The Importance of Customer Feedback in Brick-And-Mortar Retail

Owning a business implies that you are always looking for better approaches to improve the service offered to your customers. You are on an endless journey to determine what customers need and provide it to them as quickly as possible.

As a matter of importance, customer feedback in the retail industry – also known as retail feedback - is an immediate impression of the customers' experience with a brand. There could be no more excellent method for getting familiar with customers than through the real-time and in-moment feedback they consciously provide to an organization. However, this customer feedback is generally inaccessible to business managers in brick-and-mortar stores.

A brand's health, sales, and major directional changes can all be significantly influenced by actively listening to and utilizing customer feedback initiatives. Collecting customer feedback can result in product improvements, optimizing retail operations, and improved personnel training to better serve customers.

What exactly is customer feedback?

Customer feedback is information customers provide regarding their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a product or service. Customer feedback can be found in various places and platforms, most frequently in survey responses, but it can also be found in interactions on social media, online reviews, chats, customer service complaints, and more.

Retailers can determine which facets of their company are succeeding and which may benefit from development by collecting and examining shoppers' feedback. This input directs enhancements to the customer retail experience and can inspire progress in any organization. Customers' viewpoint is a valuable asset for improving customer experience and adapting retail operations to the shopper's needs.

Without customer feedback, a business cannot determine whether customers benefit from its product and service. Indeed, the operation, product, and go-to-market teams won't know if they are developing loyal customers if they don't know whether their customers are receiving the expected value.

However, many retailers these days are struggling with how to obtain customer feedback across retail customer journey which covers both in-store and digital touchpoints. The most effective way to hear the voice of the customer and collect customer feedback is through omni-channel feedback tools, such as smiley face kiosks, email, SMS, website feedback and mobile app feedback widget, after call survey, live chat, etc.

Nowadays, it is essential to have a constant customer feedback program with an acceptable response rate in place. The omni-channel feedback evaluation (also known as 360 degree or multi-source feedback) must be seen as an investment in customer retention and loyalty across every customer interaction point, such as customer service desk, cashiers and self-checkout, website and app, parking area, call centre, etc.

Customer feedback can be gathered from various types of custom surveys. These custom surveys reveal customer experience information that would not otherwise be known. It's crucial to work with the appropriate retail survey software. Specifically, a software that gives retail businesses flexibility in creating unique pulse surveys & micro-surveys that can be distributed via various methods and across different online, physical and voice channels.

Does customer feedback reflect customer loyalty?

We probably all have this friend who spends a long time or even days reading reviews before deciding on the product she wants to buy. Indeed, this person has a point!

How would you choose a TV from a large selection in a similar price range? How would you decide on department store to shop from? You rely on the assessment of others who have most likely comparable feelings.

Another marketing time has started. Most customers (93%) claim online reviews affect their shopping choices. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to suggest that internet reviews significantly impact your business's success. Numerous reviews from customer feedback apps and websites on the market alter consumers' buying habits. We all know the importance of reviews for brick-and-mortar businesses; they have also become the new verbal exchange for the retail industry.

Retail in-store experiences deserves brands full attention. 77% of customers place a "significant" or "very significant" amount of weight on the quality of the in-store experience when it comes to determining how they feel about a certain brand. In addition, 63% of customers will increase their spending at a store if they have a pleasant experience.

Additionally, requesting feedback clearly conveys to your customers that you value their thoughts. Even dissatisfied customers can change their minds if they feel you care about their issues and are willing to listen to them.

Customer satisfaction and loyalty are key elements impacting a company's financial performance. Numerous advantages, including increased market share, decreased costs, or more significant revenue, are closely related to customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Customer experience and future of the brick-and-mortar retail

With all the promotion around the digital space, isolating reality from fiction is hard. While digital stores have been one of the primary disrupters in brick-and-mortar retail, the United States e-commerce retail sales share in the fourth quarter of 2021 was 12.9%, down from 13.6% in the same period the year before.

According to National Retail Federation, 80% of retail deals are as yet happening where sales have occurred for many years: actual stores. Although e-commerce and in-store retail complement each other, the retail store counts continue to grow. The role of stores is evolving and still critical to the consumer experience.

Although this might appear a striking case to some, the fate of the retail business is still secured in the brick-and-mortar channel. Buyers like to shop in actual stores as it allows them to have a visual experience - they can contact and feel items, enjoy brand experiences, and relate with people and sales representatives.

