Driving Customer Engagement In Retail: 8 Tips For Developing A Kick-Ass Strategy

March 31st, 2022 Posted by Jessica Ho Automation, Data, Implementation, Retail, Technology 0 thoughts on “Driving Customer Engagement In Retail: 8 Tips For Developing A Kick-Ass Strategy”

As retailers, you know that ensuring your customers are engaged with your brand at every possible touchpoint is key to providing sales and building customer loyalty. But encouraging genuine engagement can be easier said than done. We’ve combined the expertise of our awesome retail team with some stellar examples of brands that are doing it right to form an 8-step guide to maximise your customer engagement…

1 – Solve Problems

The first (and probably most impactful) thing you can do to encourage engagement from your customers is to solve their problems. Find out what bothers your customers most (using customer segmentation to identify the exact issues faced by each key segment you’re targeting) and find a way to solve it. Take Amazon Go, for example. When building an in-person store, Amazon took one of the biggest pet peeves of any retail customer – queuing – and solved it. The brand’s walk-in-walk-out stores hit the headlines immediately. Since then, the likes of Sainsbury’s have tried similar tactics, providing a ‘SmartShop’ option that allows customers to scan items on their smartphones as they shop to avoid wasting time at checkouts.

2 – Provide Exclusivity

People love to feel special – and your customers are no different! Providing your customers with exclusive discounts, content and information will build loyalty and help your brand to become a part of their identity. Nike is especially great at this. The sports brand’s SNKRS app provides insider access to the latest launches, hottest events, and exclusive releases that Nike has to offer, building a community of fans with a tighter connection to the brand and helping Nike to get the word out about new products and events.

3 – Be Where Your Customers Are

If there’s something we have learnt from the most successful brands in all markets right now, it is that we must do more than just sell if we want our customers to be truly engaged. Customers are tired of being sold to and more aware than ever of the incidents where they’re being tricked into buying something. That kind of marketing just doesn’t fly anymore. Innocent Smoothies are an excellent example of a brand using this newfound hatred for marketing to their advantage. The drinks brand has become famous for its use of humour on social media to mock traditional and modern marketing, advertising and sales techniques and to engage consumers with content that has absolutely nothing to do with its products but is still hilariously funny. Have a look at some of the brand’s best work here.

4 – Entertain

Data integration isn’t just important for those outside of your business. It is equally as powerful for those in it. A well-designed employee experience is essential, as it enables your workforce to meet the needs of customers more effectively and efficiently through aligning internal communication systems and processes.

The most common issue we find when analysing the level of harmony across teams in a retail business is a misalignment between the brand’s service solution and e-commerce platform. This typically means that the service solution does not have the complete history of the customer, causing sales and marketing teams to make the wrong decisions (and take far too long making them). This quickly feeds into a customer’s fear of their order being lost, or their customer service complaints taking too long to resolve, making that particular retailer less than favourable the next time they shop.

With a solid, unified CRM programme, your customer’s data is always accessible. For retailers, this means no long waits for customer service responses, no lost orders and no unhappy customers!

5 – Reward Loyalty

No one wants to do something for nothing. As customers, we expect to be rewarded for our loyalty to our favourite brands – and rightly so, some might say! The good news is, if you do reward your most loyal customers, it will pay off. The best brands to succeed through loyalty are those that gift their best and most frequent customers with exclusive discounts. A great example of this is ASOS, the online fashion retailer. ASOS have a delivery subscription service known as ‘ASOS Premium’, through which customers can get free next day delivery for 12 months for just £9.99. Every year, premium customers receive a birthday email with a limited-time-only discount, as well as exclusive content and sales available only to premier customers. Another good example of this is The Bike Club, one of our very own partners and prior clients. The Bike Club leverage their own subscription model to build brand loyalty by offering a rewards system that allows loyal customers to gain points by writing reviews, following the brand on social media and making purchases. These points can then be redeemed for exclusive discounts later down the line.

6 – Leverage Data & Automation

In today’s hyper-connected world, every bit of data not collected is a wasted opportunity. Inevitably, brands that collect, analyse and utilise customer data to boost customer engagement will in. By integrating your customer data, sales and marketing functions and automation systems, you can customise your customer’s journeys to such a level that no two customers have the same experience with your brand. Traditional high-touch businesses can create the same experience their customers are used to with far less effort (and far less human interaction) for a far wider audience by using automation to connect the dots for their customers. For example, Marks & Spencers uses its customer’s purchase history to send them vouchers for the items they buy most often, saving them money and increasing brand loyalty. At Trigg, we have helped multiple brands to use Salesforce’s many applications to seamlessly connect their many business functions, improving customer experience, boosting engagement and increasing brand loyalty.

7 – Build Trust Through Transparency & Honesty

In a world where customers are incredibly aware of their impact on the world around them, they often expect their brands to be the same. The brands that resonate best with the modern consumer are those that communicate with honesty and transparency, particularly when it comes to their impact on people and the environment. A great example of this is The Body Shop. The brand, first founded by environmental pioneer Anita Roddick, is extremely proud of its strict supply chain rules, through which it will not source a product or ingredient unless it has complete transparency throughout its own supply chain. In short, they know exactly where every ingredient in their products has come from, as well as who (and what) it has impacted on the way. This heart-on-sleeve attitude to retail is refreshing, particularly to consumers who are so used to being lied to by marketers and salespeople. It helps them to feel at home with the brand and encourages both trust and loyalty.

8 – Be Reactive

Finally, in today’s market, a successful retailer must be reactive. If there is one thing we have learnt from the coronavirus pandemic it is that, if you aren’t able to react to market changes quickly and effectively, you will struggle. A technical platform and wide communications network that is both scalable and quick to change is a necessity. To understand how important this is, let’s move away from the retail chat for a second and take a quick look at the UK fitness & leisure industry. When they were forced to close during the three national lockdowns, UK gyms took a variety of different approaches to their reaction. Everyone Active launched a new online fitness subscription, featuring live and on-demand online workouts, masterclasses, yoga and more. Meanwhile, Pure Gym automatically stopped all direct debit payments before offering their customers three payment options: no payment, a reduced payment, and a premium option.
The results? Both brands survived months of complete closure and are now thriving post-pandemic.

Want to find out more about how your business can utilise Salesforce’s many CRM solutions to create a seamless customer experience that will increase engagement and boost your sales?

Get in touch with the Trigg Digital retail team on +44 203 239 8492 or at hello@triggdigital.com.

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Jessica Ho

10+ years experience in multi-country digital transformation, across strategy, process design, and agile delivery

Driving Customer Engagement In Retail: 8 Tips For Developing A Kick-Ass Strategy

1 – Solve Problems

2 – Provide Exclusivity

3 – Be Where Your Customers Are

4 – Entertain

5 – Reward Loyalty

6 – Leverage Data & Automation

7 – Build Trust Through Transparency & Honesty

8 – Be Reactive

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