Category: Banking & Financial Services

How Omni-Channel Software Platforms Drive Success In the Financial Services Industry

Posted on by Olga Kamylevich

Today’s consumer behavior has undoubtedly changed in the way people interact, work, and shop. As global financial institutions continue to adapt to new economic trends, they are using an omni-channel approach to ensure a customer-centric focus on business. How will financial service providers adjust their customer success strategy to meet the demands of today’s world? What engagement tactics will they use to ensure customer satisfaction and retention?

This article offers insight into possible developments and suggests methods that can help your company remain at the forefront of customer success and innovation.

Navigating The Change

With physical distancing affecting every aspect of today’s life, consumers are getting used to the idea of doing business remotely. They are more comfortable using online services and mobile apps to engage with financial institutions and will be doing so in the future. According to a recent study by The Financial Brand, 31% of 1,000 American consumers indicated they will continue to rely on online payment systems and mobile banking for their financial needs. 45% of the survey respondents prefer mobile wallet platforms as they move away from using cash and going into physical locations.

Another recent study by McKinsey indicates consumer willingness to reduce in-person purchases, cash transactions, and ATM usage. It anticipates a future shift from physical to virtual banking. As a result, financial companies will be required to adopt real-time payment infrastructures and other personalized technologies that help create a stellar customer experience.

It’s clear that a successful customer engagement strategy largely depends on the technology a company chooses to implement. Even customers who were reluctant to use apps and software in the past are now gaining comfort and confidence with this next wave of digital transformation.

Although most cutting-edge technologies are quite mature and are readily available, it takes knowledge and a creative approach to implement them. Let’s take a look at a few innovative ways in which you can adopt customer-centric technologies and ensure continuous business improvement.

How to Engage with Customers through Technology

1. Opt-in for Contactless Banking Solutions

With physical distancing paving the way to increased demand for remote interactions, contactless payments are becoming widely adopted by consumers around the world:

Clearly, contactless payments are here to stay as consumers continue to apply a more focused approach to purchasing. Selecting a contactless banking solution that enables digital onboarding and secure authentication, facial and voice recognition, as well as fast payment processing, will help satisfy the demand for remote interactions and will increase customer retention.

2. Focus on Virtual Customer Servicing

Chats and voice bots have been around for a long time. Today, they are becoming increasingly important due to their ability to handle a large volume of customer requests in a physically distributed environment. If your company relies on remote call centers, you can leverage services such as virtual and in-person appointment scheduling, virtual queue management and virtual events to manage all types of customer requests, from simple queries to the most complex issues.

Industry leaders such as Bank of America and Capital One are already evolving their chats and voice bots into advanced “virtual assistants” that can send alerts and payment reminders, provide financial tips, recommend products, and ultimately help customers manage their finances better. By using predictive analytics and proactive algorithms, virtual customer servicing will soon become a go-to solution for personalized financial experience and innovative banking.

3. Find the Right Omni-Channel Customer Engagement Platform

It’s no surprise that consumers are becoming much savvier in the ways they interact with financial institutions. With the continuous shift toward digital transformation, your customers are more aligned with technology and innovation than ever before. Choosing the right omni-channel engagement platform to drive meaningful customer interactions will help to increase brand loyalty.

In the context of the “new normal”, superior customer experience means clarity, fulfilled expectations, and improved retention rates. The right platform leverages an interconnected set of communication and scheduling tools that drive an improved customer journey across digital channels, remote locations, and call centers. A robust customer engagement platform will also help you offer a personalized experience that connects customers with experts and services in the right place at the right time. Above all, it will help you earn customer loyalty, generate more business, and improve the quality of your services.

4. Offer Secure Remote Access to Your Employees

A recent study by MIT shows that roughly half of the US workforce is now working remotely. Furthermore, many tech companies, including Facebook and Twitter, intend on allowing their teams to work from home permanently. As companies realize remote employment boosts productivity and reduces overhead, they will be driven to create a more robust and distributed virtual office environment.

