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As the number of customers grows, businesses are looking for ways to boost sales. These customer engagement strategies and tips can help keep your business growing in 2022.
Customer engagement tactics that maintain interactions happy and constant are critical to the future of retail. Customers were growing increasingly willing to pay a premium for products and services in return for a superior customer experience even before the epidemic. As a result, internet store owners are looking for new methods to engage with customers, while brick-and-mortar businesses are working to improve client connections while maintaining security.
Consider the following consumer interaction tactics for your retail store:
1. Improve the Pickup Experience in Store
Buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) sales increased 60.4 percent in 2020 over the previous year, according to eMarketer, with another 10% increase expected in 2021. Offering BOPIS, also known as click and collect, is a terrific way to increase sales while also increasing engagement.
Customers who spend even a few minutes at the register to pick up their items are prime candidates for creating relationships. Customers leave the store feeling good when the pickup experience is improved, which leads to loyalty and a larger customer base.
How to Get Started:
The most important criteria for BOPIS are convenience and speed in fulfillment, so make sure your method doesn’t slow down the pickup procedure. Instead, think about the technology you’re using (a multichannel point-of-sale (POS) system is recommended) as well as the size and architecture of your business. Add some personalisation by including a quick welcome and a discount voucher for their next purchase, as well as their name on the transaction, or by installing automatic lockers for pickup.
Increasing sales with BOPIS:
Customers who come in to pick up their online orders are a great source of add-on sales. Use eye-catching adverts for last-minute offers on imaginative POS displays near the register to encourage impulsive purchases. Bundling your slow-moving inventory with comparable goods will be an excellent way to get rid of it.
2. Improve Customer Service in Store
For 75.8% of consumers, the ease with which problems are addressed is the most significant aspect of the customer experience. As more brick-and-mortar shops increase their online presence, their physical locations are being used to offer eCommerce assistance. Customer service with a face-to-face component allows for more customized connection with customers, which easily develops loyalty and enhances revenue.
How to Get Started:
Start by processing internet sales returns in-store. This enables you to engage consumers by providing outstanding customer service. Make sure your return policy and processes, as well as the location and phone number for your actual business, are clearly listed on your website.
Boosting sales using in-store returns:
A good customer relationship management (CRM) customer care strategy may transform a disgruntled consumer into a loyal one. Employees that know how to express compassion, listen attentively to the customer’s concern with the goods they’re returning, and propose the most appropriate product may help humanize your firm.
3. Be open and honest about in-store safety protocols.
Today’s challenge for any brick-and-mortar store is to instill a feeling of security in their customers. According to a Consumer Pulse poll conducted in May of this year, 70% of customers expect physical retailers to follow basic cleanliness practices. Furthermore, 29% would quit purchasing at a store if it did not follow basic hygiene and safety measures. Wearing face masks, constructing disinfection stations, and even giving special hours for the elderly and other vulnerable populations are all examples of this.
How to Get Started:
Begin by reducing anxiety. Installing safety equipment such as dividers and disinfection stations can help to lessen consumer anxiety and increase participation. Consider employing appointment scheduling software to schedule shopping appointments for your consumers, similar to how service-oriented firms do. This will assist you in adapting the functioning of your physical business to contactless purchasing, which is becoming the standard. Appointment scheduling is included into many retail POS systems, including Lightspeed.
Using safety measures to increase sales:
It’s critical to not only take precautions to keep your customers and employees safe, but also to inform prospective customers. Share photographs of your sanitizing station on social media, along with images of in-store employees wearing masks, and speak about the actions you’re doing to make customers feel at peace when they come to your business and spend time there.
4. Make your store more interactive by using interactive technology.
In-store interactive technology has quickly progressed from a consumer engagement/marketing tactic to a way of supporting health and safety regulations.
According to Raydiant, 46% of supermarket buyers prefer to purchase in-store, but demand for contactless buying is increasing. Installing interactive technology, such as self-checkout counters and contactless payments, can assist you in meeting these client requests.
How to Get Started:
To begin, shop managers may employ self-checkout kiosks and counters to adopt customer engagement methods, since people avoid face-to-face encounters at checkout.
Boosting sales using self-checkout:
Add sign-up prompts for rapid loyalty programs or give rewards if customers share their contact information for contact tracing.
5. Improve Your Point-of-Sale System
Customers are elevating the importance of point-of-sale systems in customer engagement as they put a higher value on customer relationships. According to Retail Consulting Partners, 56 percent of retailers consider client identification and personalisation to be the most important approach for providing the greatest customer experience. The finest point-of-sale systems assist shops in managing communications and delivering a consistent customer experience across numerous channels.
