Boost Customer Engagement with Clienteling Software
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T-ROC Staff
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Apr 20, 2024 -
6 mins read
Shoppers have endless options at their fingertips, and brick-and-mortar stores often struggle to keep pace with the convenience of e-commerce giants. To thrive in this environment, retailers must find innovative ways to make each customer feel valued and understood.
One powerful tool that is revolutionizing the in-store experience is clienteling software. When leveraged by knowledgeable sales associates, this technology can transform every shopper into a VIP.
An Introduction to Clienteling Software
Understanding the Importance of Customer Engagement
In today’s omnichannel retail environment, customer engagement is more important than ever. Providing a seamless and personalized experience across in-store, online, mobile, and other touch points leads to increased sales, customer loyalty, and brand advocacy. However, managing consistent customer experiences across channels presents a challenge for many retailers.
That’s where clienteling software comes in. Clienteling refers to the process of store associates building relationships with customers and providing personalized service and product recommendations. Clienteling software equips associates with customer data and tools to drive higher levels of engagement during each interaction.
For instance, a clienteling app allows an associate to pull up a customer profile with purchase history, sizing, preferences, and other details right on their mobile device. This empowers the associate to provide recommendations and a tailored experience that delights the customer.
Introduction to Clienteling Software
Clienteling software, sometimes referred to as client booking or clienteling apps, enables retail brands to transform customer interactions through technology. Core capabilities include:
- Centralized customer profiles with transaction history, preferences, notes, and other data to inform associates during engagements.
- Integration with ecommerce and POS systems to unify data into 360-degree customer views.
- Clienteling apps that allow store associates to access customer profiles and tools from mobile devices on the sales floor.
Leading solutions also provide features like appointment booking, clienteling workflows, gamification, and omnichannel insights from customer data. The goal is to align associate activities with business KPIs like sales per hour, conversion rate, average order value, and customer retention. For example, clienteling apps may prompt associates to engage VIP customers or those who haven’t visited in a certain period of time. Associates can also record notes during engagements to inform future interactions.
This transforms the role of store associates into trusted advisors who build personal connections and loyalty. Customers receive expertise, recognition, and experiences tailored to their needs.
Benefits of Using Clienteling Software in Your Retail Business
Clienteling software enables retailers to provide personalized service that fosters lasting shopper loyalty and repeat visits. By arming associates with a centralized database of customer details, preferences, and purchase history, clienteling allows staff to make data-driven recommendations tailored to each client’s needs. Retailers benefit from the ability to capture richer shopper insights and identify top customers worth investing in.
Stores using clienteling enjoy increased average order values, conversion rates, and customer lifetime value over time. With clienteling, associates can conveniently access individual client notes to reference for future visits, ensuring consistent, VIP treatment. By strengthening customer relationships across channels, clienteling allows retailers to boost affinity and drive more traffic into physical stores. In a challenging retail climate, clienteling delivers memorable yet personalized omnichannel experiences that turn one-time shoppers into brand advocates.
Increasing Customer Engagement: Tactics for Effective Clienteling
Retailers can maximize the impact of their clienteling software by properly training associates not just on how to use the technology, but on engagement-building tactics that leverage the platform. This includes actively collecting customer opt-ins to gather crucial data during interactions. Associates should then utilize these insights to send personalized messages that engage shoppers before and after purchases. Offering convenient appointment booking and virtual advisory sessions, as well as complimentary services like outfit styling and wardrobe reviews, strengthens relationships while better understanding client needs.
Surprising loyalty members with special discounts and perks delights top customers. Throughout client interactions, associates must capture rich analytics – from purchase histories to product and brand preferences – within clienteling profiles. This allows for follow up on abandoned carts or wish lists with recommendations tailored to each shopper. When associates mix high-touch consultations with smart CRM tools, clienteling builds the omnichannel experiences that turn browsers into loyal brand fans.
Predicting the Future of Clienteling Software
In the coming years, expect clienteling platforms to harness technologies like AI and predictive analytics to offer even sharper insights and capabilities. By combining online and offline data sources, next-generation clienteling will be able to generate ultra-targeted product recommendations and potentially foresee customer needs.
Virtual clienteling using advanced video chat features will provide remote advisory services at scale. With many retailers struggling amid the pandemic, clienteling was integral to recovery by re-engaging high-value customers. As more leading enterprise brands invest in technology and training around clienteling, it will transition from a novelty to a retail norm. Soon omnichannel customer experiences will rely upon clienteling strategies embedded organization-wide.
The Impact of AI and Machine Learning on Clienteling Software
Retail clienteling software will soon be revolutionized by AI and ML (Machine Learning) to generate sharper customer insights for greater personalization. This includes predictive analytics to foresee needs, machine learning to improve recommendations, virtual styling with computer vision, and chatbots to automate post-purchase engagements. These advancements will equip retailers to hyper-target and self-optimize strategies to maximize customer lifetime value. Rather than replacing staff, AI-enhanced clienteling will empower associates to focus on authentic relationship building, aided by the high-tech, high-touch capabilities of intelligent platforms. Harnessing AI will enable clienteling to drive more meaningful brand connections.