To achieve this goal, the financial industry will be required to deploy innovative cloud-based technologies focused on business continuity, security, and collaboration. These solutions must ensure 24/7 access to critical systems such as Citrix and Microsoft Outlook and employ out-of-band authentication methods that minimize the risk of intrusions and cyber attacks. Using secure cloud-based technologies to support seamless access to systems will also help scale your business up or down depending on the transaction volumes.

5. Embrace Continuous Improvement and Efficiency

Finally, the economic uncertainties of today’s world challenged financial firms to maintain a delicate balance between successful customer service and operational efficiency. To increase efficiencies, companies can choose to employ digital self-service programs that are far less expensive than phone-based education and in-branch selling. Enabling self-service techniques helps capture a myriad of opportunities to engage with customers on a deeper level while maintaining high service success rates and improving the bottom line. For example, a well-organized and searchable help center content can assist in resolving issues and provide financial education even before the customer reaches live support.

An absence of a well-designed self-service strategy not only misses out on an opportunity to fully connect with your customer but it also makes it difficult to fully utilize existing technologies and improve critical metrics like share of wallet and efficiency ratios. This can be easily avoided by implementing self-service programs backed up by support content from major digital channels.

Conclusion

Today, banks and financial companies are at the forefront of change. In tough economic times, and beyond, they play an immediate role in helping customers make important financial decisions geared toward improving quality of life. With the main focus on providing superior customer experience, financial service companies that utilize the right customer engagement platforms can turn the tide and build the economy of the future. As a result, they can create a raving following of clients that are more loyal, use more products and services, and cost less to retain.

Here at SUMO, we offer a Customer Engagement Platform that helps drive customer conversations, improves communication and generates more business at the point of purchase:

  • Personalized experience based on customer needs and communication expectations (email invites, “front of the line” and “we’ve been waiting for you” services)
  • Improving in-branch customer journey with unique features (“Meet with an Expert”, Waitlist Manager, experiential marketing events)
  • Customer engagement and data insights for making better data-driven decisions (analytics builder with unlimited reports, in-app analytics discussions, mobile access, and more)

Branch Appointment Scheduling is Vital Now More than Ever

Posted on by Olga Kamylevich

Customer engagement and appointment scheduling apps now help to keep customer service running smoothly as branches adjust to meet changing consumer demands. The apps show their ability to offer more personalization, while adapting to consumers safety needs.

No one could have predicted how retail banking could be turned upside down in just a matter of a few weeks. The entire country started to practice social isolation to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus, followed by strict stay-at -home rules implemented by several states and cities in close succession.

Of course, the need for financial transactions continues as consumers pivot to working from the safety of their homes.

Banks, financial services organizations, and credit unions are rapidly adapting to consumer needs to tackle the unexpected crisis and to keep their retail operations stable and growing. Financial institutions of all sizes have cut walk-in visits, and are relying on teller and private appointments only.

New Protocol is to Limit In-Person Visits & Offer Virtual Options

Converting from a walk-in model to “by appointment-only” is essential to guard consumers’ safety, while servicing their needs.

The “by appointment only” model has a number of advantages for financial institutions. One example is to use SUMO Scheduler’s Analytics Builder to monitor the volume and service type of branch traffic. With this understanding, you are able to guarantee that staffing levels and skill training match consumer demand on a branch-by-branch basis. In a fast changing environment, this is particularly critical to monitor, in order to adjust week to week. Furthermore, financial institutions are limiting the number of consumers onsite to comply with social distancing requirements and staffing accordingly.

Another option that is in high demand, is offering virtual options. In the past few months, we’ve seen our financial institution customers more than double their “Virtual Consultations” using SUMO Scheduler’s Online Scheduler, by offering appointment scheduling for video or phone conference calls via their website and mobile apps. The Online Scheduler automatically matches the customer with the right banker, at the right location, at the right time, and auto-adds the video or phone conference details.

“SUMO Scheduler’s online scheduler has proven pivotal in helping keep our customers happy and operations running smoothly. Configuring the online scheduler to limit in-person appointments with buffers and turn on Virtual Appointments was simple and enabled us to adapt quickly. Honestly, I can’t even imagine how we would be surviving right now without SUMO’s appointment automation.” states a VP of a large U.S. Bank.

