How to turn your customer’s frowns upside down this December
How can you make your customer's shopping experience a more enjoyable one? Below are the top reasons customers get annoyed by Christmas shopping, we know some are inevitable but you can help ease these pain points with our top tips below.
1. Queues - No one enjoys queueing, especially when it's hot and crowded in store, but there are things you can do to make the experience less painful.
Consider an iPad POS system, these allow you to complete sales on the shop floor instead of just at the tills. Have a look at our POS system built on top of Oplift Extend for more information.
Offer small treats in the queue such as samples, sweet treats, or balloons for children.
Ensure you have clear queueing barriers, people hate queueing but do you know what they hate more? Not knowing where the queue starts or ends.
2. Christmas music - With Christmas starting earlier and earlier every year people get tired of listening to the same classic festive songs on repeat in every shop they enter.
Stand out from the crowd by not forcing Mariah Carey, Slade or Micheal Buble in their ears.
Find unusual Christmas songs that they are unlikely to have heard before.
Play alternate music; one Christmas song and one non-Christmas song. Customers will find it a breath of fresh air and you are sure to be a store they remember.
3. Crowds - If we said you could eliminate crowds this December we would be lying. Unfortunately, they are an inevitable part of Christmas but we can give you tips on how to handle them.
Place sale and best selling items evenly throughout your store to avoid build-up of customers in one area.
Don't put product displays too close together, consumer behaviour specialists have found that people don't like being brushed up against. If this happens too often in your store they will abandon a purchase altogether.
Don't put product displays right in front of the entrance as this will make it hard for customers to enter and exit, it will also make your store appear incredibly overcrowded.
4. Too hot - Don't you hate it when you're going in and out of shops and you find yourself continuously taking your coat off, then putting it back on?
The simple answer is to turn your heating down or completely off.
As your staff are moving around less they feel the cold more, provide them with company jumpers or to get in the festive spirit, let them wear Christmas jumpers to keep themselves warm.
5. Unhelpful staff - Rude and unhelpful staff are probably the biggest annoyances for customers.
Bad service can be a sign of unhappy staff because employee journey affects customer journey. Speak to your team and find out if they are having problems. It could be that they feel they have too many targets, or they have too much information to remember.
Ensure you provide your staff with the correct digital tools so that they provide helpful service. It can be frustrating for employees when a customer comes into their store and has more information on their mobile phone than they do. Provide staff with a tool like Oplift Engage which equips them with all information right at their fingertips, this ensures that even if they don't know the answer they can instantly find it.
