Believe it or not, POS systems can be incredibly powerful tools in encouraging brand loyalty among your customer base. Not only do they increase the overall efficiency of your store, and therefore eliminate customer frustrations, they can also act as marketing hubs and customer databases to better help you understand your customers. The more you understand your customers, the more you can tailor the store and your marketing efforts to better meet their preferences, thus increasing sales and loyalty simultaneously.
Loyalty Programs
You likely have a card or two attached to your keychain for your favorite retail store or restaurant. These loyalty cards offer rewards in the form of points or coupons and discounts for shopping at that particular establishment.
Modern point of sale systems allow you to create and manage a customer loyalty program directly within the POS terminal. This eliminates the need for third-party software or even a third-party company to manage your loyalty programs.
Loyalty programs encourage customers to remain loyal to your brand with amazing discounts and access to exclusive sales and items. Just about every major retailer has some form of loyalty program, so why shouldn’t your business?
Efficient Stores Generate Loyalty
Your POS system can greatly increase the efficiency of your store, from a better inventory management system and less miscounts, to shorter lines and a less stressful checkout process. When a customer enters a store, they don’t want to stand in long lines or wait several minutes for the checkout process to be completed.
An efficient store is a marketable one, and therefore one that can become the preference for your customers. When you’re struggling to increase your sales or outperform the competition, take a look at your store’s efficiency. Is your POS system outdated? Slow? Prone to error? Are your lines long and exhausting?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you probably need to upgrade your POS system. With automated inventory management, your inventory will always be accurate, encouraging customers to shop at your store because they know that their favorite products are in stock.
Efficiency is one of the most important aspects of a business. An efficient business runs smoother, makes more profit, and is able to better serve both its customers and its employees.
Customer Profiles and Marketing
Building brand loyalty starts with understanding and providing for your customers. POS systems have customer profile tools built into their software, allowing your business to collect contact information and track the purchasing habits of your customers.
With valuable insight into your customer base, you can better tailor marketing campaigns to become more personalized for your customers. A personalized marketing email or phone call has a better chance of successfully delivering the message to the customer and therefore increases the chance that the customer will follow up on that email.
Building brand loyalty starts with understanding the customer. Use your POS system’s customer profile tools to your advantage. Learn your customer’s names, pay attention to the products they value, and most of all, ask for feedback.
Surveys
Once you’ve collected your customer’s contact information, it’s time to use it. Sending promotions and discounts to your customers is effective, but gathering feedback on their favorite items or what they like about your store is even more valuable than a personalized marketing email.
A good customer feedback survey can be extremely valuable, to the point where it can encourage major change within the business itself. Who better knows your customers than the customers themselves? They know exactly what they want and expect from your brand, so learning this information can help you better provide for those wants and expectations, thus increasing loyalty.
Improving your products, store layout, and business practices not only helps to boost your current customer base’s loyalty, but it drives new customers to your business and can make loyal customers from them as well. Consumers like to see a business that delivers on its promises to customers and pays attention to the feedback of its customer base.
Inventory Management Helps With Promotions
With effective inventory management, you can better plan for sales and promotions based on sales during specific times of the year. If you find that customers seem to purchase a large amount of an specific product during the spring, you can better plan for your sales to take place during this time.
A POS system will notify you when your stock is running low, so you can keep your customers’ favorite items in stock and avoid the frustration of incorrect counts. Planning your promotions around customer purchasing habits increases the effectiveness of the sale, and ensuring the items are in stock helps your customers appreciate your efforts and increase their loyalty.
POS Systems Can Help Change Your Business
A modern POS system is an often underestimated tool in managing a business. Customer loyalty doesn’t come easily, but once you’ve earned it, it’s vital that you make every effort to keep it. Your POS system can work for you in generating and helping to upkeep that loyalty through various tools that increase your business’s efficiency.
With customer profiles and more effective marketing campaigns, better inventory management, and loyalty programs, you can ensure that your business is the first to come to your customer’s mind when they think of customer service. Utilize that POS system to gather customer feedback, create marketing campaigns, and manage a loyalty program that your customers can brag about.