Purchasing & Engagement Data is Root of Personalization

Financial institutions benefit from understanding the historical needs of their customers. Why did the consumer schedule this appointment, what were their previous needs, we’re they met or are they still outstanding? Data gathered from SUMO Scheduler, gives bankers the capability to offer more personalized experiences, necessary to deliver and keep customers happy.

Anticipating consumer needs and matchmaking them with the right specialist, at the right location, at the right time vastly helps to efficiently deliver fast personalized solutions. This is also important to ensure regulatory compliance is met for more complicated banking products, such as mortgages and loans.

Having the capability to aggregate appointment data and identity trends at the brand, regional, or national level is critical in staffing consumer needs as they evolve through this coronavirus pandemic.

The Future After the Pandemic

It’s uncertain when or if the world will return to “normal”. Leading experts believe that when the current challenges of the pandemic are behind us, a new normal will emerge of how consumers engage financial institutions and retail.

For the past several years, there’s no denying the growing trend to engage customers in more personalized and meaningful ways both online and in person. It’s believed this priority will continue to grow in order to continue to attract and retain customers post-COVID-19.

Deloitte’s 2019 Banking Industry Outlook report confirms the trend to digital will continue, stating: “The importance of the branch in attracting and retaining customers, contrary to conventional wisdom, should remain…branches will continue to have value, especially with greater digital enablement”. Deloitte goes on to state how customers are likely to increase use if they offered more virtual services:

  • Extended service hours through virtual remote services with a representative 36%
  • Ability to schedule a personal appointment for a virtual video meeting with a representative 31%

Regarding future customer engagement models, it’s clear brand loyalty is being driven by consumers’ expectation of both personalization through matchmaking with specialists and flexibility to choose Virtual or limited In-Person meetings, all of which SUMO Scheduler excels at.

13 Reasons Your Organization Should Focus on Customer Experience

Posted on by Olga Kamylevich

Research shows that customers will pay more, buy more and be loyal to a company that delivers an excellent customer experience. Customer experience should not be confused with customer delight. When a company delights a customer, they are usually going above and beyond the customer’s expectations for a specific moment.

Customer Delight vs Customer Experience

Zappo’s customer service reps, who are called genies, are famous for their examples of customer delight. One of Zappo’s genies, Steve, is famous for having spent over 10 hours on the phone with a single customer. This act was going above and beyond that customer’s expectations and thoroughly delighting them.

Customer experience is the customer’s summary impression of a brand after several interactions. Sample interactions include a company’s website or social media posts. From these first touchpoints, the customer may go to a brick-and-mortar location to view the item in person. If the customer sees a product or offer online, then visits a store and finds the sales staff is unaware of the item or the item is not in stock, the customer is given a negative experience. Every interaction should make it easy for the customer to do business with your company. The customer experience does not end with a purchase either. Interactions with a company’s service or support departments need to still maintain focus on the customer, the brand promise and be obstacle-free.

Digital solutions play a significant role in the customer experience. They are instrumental in a modern customer experience strategy. Companies investing in these types of technologies that are made to cater to customer expectations will easily surpass their competitors.

Examples of removing obstacles for customers and delivering a seamless experience with digital solutions like AI, CRMs and online scheduling include offering services like reserving an item online and pick up in-store, sales and service knowing a customer’s purchase history and preferences, and allowing customers to schedule an appointment or join a virtual queue via mobile phone, website, or an on-site kiosk.

Delighting a customer is isolated to moments with a single customer. Customer experience is the consistency at every touchpoint along every customer’s journey with your entire organization.

The Numbers

This data is merely a sample of statistics spanning the past 5 years proving that customer experience is too valuable to get it wrong. Companies that are focused on a customer experience strategy and embracing digital solutions as a part of their strategy to meet customer expectations will easily surpass their competition.

