Did you ever wonder how Costco and Sam's Club have grown to be the giants they are?
Both companies have excelled simply by focusing on good customer service. They obviously have fantastic customer retention strategies! After all it is the customer who can make your retail business grow or plummet. So attracting customers and keeping them with your business will make your company grow and prosper.
Costco offers their customers a focused, high quality product selection at an excellent price range. Since most of their employees have no knowledge of the products they are selling so their customers relies greatly on Costco and trusts them with the quality of product, not to mention their return policy.
Another trick that Costco employs is that they allow knowledgeable outside vendors to set up temporary stores to display their products. This gives Costco customers a notion that Costco too must be equally knowledgeable if not more.
So what can you do as an independent retailer to compete with giants like Costco? Here in the article I have listed out some easy to do mean that will ensure your customers not only buys from you but keeps buying over and over again.
1. Identify the target customers for your business.
2. Communicate with your customers constantly and find out what they think is hot.
3. Purchase qualitative and focused merchandise that will fulfill your retail customer's demand.
4. Train all your employees on effective customer relationship. You may also consider putting into place a rewarding policy to motivate them.
5. Keep your sales people up-to-date and well informed about the products that you are retailing.
6. Respect your customers and ensure that they respect you and your honesty.
Specialize in selling a much narrower category of products and even master in selling one or two categories. This will enable you to quickly add value to your products, increase sales and maximize your profit.
In order to be successful in your business you will need to constantly talk to your clients and find out what they actually need. Inquire repeatedly and carefully note their feedback. This will give you the edge to buy the products that they need. Make your purchasing habit more analytical and less emotional. Keep in mind what your customers told you about their preferences.
An effective retail customer service is not only keeping a smiling face and listening to the customers’ needs, but also using the knowledge for better and wiser purchases.
Most of the customers are accustomed to being treated badly. So if you treat your customers’ well, make points to listen to them, and provide them with what they need you are most likely to retain them for the long run. You will also need to train your employees to treat the customers like kings.
Honesty is also the way to go. If you are selling apparel don't just let your customers walk away with what they think looks good on them. Handle your customers with honesty and intelligence. A simple suggestion on what will look good on them may not only make your customer happy, but will also help you get more referral customers when they wear that dress to a party or an occasion.
For additional reading please see Customer Care For Business Owners.