product a retailer can sell. But to get there, retail as we know it must die.
In sector after sector, companies are asking how they can adapt to the digital world—how they can build more digital capabilities, create more digital offerings, and even become “digital first” organizations.
But for institutions that have served customers for decades in person and over the phone, digital too often falls short. After the debut of a new app, for example, a jump in sales may not be as big as expected, while hoped-for operational efficiencies—such as a reduction in expensive call-center and in-store customer-support requests—hardly materialize.
Executives naturally wonder why: aren’t customers demanding digital? Without question, they are. But not to the exclusion of other channels, which remain critically important.
According to the study, 60% of retailers consider Amazon at least somewhat of a competitor. These companies also continue to grapple with free shipping, email communications and better access to customer data to mimic what Amazon does best: provide highly personalized and convenient experiences for customers.
Specifically, 63% of retailers believe free shipping for loyalty program members is one of Amazon’s most impactful consumer-facing technology initiatives. Yet, only 10% of retailers have significantly increased investment in technology to better compete with Amazon. Meanwhile, 29% of retailers haven’t even changed their data collection and analysis processes as a result of Amazon’s influence.
Millennials, born 1981-1997, now number greater than 75 million and have become the largest living population, according to recent estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Needless to say, they are a very important retail segment.
Retailers need to pay special attention to this group and even consider new marketing tactics as Millennials differ quite a bit from prior generations in terms of making purchase decisions and developing brand loyalties.
Research from Vantiv gives some insight into what millennials look for in a retail experience. Here are a few tips to start building relationships with and selling to this important demographic.
Companies throughout the nation are now utilizing loyalty programs more often than ever before. These organizations understand the importance of retaining existing customers and choose to implement a system directed specifically at building customer loyalty.