The pandemic has posed numerous challenges for bakeries, with customer loyalty being a key area under strain, according to a study by McKinsey. The pandemic has altered consumer buying habits, making people more inclined to try new brands and shop at unfamiliar stores. With access to an overwhelming variety of brands and products, it can be challenging to ensure customers return to your specific bakery. However, there is no doubt about the importance of repeat customers for any business. Now is the time to focus on strengthening customer loyalty, and the opportunities to do so are abundant.
Studies show that previous customers are nine times more likely to buy from you than new customers. So why not seize the opportunity to bring them back? Repeat customers can significantly impact your revenue - existing customers spend, on average, 31% more than new ones. By encouraging customers to return repeatedly, you can unlock immense value. The stronger the loyalty between you and your customers, the more robust the foundation for your business and its growth.
Returning customers spend 31% more than first-time customers
Essentially, customer loyalty is important for all types of businesses. We’ve found that companies in retail - ranging from home goods to clothing stores - and those in food and beverage, such as cafés, bakeries, restaurants, and bars, have a strong interest in working with loyalty programs and achieve great success with them. So, as a store or restaurant owner, how can you embrace this trend and actively work to strengthen your customer loyalty?
For a customer to want to return, they must had a positive shopping experience. This means they should feel happy and satisfied when leaving your store or restaurant. We’ve compiled a series of helpful tips on how you can work to optimize your customers’ shopping experiences.
One of the things we particularly remember as customers is when we receive extraordinary customer service—an experience that makes us happy and eager to return. Therefore, ensure that you’re available when customers need help, and do your best to guide and advise them so they feel confident and well cared for. This will leave a positive impression on the customer and immediately increase the likelihood that they’ll return. In fact, a study by HubSpot shows that 93% of consumers are more likely to return when a business offers excellent customer service.
93% of consumers are more likely to return when a business offers excellent customer service.
It should be easy and straightforward to be a customer. If you own a store, ensure it’s simple for your customers to navigate and find the items they’re looking for. The checkout process should be quick and payment easy. A digital cash register system can be a great solution, allowing you to enter items and process payments faster compared to a manual system, which is much more time-consuming.
If you run a restaurant or café, having a clear and concise menu and offering quick ordering and payment options is crucial.
We’ve all experienced sitting at a restaurant, first waiting to order and then waiting again to pay. But this is a problem that can be easily avoided! A simple and smart solution is to digitize your ordering and payment process, so your guests can order food via a QR code on their table. As a Shopbox customer, you can get your own digital menu, which your guests can access on their smartphones. From there, they’ll have access to your entire menu via a QR code, as well as the ability to order and pay for their food - now that’s convenience! Learn more about the solution here.
We’ve all experienced waiting in long lines, whether to pay or to get assistance. It can be highly frustrating and, in the worst case, lead us to abandon the line altogether. When that happens, there’s a very slim chance we’ll return to the same place as customers. Long lines can therefore result in lost sales and customers.
To ensure a positive shopping experience, it’s essential to minimize waiting times. Start by scheduling extra staff during busy periods to ensure enough personnel are available to assist customers. Additionally, a digital cash register system can be a valuable tool, enabling your team to serve customers quickly and efficiently at checkout. This way, you can reduce queues and improve customer satisfaction.
We’ve all encountered situations where a price is missing, the signage is confusing, or even outright misleading. This often forces us to seek help from staff - or worse, put the item back and leave the store. To ensure a positive customer experience, it’s crucial to keep prices accurate and clear.
Make it a priority to display the correct prices prominently, ensuring they are easy to understand and visible. By doing so, you can avoid unnecessary confusion and create a smoother shopping experience for your customers.
Few things are as frustrating as out-of-stock items - for both your customers and your business. Customers may feel annoyed and seek alternatives elsewhere, while you miss out on potential sales. To prevent this, it's crucial to maintain a comprehensive overview of your inventory so your shelves stay stocked.
A practical solution is to integrate inventory management into your cash register system. This makes it easy to monitor and manage your stock. You can even set up notifications to alert you when it’s time to reorder specific items, ensuring you always stay on top of your inventory. Learn more about integrating inventory management into your cash register system here.
Part of the shopping experience is also about impressions. Whether we're visiting a restaurant or out shopping in stores, it's always important that we feel welcome and comfortable. Nothing is worse than a cluttered store or a restaurant filled with stressed and confused staff. Make the extra effort to ensure everything runs smoothly, making it manageable and pleasant to be a customer at your establishment.
Once you've got a handle on the shopping experience, you have a really good foundation to increase customer loyalty, but there are also other more concrete methods you can use. To increase your customer loyalty, you can benefit from offering your customers a loyalty program. According to The Loyalty Report 2020, people are 72% more likely to refer a business to friends and family if they have a good loyalty program. If you use Shopbox's cash register system, you have the option to purchase a loyalty module, which gives you several ways to strengthen your customer loyalty. With the module, you get the following 3 concrete methods to increase your customer loyalty:
You get the option to create digital gift cards that your customers can purchase for friends and acquaintances, allowing you to easily and simply expand your customer base. Gift cards are a simple yet very effective method to strengthen your customer loyalty.
You can also create discount structures for specific customer groups. When you create a customer in your cash register system, you can link the customer to a discount program, and the system will automatically deduct the specified percentage every time the customer visits you. People love benefits, and discount structures can therefore be a great way to reward your customers for their loyalty.
Last but not least, you can use bonus points earning. Customer loyalty programs that allow customers to earn and use points influence 69% of customers to choose one business over another. Bonus accumulation can therefore be a really good incentive to return to the same place – and thus the way to create a lot of new regular customers.
At Shopbox, you can get a loyalty module with these features for your cash register system. Read more about the Loyalty Module here or contact us if you want to learn more about how to acquire the Loyalty Module for your business.