Most companies concentrate on attracting new customers, but it’s usually simpler to persuade a returning customer to purchase from you than it is to persuade a new client to buy from you. One of the most effective strategies to boost sales is to identify and reward your most important clients. A POS system allows you to establish complete profiles of your VIP clients as well as targeted groups to whom you can send special offers and discounts through email. With a completely customised loyalty incentives program, you can even transform new clients into repeat customers.
One of the most valuable advantages of your POS system is the ability to incorporate marketing and loyalty functions. Communication will play a big function in keeping your clients up to date whenever your organization starts to grow to online sales and apply methods that increase contactless selling tactics. Your integrated marketing capabilities will enable you to communicate with your consumers through email to inform them of changes in-store operations and to inform them of your in-store safety precautions.
How to Get Started:
- Make displays at the checkout area and on the counters.
- Using POS data, cross-merchandise and cross-sell complementary goods.
- Know what other products your customers are looking for.
6. Encourage customers to participate in in-store surveys.
Right after checkout is the perfect moment to collect your customer’s honest feedback on your shop. Putting a feedback kiosk near the cashier or exit is an excellent way to get honest feedback. Include a feedback survey in your digital receipts as a low-cost, touch-free alternative. These feedback collecting tools are available for free on platforms like Square.
Store owners may use in-store surveys to monitor consumer engagement and increase sales. (Image courtesy of tabsurvey)
How to Get Started:
Add a customer survey step to your POS system to get started. You may always add a customer survey connection to the capabilities of a self-service kiosk or a normal POS system. You may connect software like tabsurvey ($22/month) to your POS for real-time updates through a mobile app.
Using surveys to increase sales:
Surveys help to increase sales in a variety of ways. For starters, providing a straightforward option for clients to express feedback makes them feel valued and heard. This tiny gesture establishes trust, which encourages individuals to spend money with you. You may also utilize the survey results to boost future sales. Perhaps there are some fresh product ideas or common tips for how to make your room more functional. When making business choices and optimizing for customer engagement, keep these in mind.
7. Help a Good Cause
Another significant alteration in consumer behavior during this health crisis is purposeful shopping. Shoppers want to be a part of society, therefore they support firms that promote common causes. According to Google, 46 percent of customers say they make a deliberate effort to purchase at companies that share their beliefs. With this in mind, businesses should take advantage of the chance to connect their consumers with charitable messaging.
Donation kiosks are put up in stores for local charities. (Photo courtesy of Adlerb)
How to Get Started:
Set up donation kiosks in your business to begin. Customers are likely to go out of their way to support firms that support a local charity. Determine what your community needs and work with a vendor to put up donation kiosks. If your business is near a hospital, for example, you’ll almost certainly discover customers who support health-related causes. Put up signs or point them in the right direction, and give them explicit instructions on how they may assist.
Using charity to increase sales:
While sales should not be the primary motivation for your CSR goal, it may be a worthwhile collateral return. People will seek out merchants that can help them support excellent causes because they desire to help others. Make your dedication to the cause clear on your website, social media, email, and in-store signage, and choose a cause that connects with both you and your target audience.
8. Install Live Chat Software on Your Website
Unless they know precisely what they want, visitors to your website are likely to explore for a few seconds and then depart. Conversational commerce, which refers to the use of chat platforms to conduct eCommerce transactions, has experienced a 450 percent increase in demand as a result of the present health crisis. This provides organizations with a broad range of options for improving client engagement and service via more individualized dialogues available through live chat services.
How to Get Started:
Look for live chat software that can grow with your company. Because no two online shops are the same, it’s critical to have apps that can expand their features and price. This way, you only pay for the features that you need. Freshdesk Messaging, for example, may give services according on the kind and amount of help you need. For your eCommerce site, you may also employ live chat integrations.
Using a live chat platform that interfaces with your CRM software to enhance sales: You can utilize shopper profiles to deliver tailored customer service and product suggestions when you use a live chat platform that integrates with your CRM program. You may also create automation for commonly asked queries based on your company’s objectives. You might, for example, use automatic answers to respond to questions regarding your store’s location and hours.
9. Use your loyalty program to provide in-store rewards.
Customers who participate in high-performing loyalty programs (programs that improve consumer behavior and satisfaction) are 80 percent more likely to choose that shop over rivals and twice as likely to suggest it to others. Provide additional incentives for in-store buying, such as double reward points for purchases made in-store.
