Customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction are the two sides to the thriving retail business coin. Happy customers buy more, return more and tell others. Happy employees contribute to the bottom line of a retail business. Both can be boosted by great retail technology – a single investment that helps to drive both customer and employee satisfaction.
Retailers have always chased customer satisfaction. It is well established as a reliable driver of loyalty, increased revenue, credibility and effective advocate marketing. Gartner tells us that ‘81% of marketers view customer satisfaction as the main competition area in their industry’ and PWC backs this up with findings that ‘59% of customers will leave a company after several bad experiences, and 17% after one bad customer experience.’
The correlation between employee wellbeing, productivity and profitability is also very well established, with a wealth of studies showing that happy employees contribute to a stronger bottom line. In organisations where employees are engaged and happy in their work, staff turnover is lower, and profitability, productivity and customer loyalty are consistently higher.
In the quest to create delighted customers and employees, one of the most effective approaches is state-of-the-art, enterprise-class retail technology. Retail technology can be a highly effective, multi-purpose weapon in the battle for customer and employee satisfaction.
Enterprise-class retail technology touches all the key interaction points with the customer, with every element working together to create a seamless ecosystem that drives productivity for the retailer and an outstanding experience in retail for the customer. An enterprise-class retail technology ecosystem includes systems that manage the customer facing and the back of house operations, fully integrated so that each element contributes to the success of the others:
- Retail POS system – fast , efficient point of sale, allowing contactless payments for a smooth checkout experience, and full integration to the loyalty program, to recognise customers and make them feel valued.
- Customer facing display – engaging customers at the point of sale, by presenting offers, information or a chance to interact with their loyalty program data.
Mobile POS – to reduce checkout queues, or provide one-to-one assistance in the aisles – helping customers to find items, arranging delivery to home or pickup from another store, and cross sell up sell to increase the customer’s perception of great service, and impact the transaction size
Customer self-service – self-checkout to reduce queues and make for smooth, easy payments. Kiosks to provide customer information, or provide an ‘endless aisle’ facility to order goods that are not in store, reducing lost sales and increasing revenue.
Loyalty programs – engaging customers with the retail brand, learning more about preferences and habits, and using the information to provide shoppers with offers and incentives to keep them coming back to the store
- Promotions – the ability to provide personalised offers, direct to individual customers on their mobile device, creating engagement, driving loyalty and increasing sales
eCommerce solutions – a fast and easy online experience in retail, fully integrated with the store, to offer hybrid transactions such as Click and Collect/Buy Online Pickup in Store (BOPIS), Curbside pickup or Buy Online, Return in Store (BORIS)
Flawless inventory management – inventory visibility, ensuring that the right stock is in the right place at the right time, and giving staff the accurate information they need to serve customers better.
Retailer analytics and reporting – providing insights into the impact of every aspect of retailers’ operations and using it to drive consistent improvement
Great retail technology enhances the customer experience by:
Providing a fast, smooth and frictionless checkout – in store or online
Ensuring they can find the products they want to buy – in-store, in another store or online
Offering the chance to self-serve if they want to
Providing loyalty programs that give them additional value and make them feel recognised and engaged
Giving them the option to blend online and offline in transactions that suit them
It creates employee satisfaction by:
Giving them the tools to serve customers better
Enabling them to be more productive, making the best use of their working day
Making them feel valued because their employer wants to provide the best tools for them
Giving them information that enables them to improve the way they do their job
The right retail technology can help retailers delight their customers and engage their staff, making it a single investment that packs a double benefits punch.
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