Momentarily, we are experiencing very difficult times in retail. Stores are closed, with the exception of the newest possibility for pickup service per 10^th of February. But the role of the stores for every retailer has changed. And a large shift has been made towards a more e-commerce, digital driven organization. How will this affect the way retailers work after the Covid-19 pandemic? It seems certain that, due to the investments in the digitization of the organizations, that stores aren’t going to be delivering the same type of service as before. It will be different, but what will their role be post-pandemic?

We have seen a strong merge in the offline and digital channels over the last year, even more than in the years before. This so-called ‘fusion of digital and offline channels’ creates new opportunities for stores. And we believe that they should definitely make use of these opportunities, to ensure a sustainable future. It is not a nice-to-have any more to have a digital ecosystem around your business, but due to the pandemic it has become a must. And this should and will be extended in post-pandemic times. Read more about the merging channels in our dedicated article on this topic. In this article, we would like to highlight an important solution for retailers, to extent the digital channels to their offline stores: clienteling.

What is clienteling?

Clienteling is the process and technology that enables store employees to deliver personal customer service on the spot and based on data, including information on personal preferences, order history, loyalty status. With clienteling technology, you can connect offline and online customer data. With this information, you make use of, among others, the following opportunities:

• In store directly insights into the stock and possibility to order digitally, on the spot.
• Personalized insights into both order history as the right sizes, wishes and preferences of the customer.
• Upsell opportunities through selecting fitting and matching items and advising about it.

For enabling a full service clienteling, it is important to create consistency through all different channels of the company. Therefore, you should work with a single source of truth, meaning that all data is gathered and enriched within a single CRM platform, connecting all available channels. In this way, you make sure that data is always up-to-date and the best service can be provided throughout all channels.

Additional features in clienteling

Clienteling does not only deliver data on personal information and preferences, but encompasses much more opportunities. Different features can be combined into a single store app for example. To deliver the highest possible engagement, the following features are to be included:

• Customer profiling. Of course, the creation and providing insight of a profile is the base of the clienteling solution. Make sure that, whichever channel is used, it is possible to update the details through the app. Preferences, sizes and personal information can change, so give control on the data to service agents and customers themselves.
• Communication. Direct, one on one communication with your customers is essential. Select the channel, the topic and the exact message and send it to your customer straight from your store. Of course, all communication is directly stored and connected to a customer account in your CRM.
• Loyalty program. Within the engagement process, the role of a loyalty program is an important one. Loyal customers want to be recognized for their behavior and loyalty, so make sure that this status is provided to the service agents within the clienteling technology. Also, when customers are not completely happy on the spot, make it possible to assign points, perks or rewards to this customer. Also, the registration of purchases should of course be easily integrated, so the customer does not need to make a lot of efforts or waist time in scanning or registering their loyalty card or app. Service agents should be able to unburden these customers and provide the best service possible.
• Stock information. There is not much as annoying as when the preferred item is out of stock and you cannot get it at that moment or soon after. This bad customer experience decreases customer engagement and therefore, retailers should avoid this happening. But this can be solved, by monitoring stock through the clienteling solution, you can service your customers with the right information on availability, and even order the required item directly on the spot, for delivery at home.

Some future opportunities to include, are expanding the commercial opportunities of a company and creating faster, more convenient and cross-channel sales:

• Digital ordering. In relation to the stock information, digital ordering via the clienteling solution gives flexibility to both customers and retailers. On the one side, customers can try an item and the right size, and then have it send to their homes. On the other side, the retailer can have less items of one size in stock, which decreases entrepreneurial risks of having large stocks. Of course, all channels and processes should be perfectly aligned to deliver a great customer experience.
• Check-out / payment. Of course, check-out and payment should be included, because when you as a customer have been serviced by an agent, want to check-out, it is pretty annoying to stand in line to pay at the counter. By including the payment in the single clienteling / store app, you speed up the process and increase customer satisfaction. With a few ticks, you can check-out and have the customer pay. As easy and fast as possible, with engaged customers as result.

The future of retail

We believe that clienteling is an essential solution for creating a flexible retail organization and to be sustainable and future proof. The future of retail could shift to fully drive digital commerce, where the role of physical stores is drastically changing. It could become mainly about showcasing and trying out products, where orders are digitally processed and directly send to people’s home addresses. No hazzle for the shoppers, less risk for the retailer.

VANEIGENS provides a clienteling solution that encompasses different solutions into one store app, that serves store employees all required data to provide next level customer service, to ensure the highest rate of engagement and of course, more enthusiastic and loyal customers.

Want to know more about what we can do for your organization? Contact us for an open inspiration session!