How to Get Started:
On your rewards program, collaborate with similar companies. This enables you to provide clients with unique, tailored loyalty benefits that keep them interested and engaged. For example, if you want to market a wine and paint set package, you might include a free sip and paint session as a client loyalty award.
Boosting sales via loyalty programs:
You may utilize loyalty programs in a variety of ways to increase client retention and income.
10. Make Your Newsletters Interesting
Although sending out newsletters isn’t a new marketing approach, it is an excellent way to increase client involvement. Business owners may use newsletters to market their goods, recruit new consumers, and announce special events. However, since the newsletter marketing game is so competitive, company owners must stay on their toes in order to retain consumers clicking open each email.
Personalized discounts are included in newsletters to make clients feel special. (Photo credit: Pinterest)
How to Get Started:
Start by personalizing your mails using your CRM. While creating and organizing newsletters is a generic process, keeping loyal consumers interested requires a degree of customization. Have a POS system that interfaces with Salesforce Essentials, a CRM program that can handle all of your customer data.
Boosting sales using newsletters:
While email newsletters are most efficient for driving online sales, they may also be useful for physical stores. Include information about your store’s actual location, hours of operation, and even a picture of your storefront. As one of your calls to action, invite subscribers to visit your place (CTAs).
11. Use social media to connect with your customers.
Social media provides a venue for high-level consumer involvement that spans the buyer’s journey for a shopper. According to Sprout Social, the most common reason for customers to follow companies on social media (at 57 percent) is to learn about their goods and events. Customers, on the other hand, utilize this platform to contact firms for a variety of reasons, including customer service support and even genuine transactions.
How to Get Started:
Start by making the best use of photos and videos on social media. Make teasers or demonstrations for your new product or service using these. You should even convert your most popular blogs into short video clips or animated GIFs. Finally, include a call to action in your captions to urge your followers to comment on your post.
Boosting sales with social media:
You may now utilize social media as a direct sales tool. Someone may buy one of your items without ever visiting your shop or website using Facebook Shop, Instagram Shop, and other social selling tools. You may also use social media to geo-target paid advertisements—for example, you might run an ad to drive foot traffic to those within a 15-mile radius of your business.
12. Encouraging Customers to Leave Reviews
More than half of internet users, according to Oberlo’s most recent poll, would publish online evaluations at least once a month. Meanwhile, 62% of customers said they would not purchase items that restrict internet reviews. As a result, encouraging consumers to submit reviews about your product or shop will provide potential customers a great first impression of your company.
How to Get Started:
For your company, create a shortened Google review link. Create abbreviated links to your Google My Business page using free link shorteners like Bitly and post them on your website. You may also include them in your email and transaction confirmation page. It’s also critical to keep your Google My Business information up to date.
Using reviews to increase sales:
Reviews increase your company’s visibility in search and may also be repurposed for other purposes. Reviews are an efficient form of social proof because people believe them. Quote favorable reviews in paid advertising campaigns, emails, in-store signage, and product pages, and post screenshots of good reviews on your website or social media.
13. Find the Balance Between Privacy & Personalization
According to a SmarterHQ analysis from 2019, 72 percent of customers will only respond to marketing communications tailored to their unique interests. At the same time, many customers are worried about the security of their personal information. While the finest customer engagement methods include the ability to greatly tailor the customer experience, it’s also critical to earn their trust by showing appropriate data usage.
How to Get Started:
Make sure your consumers are aware of how you protect their personal information. The goal is to establish trust via regular contact. Conduct a poll using your email marketing and ask consumers directly whatever data they’re prepared to contribute in return for improved experiences. You should also provide regular updates on the security measures in place on your website.
Small business sellers may use personalisation to enhance sales by speeding up the checkout process, eliminating friction and providing a more smooth buying transaction. Make use of the payment information and preferences you’ve stored. You may also provide appropriate product suggestions based on consumer behavior and purchase history. Your audience is more inclined to purchase when product suggestions are appropriate.
Conclusion
The retail business is dealing with a unique set of challenges as a result of the epidemic. And, as consumer behavior changes, company owners will need to find the best way to engage with their consumers and win their trust. We hope that our list of customer interaction ideas inspires you and gets you started on the right foot.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are customer engagement strategies?
Customer engagement strategies are a set of activities that companies perform to increase customer loyalty and create positive word-of-mouth. These can include personalized offers, frequent communications with customers through email newsletters, social media interaction and more
What are examples of customer engagement?
Examples of customer engagement are when a user subscribes to updates from your company, or signs up for the newsletter.
