Brand image has never been more important for retailers. With tough competition both on the high-street and online, first impressions really are everything if you want to attract and retain customers. Whether you boost your brand awareness through the use of dedicated staff training courses or invest in tailored uniforms to make your employees stand out, there’s always room for improvement.
Here, we’re taking an in-depth look at the importance of brand image for customer retention and suggesting ways in which you can improve your customer service.
The customer experience
Research has suggested that 76% of adults in Britain have said that a positive customer experience is more important than the actual product they’re interested in purchasing. Although you should also be prioritising the quality of your products (to reduce returns and negative reviews), you should be constantly reviewing your current customer service methods and continually think of ways that you can improve the overall service.
However, it’s important that businesses don’t become blinded with their current delivery of customer service. According to one study, 80% of businesses already believe that they deliver a superior service to their consumers – but only 8% of shoppers actually agree with this statement.
So it’s crucial that your brand makes a good first impression as 48% of consumers have stated that they are likely to become more loyal after their first purchase; if the service is good. Not only that, but if you’re looking to increase your consumer acquisition rates – this is a good avenue to go down. 84% of people make a purchase because of a referral; so if your first impression is worthwhile, it could lead to additional business.
But how can you make sure that your customer service stands out from your competitors?
Brand image from a business standpoint
Uniforms are essential to your business. You need to ensure that your employees are identifiable to customers and this can only be achieved by designing a uniform that stands out; while catering to each type of individual that works for you (considering religions etc).
By having a uniform rather than just a generic dress code, you will spend less time monitoring what employees are wearing on a daily basis which otherwise could become extremely costly. As well as this, uniforms represent your business – so you must design them in the correct way and prioritise employee comfort to ensure you receive the best delivery from them.
Aside from uniforms, your company should be developing the skills of your employees to ensure that they deliver the best customer service possible in your business. This should cover ways that they interact with consumers of all kind (race, religion, disability) and offer the most efficient service possible to show that you’re a reputable brand. On top of this training, you should also make your staff aware of any new products or services that you begin to offer so that they can give customers all of the information that they require.
Although your workers are an integral part to making your business run smoothly; there are other options available too. Research has suggested that customers will spend up to 13 minutes in a store — so it’s important that you deliver an exceptional service. Queues are notoriously long here in the UK and can be the biggest contributing factor to a customer’s walk-out. To combat this, why not look at queue management software and point of sales service?
Remember that good customer service is vital to the success of your business. Do it right.
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