We all know that the customer experience is important, but when caught up in the day-to-day running of a store (or portfolio of stores), it’s easy to forget just how important it is for driving revenue. Here’s why your brand needs to prioritize customer experience, and how a queuing system and appointment booking system can help.
Over the last five years since we launched Qudini, our team has noticed an unbelievable change in the retail scape. Research has shown that retailers who deliver the best in-store experiences will significantly outperform their competitors. Media commentators in the space have said that the best way of quantifying the impact of good versus poor customer experiences was to look at the revenue models for different retailers and review experience data from individual customers at a set point in time. They should then look at those individual customers’ spending behaviors over a subsequent year and measure the results.
Forrester analyzed an array of retail organizations over a five year period to gauge an insight into the factors underpinning the success of those retailers who were seen as leading the pack and those who were not performing as well. In the study, Forrester’s customer experience ‘leaders’ achieved 17% growth. Those companies who were deemed to have poor customer experience, grew by 3%. This research looked at the revenue data from two global $1b+businesses – one was a transaction based business, the other was a relationship based business.
The outcome of this was that customers who had the best past experience spent 140% more than those who had a poor past experience.
Great customer experience reduces operational costs
Delivering great customer experience reduces operational costs and improves revenue. Customers who are satisfied will have a higher propensity to return, purchase or upgrade their services and/or require support. A Harvard Business Review article highlighted that in order for retailers to increase revenues and reduce operational costs, they need to firstly understand the key sources of concern such as waiting times and look to overcome them. At the end of the day, customers will be more likely to return.
Quantify the impact of deploying in-store technology over a specified timeframe
We believe retailers need to be able to quantify the impact of deploying in-store technology and should be able to measure the results over a set time period.
Deploying wait-line management software and appointment booking software in stores is a great way to reduce (or eliminate) wait-times, increase staff profitability, improve the overall customer experience, and drive revenue. Qudini has been able to do this across the board for retailers including Samsung, Specsavers, O2, Brown Thomas and John Lewis to name but a few and the results speak for themselves.
To find out how you can enhance your retail in-store customer experience, take a look at our solutions here.
