How to win customers for your retail business

Have you ever wondered- even after getting a store at a prime location, spending a lot on marketing, and having people in your store, why the sales are low, and how to win customers for my retail business?

You do have people in your store. That’s true, but many of them would be window shoppers or one-time customers.

Many of the retail stores only focus on bringing customers to their doorsteps. However, the important task starts after the people enter your store. Their customer experience will decide whether they are visiting your store again or not.

A customer becomes loyal when he feels valued at your store. Therefore, every technique we use is directly or indirectly leads to this target. It makes the customer happy and the cash drawers happier.

Winning customers is easy; what’s tough is to convert them into loyal ones by building an ever-lasting relationship.

Winning Customers for your retail business

Provide an unparallel customer experience

Customer experience is as important as the quality of your products. Good products may attract customers, but what makes them buy your products will be the experience they have from the point they interact with your business to the payment counter.

The customer experience depends on several factors, such as how easy it is for them to get your shop, the way they are treated, and the environment of your retail shop. A bad experience will not only make you lose the customer visiting your shop, but it will also harm your reputation. The customer may convey a negative message about your shop to others describing his experience. This can cause a huge loss of potential customers.

Hire employees who are dedicated to entertaining customers

After a customer enters a shop, his purchase highly depends upon your employees and the way they treat him. From the moment he enters the shop to the payment window, he interacts with a lot of employees, and all must play their role carefully.

These are employees who know your shop better than your customers. Therefore, if he is trying to find something, your employees can easily guide him to the product. If employees don’t play their role here, the customer may leave thinking the product is not present in the store.

Similarly, it is possible that when a person enters your retail store, he is a window shopper. However, if you provide him with an enticing experience, he may become your regular customer too.

Good employees save the cost, which you need to put for marketing and attracting the existing as well as new buyers.

Remain transparent with your customers

As you are building a relationship with a customer, it is necessary to remain transparent with him. In some instances, companies make a mistake and then tend to hide it. The customers are smart enough to catch the lies.  Even if there are chances that they may not know about it, lying is risky as well as ethically wrong.

On the other hand, if the customer is doing business with you and is satisfied, he will let go of the issues if you remain transparent with him.

Approach them with regular discounts and offers

This is the technique that works in almost all businesses. Offers and discounts are so effective because here, a customer gets higher advantages. He would be getting a product at a lower price, and thus, why he won’t shop at your store? However, offers should be placed smartly. A major feature on which the effect of an offer depends is the timing.

If the offer is placed at the right time, it will attract more users. For instance, placing an offer on sweaters in summers will not add any sales. However, if you put the sale before the winter season, it will bring more new customers. In case they like the products, there are chances they return to your store for more winter wears. That time, even if there is no offer present, they tend to buy your products based on their previous experience.

Connect to your customers using social media

Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter can be used to build a brand identity; these platforms make you appear how you want to be in front of the world.

This also serves a platform to connect to your customers. An active social media platform can serve as a common ground for getting feedbacks, inquiries, issues, and requirements. You can also deliver the information to your customers through them. This will help you to serve your customers interactively.

Ask for feedback

Feedbacks are the key to improvement. There are two ways how feedbacks help. When a person provides feedback, he will feel valued by the business. Secondly, his feedback is a valuable resource that contains what you need to implement to be the best.

And if you continuously improve your service, you will easily win the customers for a lifetime. Feedbacks can be taken from online surveys, offline forms, or directly implementing a feedback machine at the payment counters.

Offer a loyalty program

Loyalty programs are meant to get long-lasting customers. In a loyalty program, a customer is rewarded with points on every purchase which he can use for his next purchase. Therefore, whenever a customer makes a purchase, he will return to the store again for taking advantage of the reward.

The reward can be in terms of discounts or points. These points can be redeemed, and ultimately the user gets discount while buying a product.

You can even add multiple customer levels in the loyalty program based upon the total purchase amount. As the level increases, the customer benefits may also increase. This will encourage him to upgrade his level for higher benefits.

If you look at all the points mentioned, you will find that everything sums up to one thing- the customer relationship. If you aim to build a bond with your customer where he feels respected and welcoming, he will always prefer you above other retail stores. Therefore, keep this as your aim, and you will surely win the customers. We hope you got the answer to this pertinent question, how to win customers.

Ari Retail Management Software

Ari is a Retail Management Software enabling retailers to provide an awesome customer experience and functionalities like Point of Sale supply-chain management, inventory management, discounts and promotions management, etc. contact us now to find out more and grow your business with Ari Retail Software.