When asking consumers what impacts their level of trust with a company, offering excellent customer service is ranked number one. (Zendesk) 2013

52% of consumers say they have made an additional purchase from a company after a positive customer service experience. (Zendesk) 2013

Gartner predicts that 89% of businesses are expected to compete mainly on customer experience. (Gartner) 2014

Increasing customer retention rates by 5% increase in profits by 25% to 95%. (Harvard Business School) 2014

26% of companies leading financially use CX technologies, compared to 7% of laggards. (Bain) 2015

A customer experience promoter has a lifetime value to a company that’s 600 to 1,400% that of a detractor. (Bain) 2015

75% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a company that knows their name and purchase history and recommends products based on their preferences. (Accenture) 2016

54% of customers have higher expectations for customer service today compared to one year ago. This percentage jumps to 66% for consumers aged from 18 to 34 years old. (Microsoft) 2017

70% of consumers say they have already made a choice to support a company that delivers great customer service. (American Express) 2017

84% of organizations working to improve CX report an increase in revenue. (Dimension Data) 2017

47% of consumers have made the choice to switch to a different brand due to bad customer service within the last year. (Microsoft) 2017

33% of customers who abandoned a business relationship last year did so because personalization was lacking. (Accenture) 2018

Forty-two percent of consumers said they would pay more for a friendly, welcoming experience, and 52% would pay more for a speedy and efficient customer experience. Of course, price and quality are still the top considerations when consumers make a purchase decision. (CMO) 2018

10 Statistics on Why an Omnichannel Strategy Works

Posted on by Olga Kamylevich

Customers are shopping online, in-store or both at the same time. Their expectations of brands have become more demanding in terms of the shopping experience they encounter. There is a wealth of touchpoints for a customer to connect with a brand and the customer expects their interactions to transition smoothly from one channel to the next no matter where they begin their journey – online or offline, on an app or with a customer service rep.

Omnichannel marketing allows traditional consumer companies to more effectively compete with their online-only counterparts. The value and returns created from an omnichannel strategy are greater than the initial investment in building out a seamless experience across multiple channels.

The following statistics deliver a compelling argument for any consumer-facing company, from retail to financial services, to invest in an omnichannel strategy.

Be Everywhere Your Customers Are

Omnichannel customers spend 4% more in-store and 10% more online than single-channel customers. For every additional channel they use, customers spend more money. (Harvard Business Review, 2017)

48% visit brand websites to research products. Younger consumers (37% of teens and 27% of Millennials) use video channels to research. (CMO, 2018)

73 percent of customers shop across multiple channels (Harvard Business Review, 2017)

49% of consumers buy from their favorite omnichannel brands at least once per week (Marketing Land, 2016)

Give Your Customers What They Want

9 out of 10 consumers want an omnichannel experience with seamless service between communication methods. (UC Today, 2019)

71% of consumers want a consistent experience across all channels, but only 29% say they actually get it. (Gladly, 2018)

Nine out of 10 consumers say they expect a seamless transition when moving from one communication method to another. (NICE inContact, 2018)

Omnichannel Investment Pays Off

Personalization at scale can drive between 5 and 15% revenue growth for companies in the retail, travel, entertainment, telecom, and financial services sectors. (McKinsey, 2017)

49% of consumers buy from their favorite omnichannel brands at least once per week (Marketing Land, 2016)

Businesses that adopt omnichannel strategies achieve 91% greater year-over-year customer retention rates compared to businesses that don’t. (Aspect Software, 2014)

Omnichannel shoppers have a 30% higher lifetime value than those who shop using only one channel. (Google, 2014)

It’s Not Too Late

And here’s one more bonus statistic: According to Rakuten, 26% of companies have yet to take any action regarding an omnichannel strategy.

It generally costs a brand more to win a new customer than retain an existing one. With an omnichannel marketing strategy in place, brands can not only have an edge on their competition for new customers, but they can also build long-term loyalty amongst their existing customer base.

