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How to build a loyal customer base

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By Howard Riell, VEGASINC

Las Vegas Dunkin Donuts employee Samantha Ashhadi gives out samples of coffee to customers. Photo by Steve Marcus

Las Vegas Dunkin Donuts employee Samantha Ashhadi gives out samples of coffee to customers. Photo by Steve Marcus

Las Vegas is a people town, and retail is a people business. So the question arises: How can retailers hire and train people to provide better customer service and build customer loyalty? “The key to developing loyal customers is creating a connection between employees, customers and brand,” said Steve Nachwalter, principal of Nachwalter Consulting Group, a global management consultancy based in Las Vegas.

A brand is an emotional connection to a product, Nachwalter said.

“It’s a feeling people get when associating with your product or employees,” he said.

The secret to establishing a brand is creating an emotional connection to the audience, and one of the best ways to do that is through customer service.

“Be organized and mindful,” Nachwalter said. “Make sure you understand the experience your customers are looking for, and make sure you are able to provide it to them. See your business through your customers’ eyes. If you can’t walk in their shoes, you will never be able to connect to or satisfy them.”

At the same time, employees’ connections to a brand are just as important as the customers’.

“The most effective way to get employees to provide better customer experience is continued education, developing an environment of ownership, and listening and adjusting to the needs of the customer and the employees,” Nachwalter said. “Ask yourself, have you taught your employees the simple techniques of learning to like the people they work with or for? The first thing I teach managers in my seminars and in the offices I consult with all over the world is to find something to love about everyone you deal with.”

Dan Jablons, the principal of Retail Smart Guys, a consulting firm in Los Angeles, said: “The problems of training staff come from the first and most incorrect supposition, which is that we want all salespeople to operate the same way, to look the same, act the same. This creates salespeople who ask uninteresting questions such as, ‘Can I help you find anything today?’ Yawn. Heard it a million times.”

The best sales techniques and training, Jablons has found, are those that invite salespeople to be what Jablons calls uniquely themselves.

“That means that I don’t want to meet a salesperson who is like every other salesperson in every other store in every other mall in every other state,” he said. “I want to have a unique, fun, exciting experience. I want to tell my friends, ‘You gotta go to this store; their staff is so much fun to be with!’ ”

Jablons recommends retail salespeople ask their families and friends, “What is it about me that you think is different?”

“The answers are often things like, ‘You are funny,’ ‘You know more about music than anyone,’ ‘You have an ability to get close to people really quickly,’ ‘You always look great,’ ‘You really know how to put an outfit together,’” he said.

Employees should take those elements “and kick them into super high gear. That’s what makes a unique experience for the customer and keeps them coming back,” he said.

It also is “the exact reason why a customer shops in a boutique — for the unique experience,” Jablons said. “So the store should give it to them, full throttle.”

Read the rest of Howard’s story at vegasinc.com.

The post How to build a loyal customer base appeared first on NCET: Business. Technology. Events..


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