|
In
my view…online or offline, retailers are only in
business to do one thing – to make and keep customers. To make and keep
enough customers, buying enough of your products and services to make your
business a continuing success. Now that multi-channel, integrated
retailing is basic to every chain retailer and most independent retailers
in North America, it is simply smart business to give your customers the
same shopping satisfaction at each and every point where your customers
touch your company. This VIEWPOINT
looks at some more winning ideas for giving your customer total shopping
satisfaction.
Single
identity across all touch points. From the first VIEWPOINT
article almost four years ago, we have championed the benefits to both
your customers and to your company in creating and maintaining a single
identity for each customer, no matter the customer’s point of contact
with the company. This does not have to be a complicated process.
There
are many off-the-shell customer relationship management products that
allow you to create and maintain single, integrated customer profiles.
Most point-of-sale software platforms include a customer account system.
Or you can engage a custom application developer to create a customer
identity and service history system.
Whatever
system you choose for capturing and maintaining customer identity files,
make sure that your filing system and database are user and password
accessible; preferably with an always-on connection, to all customer
service points. This includes workstation user access for telephone and
fax customer service, online integration to connect e-mail and webstore
shopping carts, as well as POS integration for in-store customer
check-out.
Make
sure that your system collects, confirms and updates all, and only,
customer information relevant to the business relationship between your
customer and your company. Make sure as well that your system is capable
of collecting and sorting service history information – by customer, by
contact point, by date and time, by type of problem, by type and value of
resolution – as well as collecting whatever limited narrative is
necessary to complete the service report.
Finally,
make sure that your customer relationship management system is private,
secure and safe from any unauthorized employee or outsider review, and
from any form of unauthorized file transfer or record content
manipulation. Current online consumer surveys report that identity theft
is the single biggest concern that your online customer has about buying
online. Do not give her any reason to be concerned that her personal
information is at risk with your company.
Easy-print
product pages. Internet-integrated retailing, by its very design, is intended to
encourage shopping and buying across the various channels in which your
company does business. Most notably this means shopping widely and
meticulously online, making a buying decision before leaving home or
office, and completing the actual purchase in a convenient real-world
store.
This
customer-driven process will be greatly enhanced if your webstore makes it
easy for your customer to print product presentation information including
product images, colour and size arrays, prices, and terms of purchase.
If
the design of your webstore does not accommodate the natural assembly of
this information, then create browser window pop-ups, with
"easy-print" navigational links, in which to assemble and
display full product information. This will allow your customer to print a
product page to bring along for making her final selection and purchase.
Easy-print
online product catalogs. In the
recent VIEWPOINT
article, "Back to the Basics – For the First
Time!," we discussed some of the many similarities between online
retailing and direct-mail and catalog marketing. Following on the
suggestion of providing easy-print product presentation information, you
can also create easy-print online product catalogs. An online product
catalog is an electronic document version of a printed catalog,
prominently linked throughout your webstore and printable in part or in
whole as your customer prefers.
Online
catalogs can present seasonal product selections, exclusive manufacturer
features, weekly or monthly specials or any other grouping of products and
product information to stimulate customer interest and encourage her to
make a purchase. Again, the ready ability to print a hard copy of the
online catalog page or pages of specific interest to your customer will
keep the buying process intact as she makes her way from online to
in-store.
Most
specialty retailers will tell you that they get as much as half of all
sales from the first ten to twenty feet of retail product display in the
entrance way of their stores. Is your webstore merchandized to deliver
similar performance? Can your online customer find your best selling items
within two mouse-clicks of arriving at your webstore’s storefront?
Is
impulse buying of seasonal items and high-margin commodity items at your webstore check-out easily accomplished?
Every
shopkeeper and chain store magnate around the world walks the sales floor
of his retail emporium. In the next VIEWPOINT,
we will take a "mid-day" walk through the sales floor of your
webstore and suggest four more improvements to your online product
presentation.
Happy
retailing,
Peter
To
contact Peter, click here
For an Adobe Easy Print version of this
article, click here
For
the VIEWPOINT index of articles, click here
|