However, retailers should continually adjust their in-store experiences to accommodate customers' expectations, feelings, and concerns. Customers' tastes impact retailers' priorities, from a developing desire for tech experiences to omnichannel engagement with the brands.

Improving the in-store experiences that give customers intangible but genuine value is something that many retailers have to focus on. This includes convenience shopping when customers enter a store, have their desired experience, and leave without having to deal with unnecessary hassles, such as long wait times.

Customer participation in user feedback channels and group feedback events is regularly encouraged by many retailers. The customer feedback findings and customer experience insights are provided to the group for analysis, and their viewpoint becomes a valuable tool for improving the shoppers' experience.

Customers differ in many ways. As a brick-and-mortar retail, it is the retailers responsibility to discover what the majority of customers want. Even if they can't please everyone, they should do their best to satisfy the majority of customers before trying to please the smaller groups.

Establishing a continuous experience monitoring solution which can collect shoppers' experience in the moment of service and as it happens will help retailers to evoke several insights and reshape the future of their brick-and-mortar according to the customers' priorities

Benefits of having a software company to provide customer feedback and survey tools for bricks-and-mortar businesses

To develop a customer-centric culture, a business collects, evaluates, and responds to customer input through a voice of the customer (VoC) program. A successful VoC program prioritizes customers' needs and eventually leads to enhancements in an organization's brand, products, and services for an unbeatable customer experience.

The Press'nXPress retail customer feedback software and retail feedback survey are set up for success and are perfect for:

• Finding what's not working as expected and rapid enhancements in retail customer experience
• Recognizing customers who are not satisfied and re-engaging them
• Increasing customer retention and improving loyalty benchmarking
• Proactively planning customer experience (CX) strategies for improving retention
• Increasing return on investment (ROI) on marketing
• Improving employee retention
• Innovating faster than the competition

How can you respond when a customer complains?

Customer complaints. No matter how big or what kind of business it is, there will always be those who aren't satisfied with what companies do. While it could be difficult to hear negative feedback, it's essential to handle what is going on as a professional and assist the customer with a more optimistic impression of the business and brand.

Research shows that 96% of dissatisfied customers never complain, conversely directing their dissatisfaction to family and friends.

It's simple to take criticism personally, especially for business owners who are frequently highly focused on improving their offerings. The most effective approach to handling customer complaints is to remember that you and the consumer are on the same team, even if the customer isn't aware of it yet.

You're on the right track to raise overall client happiness if you add a pinch of personalization. These are some recommended methods for handling typical client complaints: stay calm, listen carefully, recognize the issue, clarify the facts, and create an action plan.

Monitoring customer feedback and response

Getting customer feedback reviews is just about half the way of understanding customer expectation. Retail businesses must continually follow up and respond to them. A retail feedback survey could also include inquiries about services, satisfaction choices and others. When a customer invests their time to rate service and write a review, it is the brand responsibility to respond.

The more novel and unique the responses are, the more thrilled the customer will feel. By answering all reviews, businesses show appreciation to their customers, which will surely provide every customer the sense of being heard and this would increase customer loyalty.

Start with retail customer feedback monitoring in brick-and-mortar

To improve a product, a store, or a service and to stay human in an increasingly digital world, it is essential to incorporate customer feedback tactics. One of the main factors contributing to consumers' continued demand for brick-and-mortar shopping experiences is the human element of retail.

Selecting tools and techniques that facilitate listening to customers easier and structuring feedback in a way that makes it simple to analyze are the first steps in a top-notch customer experience strategy.

Brick-and-mortar stores may improve their in-store experiences and stay focused on their consumers by following the "listen, measure, and act" philosophy.

The Press'nXPress Retail Solution is an automated feedback software specifically designed and introduced for brick-and-mortar businesses. The solution will be a remarkable step for retail companies, from in-store to digital channels, to improve their customers' experience at every touchpoint. It follows customers' journeys from start to end with rich experiences into the critical drivers of loyalty and customer retention.

Our mission at Press'nXPress is to help our clients improve customer satisfaction by continuously monitoring customer experience. You can reach out to our experts to see how PXP Retail Feedback Solution can benefit your business today! If you have questions or would like to learn more, get in touch. Reach out and talk to us.