The Retail Customer Paradigm is Shifting

Posted on by Olga Kamylevich

Omnichannel services continue to change the offers that retailers provide and the ways that consumers buy. The demands on retailers are changing in lockstep. Even as eCommerce sales grow, retailers must adjust to shrinking margins and customers’ cherry-picking the best deals. Mobile’s growing influence also affects consumer web and in-store sales, even when buyers are physically browsing the aisles of retailers.

Forester

The beginning of change for consumer-facing industries started in 1991 when the internet was opened to commercial use and eCommerce became mainstream. The next step in the transformation of retail came with the development of multichannel retailing.

Multichannel retailing evolved from the growth of e-commerce and the need to reach a wider audience anywhere and everywhere from a coffee shop to their sofas. We are now in the third phase of retailing with omnichannel retailing.

Omnichannel retailing is the next evolution of retailing. Fast becoming the standard retail strategy for major retailers, omnichannel retailing takes the method of customer engagement and selling a step further. It is the future of retail commerce.

Omnichannel shoppers have a 30% higher lifetime value than those who shop using only one channel. (Google)

Omnichannel vs. Multichannel

A retail brand operating with a multichannel strategy will have a multitude of selling and engagement channels including a website, chat app, brick and mortar locations, a mobile app, digital advertising, and social media. The multichannel retailer uses each of these channels in different ways to push out the company objectives rather than serve their customer’s interests. This channel-centric manner of thinking may still get sales but this a short-term strategy compared to focusing on their customer’s interests and needs and winning long-term loyalty.

Enter omnichannel retailing. An omnichannel strategy may have the same set of channels but connects all these various touchpoints together for a more unified customer experience. The customer does not care about the tactics assigned to a retailer’s various channels. The lines between online and offline shopping are no longer distinct.

87% of customers think brands need to put more effort into providing a seamless experience. (Zendesk)

The Center of the Retail Paradigm Shift

A retail customer wants a retailer that offers a well-connected customer experience across every department and every channel it owns. Customers enjoy shopping in brick and mortar stores when they receive a consistent brand experience before the purchase and long after the purchase is complete. Brick and mortar success lies in delivering this holistic experience.

Companies with extremely strong omnichannel customer engagement retain on average 89% of their customers, compared to 33% for companies with weak omnichannel customer engagement. (Aberdeen Group)

The multichannel retail model is built around delivering a product. The omnichannel retail model building every resource at its disposal around the customer.

Retail brands must adapt to the shift

Rather than having every employee in a company silo themselves within their assigned departments, the omnichannel strategy best benefits the brand when their internal resources are aligned as well.

  • Data needs to be available and connected across channels and platforms. 77% of strong omnichannel companies store customer data across channels, compared to 48% for weak omnichannel companies. (Aberdeen Group)
  • Having a CRM, like Salesforce, provides not only a place for a marketing team to access customer data for ad campaigns but also for a customer service team to log a call history, and sales staff to log a customer’s important dates and preferences. Similarly, maintaining stock level information on products that are available in-store as well as online serves the customer’s expectations when shopping a brand.
  • Staff needs to be well-trained and equipped with the best tools. 45% of shoppers in-store expect sales associates to be knowledgeable about online-only products. (Forrester). 50% of shoppers expect that they will be able to make a purchase online and pick up in-store. (Forrester)

Your sales staff are your brand ambassadors. Besides training, providing tools like iPads with access to inventory and customer profiles gives them the opportunity to personalize their customer interaction.

Anther customer-centric service includes online appointment scheduling. Online scheduling lets a customer schedule an appointment with a sales rep of their choice to get their questions answered. Or perhaps they want to reserve an item online and then pick up in-store. A brand creates a high-end experience by letting the customer schedule a pickup time that is convenient for them.

Departments need to be cross-functional. 55% of companies have no cross-channel strategy in place. (The CMO Club).

The goal of cross-channel retailing is offering customers a convenient and flexible buying process. Nowadays a customer uses an average of almost six touch-points with nearly 50% regularly using more than four. If your brand has not connected all its resources it is not equipped to make the buying process seamless from any and every channel a customer uses.

This can lead to abandoned purchases. An example of cross-channel is a customer who may receive an email featuring a specific product and decide to read more in-depth information on a website. Then, the final purchase of this product is made in a brick & mortar store.

