As a retailer, you’re well aware of the importance of customer service. Exceptional customer service has the ability to surprise and delight customers and improve your bottom line.
With supportive technology, you can not only surprise and delight your customers, but provide qualitative measures of customer service, so that your team can make adjustments as needed.
The Customer’s Experience
Every single sale rests on your customer’s in store experience.
More importantly, your long term customer loyalty is also dependent on the customer experience. Surprise and delight your customers and you can inspire them to purchase more often, and spend more when they do.
“Brick-and-mortar assets can serve as a stage for customized consumer experiences that go far beyond ambience to surprise and educate the consumer. Done right, these experiences can become so valuable that they inspire consumers to choose to pay for them in themselves.” ~Deloitte University Press
Although human touch is vital during the decision stage of your customer’s journey, the quality of that touch is what can surprise and delight.
[Tweet “Give your retail customers an experience they would pay for in itself”]
In an apparel store, the optimal place to emphasize human touch is in the fitting rooms. This is where your customers are considering their purchase and making their buying decision, and it is here you have the ability to significantly increase conversions.
Training your associates to provide better service at this area of the store is crucial.
Let me say that again: It’s crucial that you train your associates to provide quality service in the fitting rooms.
However, while customer service trainings are in themselves valuable, your team will produce the best long term improvements if they’re provided with systems and structures that support their training. Appropriate tools will both 1) empower your team to provide better service, and 2) provide quantitative data to show how well they’re doing.
Structural Support For Your Team Means a Better Customer Experience
Having a physical and technological way to track the fitting room process helps both corporate and store staff do their job better.
In-Store Support
Technology in the fitting rooms helps your associates shorten response times and reduce wait times. Having a sales associate check in constantly with your customer can actually make the fitting room experience annoying. It’s also not very effective.
“Door knocking as a fitting room service strategy is only about 2% effective.”
On the other hand, when the customer needs help, she’d like help to respond as soon as possible.
With a physical call system in your fitting room, you can offer both privacy and responsiveness. Your sales associates are available to get another size or answer a question at the push of a button, but they aren’t hovering around your customer while they’re undressed in the fitting room. Your sales associate’s job becomes easier and your customer’s experience improves.
Providing your customer with power and control in this often frustrating part of the shopping journey can truly delight them.
Corporate Level Support
At the corporate level, technology provides you with a way to monitor customer experience at the store and brand level. Fitting room technology collects invaluable data. It can show you:
- How effectively sales associates are converting shoppers to the fitting room
- How well the sales associates are serving customers in the fitting room
- How often the customers are reaching out for help
- The ebbs and flows of your fitting room traffic
This data is gold. You can use it to optimize labor costs, to determine which stores could benefit from additional training, and to plan or reduce the optimal number of fitting rooms.
Do You Have the Right Tools to Support Your Team in the Fitting Room?
What systems and structures do you provide your team? Appropriate tools and technology will enable them to make your sales associates to offer better service and your corporate teams to make data-driven decisions.
Alert Tech’s proven solutions can do both. Learn how our proven technology can provide an ROI for your brand.
