Learn How to Consistently Gather Information about Your Customers and Improve Loyalty
- By Jeff Haefner
There are countless reasons for retailers to track customer information in their point of sale (or retail management software)...
The information stored in your POS software can be used in limitless ways and allows you to perform powerful queries (questions). For example, you can easily create a list of all customers that purchased a certain type of product and send them an offering of a related item. You can easily identify and send your 100 most profitable customers a nice gift at Christmas. Or you can identify customers that haven't shopped in the past 4 months. And since these customers could be drifting away, you could send them a $20 gift certificate to help get them back.
With all the benefits, many retailers still don't track customer information because it's difficult to get their customers to volunteer personal information. Not to mention, most employees don't feel comfortable asking for this information.
Fortunately there are proven methods to gather customer information on a consistent basis...
The trick is to give the customer a compelling reason to give you their information. And tell them "why" you're asking for their personal information.
For example, you could tell the customer, "Can I get your name and address so we can track your purchases for our customer loyalty program and send you discounts when you qualify?"
Or you could say: "Can I get your name and address so we can send you discounts, exclusive offers, and important information about products you purchased from us."
Or you could even simply say, "Could you give me your name and address so we can track your purchases and serve you better? For example, if you ever need to return something we could easily pull up your receipt in the computer."
There are lots of effective ways to motivate your customer to give you their information. Once you come up with a method that works for you, write a script for your employees to follow and keep it handy at the point of sale.
In addition, you should tell the customer (and make it clear to your employees) that you will NEVER share or sell their name with anyone!
Always remember that your customers will buy from your competitors in a heart beat and you need to work hard to keep them coming back! So start working on the little things to improve your customer loyalty today.
To Your Success.
Jeff Haefner
Article sourced from http://www.possoftwareguide.com
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