Meet Customer Expectation with Technology

Customers are smarter, have more choices and are savvier. Customer expectations have changed due to technology. This new retail paradigm directly impacts businesses. Mobile devices are empowering the customer with real-time information on products and pricing from the comfort of their homes or while they are shopping your store.

Interacting with your customers on a personal level and at their peak point of interest can create a brand experience that they will remember, perhaps even when they are shopping your competitor. By adapting to today’s customer shopping habits and expectations, retailers can secure engagement and brand loyalty in long into the future.

Fortune 500 Insurance Provider Uses SUMO Scheduler to Streamline Employee Enrollment Process for its Corporate Clients

Posted on by Olga Kamylevich

Insurers Report That SUMO Adds Up to 50 Percent More Appointments to Agents’ Calendars.

ATLANTA, Jan. 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — As insurance providers continue to face pressure to adopt efficient, secure and cost-effective technologies to maintain their competitiveness, many are also looking for new ways to streamline the path to the customer. This is why the U.S. leader in voluntary insurance sales at the worksite has chosen SUMO Scheduler, the #1 online appointment-scheduling solution built native on the Salesforce CRM platform.

According to Deloitte, seven out of 10 insurance carriers are now using cloud computing in their business as an integral part of their technology environment and business platform strategies. SUMO runs in the cloud as a mobile-friendly, software-as-a-service solution.

“Our insurance clients are reporting that SUMO Scheduler is adding up to 50 percent more appointments to their insurance agents’ calendars,” said Jason North, CEO and founder of SUMO Scheduler. “As you can imagine, appointment automation helps improve employee productivity, customer satisfaction and, ultimately, drives revenue growth.”

Prior to becoming a SUMO user, the insurance provider had always serviced its corporate clients by having agents at their sites during open enrollment periods to meet with interested employees and assist with the enrollment process. However, appointments were either scheduled manually or walk-in employees were met with on a first-come, first-serve basis, which was inconvenient if the insurance representative was already in a meeting. The provider wanted a way to automate appointment scheduling to improve customer service and engagement, and to ensure that the right number of agents are available on-site to handle needs.

SUMO provides the insurer with the ability to offer self-scheduling to their corporate customers. A self-scheduling link, shared with their employees, enables them to schedule an appointment directly on an agent’s calendar when it is convenient for them during the time the agent will be on-site for annual open enrollment periods. Automated reminders sent directly to the employee from the insurance agent help to ensure that they do not miss their appointment. SUMO further enables the insurance provider to pair specific agents with employees based on questions or needs, so that they get the expert assistance they require.

“Many of our clients’ core strategies in 2019 are to modernize customer engagements to drive revenue growth,” said Jason North. “A key tactic our customers are deploying to attract and retain customers is to offer Schedule Now technology to connect customers with experts fast. It only takes a moment to lose a customer, so streamlining the path to a conversation is absolutely key and the solution must be mobile friendly.”

To schedule a call with a scheduling expert at SUMO Scheduler, go here.

How Retail Technologies Champion Customer Experience

Posted on by Olga Kamylevich

Retail is Not Dead

It may seem like the entire retail industry is still struggling but according to the Mastercard SpendingPuls report, holiday retail sales grew at their fastest pace in six years, topping $850 billion. Total holiday retail sales from Nov. 1-Dec. 24 rose 5.1% vs. a year earlier, with online spending surging 19.1%. This marks an increase from the 2017 holiday retail sales gain of 4.9% and online shopping growth of 18.1%. Drill down to specific categories though and the story begins to vary.

  • Electronics and appliances dropped 0.7% while home furnishings had an uptick of 2.3%.
  • Department store sales slid 1.3% from 2017, affected by store closures.
  • But the online sales were much more upbeat, with 10.2% holiday sales growth.

Now that it’s a new year, what are retailers doing to improve if they had a slip in sales or continue their momentum after the 2018 holiday season? It’s cheaper to focus on developing sales with existing customers. On the flipside, the fastest way for a brand to grow is to attract new customers. Or they can put in place a strategy aligned with both of these goals.

