5 Ways to Create a More Personalized Customer Experience Using Your Retail POS Software
In today’s retail landscape, personalization is key. In fact, a survey by Infosys found that 31% of consumers “wish their shopping experience was more personalized than it currently is.” Further, 20% said that they have “never experienced any kind of personalized offers/promotions based on previous purchases, while 19% have never experienced product recommendations based on previous purchases.”
This desire of wanting to be known stems from a need for convenience; many customers rely on eCommerce as they have very little free time and want their shopping experience to be streamlined based on preferences and past purchases. While in the past some consumers have been resistant to personalization due to privacy concerns, tech-savvy customers of today are not surprised nor suspicious when they’re shown something they like without asking for it. Instead, they prefer it.
Personalized experiences don’t just benefit your customers, however. They’ll also work to strengthen customer loyalty and your bottom line. You can start creating a more personalized experience for your customers with your retail POS software, which can serve as a valuable CX tool. Read on to discover 5 ways you can elevate your customer experience and differentiate yourself from your competitors.
Utilize Mobile POS and Create Memorable In-Store Shopping
When a customer steps into your business, you have a unique opportunity to engage with them — and your retail POS software can help. A properly utilized point-of-sale system can provide valuable personal data about your customers. With the help of mobile POS and trained staff, your team can help customers based on past purchases and interests. These mobile systems can also allow staff to answer questions on the fly about current promotions, stocking issues and even help with reducing wait times at checkout.
Staff with proper training can also utilize mobile POS to input real-time updates to the customer’s profile as they assist them on the floor, which will help you cater to them even further during their next visit. This way, you and your staff can learn what your customers like and don’t like to ensure their shopping experience fits their profile. If you don’t have a mobile POS system, you can still train staff on how the POS can be used with a loyalty program at checkout to provide discounts and improve the shopping experience.
Suggest Similar or Bundled Items
Your POS can further help you provide a personalized customer experience by allowing customers to browse online inventory in easily searchable, filtered, and browsed categories. While shopping, customers can quickly find what they’re looking for without scrolling through pages of products. Your retail POS software can even suggest items that are similar or of higher value to boost sales.
In addition to suggesting similar items, you can also create bundles of items that are frequently bought together. This method works well too:
- Allow the customer to see the bigger picture
- Increase their likelihood of buying
- Increase the amount they’re likely to buy
You can also alert customers to upcoming sales or new inventory items that are meaningful to them based on their past purchases. The key is to target customers with specific information instead of blasting them with emails that may not be of interest. A personalized experience will pique their interest and encourage them towards purchase.
Create Customer Groups
Categorizing your items is excellent, but you shouldn’t stop there. Your retail POS software is chock-full of reporting capabilities that will make creating a personalized experience for your customers even easier. You can leverage your point of sale data and reporting to gain insight into customer purchase history, allowing you to put customers in categories based on past purchases and preferences. By doing this, you can add customizations to receipts, webpages, order confirmation, and more. With this information, you can also send targeted promotions and messages to individual customer groups whose interests are similar.
Implement Loyalty Programs
It’s not rocket science; customers feel appreciated when their loyalty is rewarded. Loyalty programs are a great way to personalize the customer experience and make them feel like a special guest when they shop at your store or on your site. Use your retail POS software to offer point programs for general purchases or tailor to certain departments or types of products for further personalization. You can reward customers with gift certificates, smart discounts, bonus points, and more. You can even go the extra mile and send customer appreciation letters.
Are you having trouble getting customers to sign up for your loyalty program? Try offering gift cards or discounts as an incentive to join. Once they have, you can retain them by rewarding them often. Advertising your loyalty program can also work to draw in customers who crave a more personalized experience. With the right retail POS software and loyalty program, you can add value to your customer’s shopping experience and increase customer retention.
Keep the Customer in the Driver’s Seat
While giving customers relevant suggestions can be helpful; it can quickly become overbearing to those who are concerned about their privacy being breached. Make sure you let your customer feel like they are in control by offering them choices of the lists they’d like to be included on or excluded from. Even though your retail POS software can track and suggest intuitively, allow them to choose to what degree they become involved. Empowering the customer through choice helps them to feel more comfortable spending their hard-earned cash in your retail store.
Retail POS software is a huge investment — it’s time to make it work for you. Providing personalization in-store and online will not only provide customers with a positive experience but also maximize your revenue and increase customer retention. With the right POS, all this and more is possible. Get started today and let your retail POS software do the heavy lifting for you.
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