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Customer demand is moving from products to relationships faster than any retail transition we’ve seen. This shift is great news for retailers if they know how to adapt to their customers’ needs. Let’s look at some numbers:
These numbers are impressive because we are seeing retail move almost exclusively online. Now we see the opposite. I’ve always believed that retail is about human interaction that addresses basic emotional needs: connection and validation.
Considering this raises a question. Is your furniture store equipped to provide these personal experiences and build long-term customer relationships? Are your sales associates motivated to do this in moderation?
Let’s talk about sales associates
More than billboard, online or radio ads, they are the face of the business and one of the most important roles they will hire in the next five to ten years.
And considering the importance of the customer relationship, the sales associate represents your business in that relationship. Sales associates (more than products) are the reason customers keep coming back to your store, increasing the lifetime value of each customer.
More than any other role, your sales associates are key enablers for:
- Provide personalized service from the store
- Customize product recommendations
- Engage in one-on-one communication
- Provide relevant and timely offers
This process is what we call the client.
What is Clientling?
Clientele has been a bit of a buzz lately. Retail sales associates use Clienteling to build long-term relationships with key customers.
Put another way, it’s the secret sauce that turns first-time customers into lifelong customers. There’s a good chance your sales associates are doing some of this to varying degrees of success.
But why doesn’t it happen regularly or with every affiliate? Some common reasons are:
Reason 1: They don’t know how
Too many sales associates don’t use customer service because they don’t know how. They have never been taught what being a customer means and entails. Usually it’s not their fault, but the store manager or sales manager neglected to train sales associates in this critical way to build customer relationships.
If sales associates are to perform well, it is the leader’s job to provide them with the tools, training, and motivation they need to succeed.
Reason 2: It’s complicated
For many furniture stores and their sales associates, customer onboarding is a manual process. Sales leaders and store owners do not want to spend time in technology, which makes the process easier and more scalable. A yellow notebook and a folder full of notes work perfectly for them. As long as it doesn’t.
Reason 3: They are paranoid.
Surprisingly, sales associates can be a little protective of the relationships they build. They want the relationships to be personal and personal. It is not that they are greedy or for personal gain; They just want to be successful.
The real reason
While these reasons are all valid, there is a common reason why sales associates don’t become customers. They are lazy. It’s easy to get paid, grab a few sales to wander in the door and be done for the day. Some partners enjoy life with minimal effort. Those people should not be working for you.
Enabling Success in Clientling
Here are three ways to help your sales associates start driving more business. Full disclosure, most of what I can tell you is made more accessible by tools like Clientbook. So if you are a customer, you know the success. If you don’t, that’s fine. These tips may still help you.
Avoid conflict and keep it simple
The current retail environment is not conducive to sales associate success. For example, the current retail landscape is a bit chaotic when it comes to customer data. Sales associates have data in multiple silos (notebooks, spreadsheets, 3.).rd (party messaging apps, point of sale systems, and more), making it difficult, if not impossible, to be an effective customer.
Consolidating all of your customer data and bringing important information into one place is a recipe for a little sales associate frustration. This doesn’t mean you need one technology to do it all, but these systems need to talk and share information. A great start is to identify all the areas where your customer data currently resides.
Figuring out who to send follow-up reminders doesn’t have to take all day. Having customer information in one place certainly helps, but that doesn’t mean you know when and who to contact.
The right customer engagement tool allows sales associates to never miss a customer follow-up by creating task reminders based on staff and storing best practices. Making everyday tasks like sending reviews and payment links or wish lists right in the palm of your sales associates can make life a lot easier for them.
Automate time-consuming and difficult tasks
For most furniture retailers, customer management is not done because it is too manual, time consuming and impossible to scale when you have thousands of customers. That’s a lot of personal notes, texts, emails to write, anniversaries, service dates, product updates, and even names to remember.
So how can you personalize the service and automate it?
You don’t automate everything. They enter critical information, set key reminders, and automate tasks that lead to personalized interactions. Most importantly, take the data gathered and use it to create a cadence (or sequence) for the post-sales journey. Hitting customers with the right message at the right time will free the sales associate from manual “grump work” and keep them coming back to the store.
Bonus tip: Set goals and follow them
You cannot change or fix what you cannot measure. All these customer interactions and engagements create a strong story. They should provide you with actionable data that will help you make better decisions when buying products and planning sales events. Having this information easily available in one place will save you a lot of headaches and allow you to set achievable goals.
Your store is only as successful as your sales associates. Enabling an active customer by helping them learn is critical to success. After all, who does not want and who is the sales associate.
- They look for every opportunity in terms of waiting for the business to come to them
- It is sold outside the store
- Connects with the customer where he is.
- The customer uses the technology he wants to use
- He knows all the important details about his customers
To learn more about how Clientbook can help your store and sales associates build long-term relationships with customers, visit clientbook.com/demo And plan a personalized display.
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