More than Customer Service

Customer experience is and will continue to be a major driving force in growing customer loyalty. The value of an excellent customer experience can substantially impact a brand’s identity as well as its bottom line. These are just a few of the tactics retailers use to build a great in-store and brand customer experience:

Face-to-Face Selling – Having knowledgeable sales associates who are helpful and informative create a real desire for return customer visits. A strong workforce can help a brand sell for the long run rather than a one-off. Most buying journeys start online with product and pricing research, however many purchases still are completed in a store. For high-value purchases, such as fine jewelry, this is especially true. Having a sales associate with strong product knowledge can, not only assure the customer and close the sale they can also compel a customer to return for future purchases.

74% of consumers globally and in North America think that knowledgeable in-store staff is important to their brand experience (Oracle).

In-store Experiences – This tactic is all about creating immersive and personalized experiences for the customer from the time they walk in the store. Brands that work to delight their customers from their first visit always benefit.  Ulta offers a broad assortment of hair and beauty products. Besides offering these products, Ulta also offers in-store services such as hair, skin and brow treatments, differentiating itself from other retailers that sell beauty products.

80% of consumers say they are more likely to do business with a company if it offers personalized experiences (Edelman)

Retail Operations Technology – Perhaps the most overlooked tactic is a transformation within the not so exciting department of Operations. Technological integrations here can strengthen the customer experiences a retailer is offering.

Mobile POS Systems: Smartphone or Tablet-based POS systems allow sales staff to combat customer frustration and cart abandonment. Associates can break up a long queue and check customers out faster. These mobile systems allow sales associates to access a customer’s buying history, making personalized recommendations possible.

Analytics: These types of technologies are business intelligence investments that can inform and improve the customer experience. Smart camera and video analytics can help decide product placement, avoid overcrowding and minimize service times. 

Customer Relationship Management Platform (CRM): The data captured in a CRM, including preferences and demographic data, enables segmentation and personalization. This data can inform the type of shopping environment a brand creates and allows a market segment or an individual to be targeted with promotions that appeal to them.   

Scheduling Software: Another technology growing in adoption by retailers to evolve the customer experience is scheduling software. Currently used by 29% of the respondents in the NAPCO Media survey, this technology fits comfortably within the omnichannel direction retailers are taking in giving customers the experience they have come to expect. The value of this technology can contribute significantly to a brand’s customer experience strategy.

This technology plays a strong role in a brand’s omnichannel customer experience strategy, unifying online and offline interactions. Brands offering self-scheduling on their websites are not only creating a positive customer experience they are also helping shift their customers from an online visitor to an in-store shopper. The convenience of booking an in-store appointment online shows their customers their needs are a priority.

Self-scheduling an in-store appointment allows a retail customer:

  • to book an appointment at any store location
  • to have direct access to a knowledgeable sales associate
  • to skip the line or not wait in line at all

Exceed Your Customer’s Expectations 

The Year of the Customer has been a yearly declaration over the past few years. Walker’s Customer 2020 report, however, forecasted the importance of the customer experience back in 2013.

“Enlightened companies must view the customer experience as a strategic, C-level initiative. In the future, the responsibility of a “chief customer champion” will become more common, serving one purpose – to create an unrelenting focus on the customer throughout the enterprise.” 

Current data continues to reinforce the importance of a customer experience strategy. By pursuing excellence in the customer experience, there is no need to decide on whether to chase new customers or concentrate on existing ones. Managing the customer experience can serve both purposes. What is your brand doing to create personalized positive retail customer experiences?

How Clienteling with Online Scheduling Drives Retail Sales

Posted on by Olga Kamylevich

The Modern Retail Customer

Retail companies are having to work harder nowadays for a customer’s attention. The well-tested strategies of luring customers into stores with one-day sales, direct mail pieces, limited time giveaways and special events are not always as effective as they used to be. Brick and mortar retailers that shift their marketing and sales tactics to include digital tools can better connect and interact with customers that are now used to being romanced by companies across both online and offline channels.

