Beyond apps: How technology is transforming customer experience
In a previous article, we discussed the different ways technology is affecting new startups. Better and more efficient Point of Sale systems, for example, allows businesses to keep track of not only their sales but also their inventory. At the same time, modern PoS systems make delivering good customer experience easier.
Good customer experience is the key here. As the retail industry transforms itself in today’s market, delivering good customer experience becomes a critical objective for many retail businesses. Keeping customers happy is how you survive in a competitive market. The good news is that technology is transforming the ways we can deliver a good customer experience too.
From online to offline
One of the ways retailers can fully pamper their customers is by integrating their online and offline experience. Digital marketing is just as powerful for offline retailers as it is for online stores. In fact, retailers who are able to seamlessly integrate their online and offline marketing are among the most successful right now.
You can run an online marketing campaign that ties well to offline activities. Offering discounts and special offers to the online audience to get them into retail spaces is a classic example of this approach. Other things such as exclusive online bonuses are just as effective.
On the other hand, offline activities can boost your online presence too. Asking customers to post a picture of your coffee shop on their social media accounts in exchange for extra discounts or freebies always excites customers. You can also produce exclusive content for offline shoppers, and then use tools like QR codes to direct customers to that content.
Optimisation like never before
We discussed the use of smarter PoS systems and CCTV cameras in the retail business before. What’s interesting about these systems – and other tools available to retailers – is how they can be used to gain insights for optimisation. A simple CCTV system, for instance, can now be made smarter with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).
Vision AI allows retailers to convert unstructured data (CCTV footage) into insights that are useful for the business. They can be trained to track customers within the retail space and produce insights in the form of heat maps and counting reports.
More importantly, the insights can be used to deliver better customer experience. Store layouts can be made more optimised based on the data produced by vision AI and your CCTV cameras. You can organise products to streamline the flow of customers within the retail space, allowing customers to have a more pleasant shopping experience in general.
Automation as a solution
The use of AI to generate insights isn’t limited to integrating AI into the existing CCTV system either. PoS systems can now perform advanced forecasting and deep data analysis. Based on purchase patterns, trends, inventory levels, and other data sets, you can further optimise your retail business. To take it a step further, you can automate many things about your business operations.
Ordering new products no longer has to be a manual process. The PoS system with its ability to track sales can automatically suggest products to order based on inventory levels. In fact, the actual sending of purchase orders can be automated completely.
The same is true with reports, accounting, and other mundane tasks associated with managing a retail business. All of these tasks can be automated to a degree, eliminating the need for human input while maintaining the maximum optimisation level. The result is the ability to focus on other more important tasks, such as continuously improving customer experience.
From offline to online
With the systems managing your retail business already running in the cloud, it would be a waste not to also cater to online customers. Transitioning from offline selling to online commerce is a big step for any retail business, but that big step is worth taking for a number of reasons. For starters, you still have the option to cater to local customers even when selling online.
That ability to cater to local customers, paired with personalised services, makes retail businesses more powerful in their ability to enhance the customer experience. The same customers who visit your retail store directly can now pre-order the products they want online and pick them up later.
It’s a simple transition, but what you are doing is pampering your customer base even more. You also gain the option to sell to more customers across the country, which is always good for business. Using the offline-to-online transformation as the first step towards opening an online storefront minimizes risks and costs as well.
Better supporting tools
Last but not least, there is also the fact that modern business solutions – now running in the cloud – are more accessible. You can manage business documents using Google Drive and use Skype for messaging. You can turn to Kanbanize for better project management and make planning marketing campaigns easier.
Even methodologies like Agile work well when implemented in retail businesses. Business operations are nothing more than a series of small projects to complete in a timely manner, and the benefits of Agile are amplified when the approach is implemented to handle those projects.
Combined with Kanbanize, a digital Kanban board tool that makes project management more efficient, you can improve your ability to service customers. That, of course, helps you to deliver a better customer experience as a whole. You also gain the ability to handle complex campaigns and other projects without reducing efficiency.
Surviving a competitive market
As mentioned earlier, delivering good customer experience is the key to staying ahead of today’s competitive market. Customers love to be pampered; they enjoy a personalised shopping experience and a pleasant journey. These digital transformations will help you get closer to perfecting the customer experience you offer.
A lot of retail businesses are implementing the digital transformations discussed in this article already; there is no better time to start than right now. While there are some big steps – leaps – to take, taking the necessary steps to improve customer experience is how you maintain and grow your customer base effectively.