5 ways to surprise and delight your retail customers
27th July, 2017
It’s easy to get stuck in the day-to-day of running a retail business, but finding time to surprise and delight your customers is key to ongoing success.
Running a retail business means managing stock, staff and your shopfront. Chances are you’ve got the added pressure of online orders coming in.
Then you’re running your marketing campaigns and developing new products.
It’s understandable that building a relationship with your customers starts to get pushed down the to-do list.
So here are five simple ways to create a great customer experience and keep them coming back:
1. Give them a shout out on social media
When a customer mentions you or posts about a recent purchase on Instagram, use a sharing app like Repost to ‘re-gram’ it to your account.
Using Repost will make sure that their account is credited, and adding a note to say thanks creates a lovely customer experience, and livens up your feed.
To encourage customers to chat about your business on social media, have some cards printed with your account information clearly listed.
Give these to customers with their receipt or include them with online orders.
2. Include a gift
Let’s face it: we all love free stuff.
A little freebie goes a long way when it comes to building relationships with your customers. Keep it cheap and cheerful too!
Why not create something custom for your shop?
A run of printed pencils or badges is an inexpensive way to treat your customers to something above-and-beyond a regular transaction.
3. Create a loyalty program
Loyalty programs aren’t just for cafes and airlines.
If you collect coffee card stamps or air miles, you’ll know how much that can influence your decision making.
So bring that into your business.
Keep a record of when your customers have spent $100, $500 or even more with you.
Then give them a small discount, or a voucher as a great way to reward people who keep coming back.
4. Write a note
When you’re sending out an online order, a handwritten note is such a simple way to make your customer feel special.
Address them by name, let them know you hope they love what they’ve bought, and remind them they can get in touch with any feedback.
This is an easy, free, positive customer experience.
5. Offer gift wrapping
Even if it’s as simple as having a roll of brown paper and some bright ribbon on hand, offering gift wrapping is a great way to make your customers feel good.
If they’re in a hurry and looking for a last-minute gift, it can also be the difference between making a sale and having someone walk out the door.
Taking the time to do something extra for your customers is the ‘secret sauce’ that creates great word of mouth, and leads to repeat business.
None of these ideas take a lot of time, but as a business owner, time is always in short supply.
Shift your accounting online, and free up valuable hours to spend working on taking your business from good to great.