Brick-and-mortar retail locations will most likely continue to reduce their footprint but the physical storefront will still continue to exist despite the onslaught of competition from online-only retailers. Making sure your company is delivering convenience and a positive experience for your customers is a solid place to start building and retaining your company’s customer base. The art of clienteling combined with a little technological support can play an important part in this customer nurturing process.

More than half (54%) of retailers said the customer experience is their most important area of focus, way ahead of cross-channel marketing (16%), data-driven marketing (14%), mobile (11%), and programmatic buying/optimization (4%). (Adobe)

Clienteling Still Matters

Clienteling, a buzzword for retail salesperson’s art of catering to customers, is still a very valid practice in modern retail. By establishing long-term relationships with their key customers based on their particular tastes, preferences and past purchases, the lifetime value of a customer can increase.

In the good old days, the salesperson had a sort of little black book with this valuable information, allowing them to provide a highly personalized shopping experience. Personalizing the customer experience has now since moved from Rolodexes and paper files to software applications, specifically mobile apps.

Taking the Black Book Digital

In the new omnichannel world of retail, the traditional black book is no longer as powerful as it used to be. Your customers are mobile and can be present in many locations, whether they be global or national or local. Your customer’s relationship with your retail business could include more than one storefront as well as your online channels. This customer mobility creates a challenge for a salesperson that uses a black book. How can the data and insights it provides be available for stores wherever the customer chooses to shop?

75% of consumers are more likely to buy from a retailer that recognizes them by name, recommends options based on past purchases, OR knows their purchase history. (Accenture)

Acting as a digital black book, clienteling apps can help your sales staff better serve your customers and better serve your business. A good application will take all the important black book insights your business has about a customer and put it all in one place, at the fingertips of your sales staff, so it’s visible across devices and locations. Clienteling apps provide your salespeople with these useful features:

A Catalog – your products with inventory levels, location availability and customer reviews at their fingertips from a tablet or mobile phone.

A Customer Profile – including purchase histories, special dates, the locations and frequency of their visits.

A Personalization Multi-tool – integrations with CRM platforms, social media, and mobile POS software can provide salespeople with several opportunities to serve the customer directly on the sales floor, and send personalized emails or text messages about sales, store or life events.

This centralized data helps a salesperson deliver recommendations and guide the customer experience in-store. This data can also better engage customers on your website in a similar manner. An evaluation of your business’ needs is a good starting point to use as a comparison against an application’s functionality, scalability, and cost before committing to one. 

A Natural Partnership for Success

Another perhaps less sexy yet just as effective ways to continue to deliver the convenience and positive experience that modern retail customers now expect is with online appointment scheduling.  Something as seemingly simple as automating appointment scheduling can closely tie together with clienteling practices for the convenience and positive experience that the modern retail customer now expects.

An appointment scheduling application used in tandem with your clienteling app can help to pull your online customers into your physical stores, give your salespeople more time to serve your customers and can extend the impact of convenience, personalization and positive customer experience.

At SUMO we have seen a proof of this concept with one of our large retail clients, a jewelry retail chain. The retailer implemented SUMO with a goal to carry the business through daily sales cycles and boost sales for the upcoming holiday season. The retailer implemented SUMO’s self-scheduling buttons on various pages on their website. They also had their salespeople use SUMO in tandem with their regular clienteling application activities. The retail chain was able to combine the convenience of self-scheduling with the positive experience of personalized service to great effect. The retailer was able to track website traffic that walked into their stores. They also saw an uptick in the growth of their client base.

A Retail One-Two Punch

Retail customers, more than ever, are accustomed to being catered to as a valued client whether it’s their first visit to your store or their fortieth. Clienteling applications deliver the experience the modern retail customer expects. An online appointment scheduling platform extends the experience while delivering the convenience the modern retail customer likes. The combination of these two sales tools can go a long way to both growing and sustaining customer loyalty.

94% of consumers name a consistently good customer experience as the main reason they remain loyal to a brand (Blackhawk Network)