Savvy-retailers increase customer satisfaction by focusing their strategies on convenience, speed, personalisation and ease of use. Here are seven critical methods that work for IREU Top500 retailers.
Offer local support
Swedish hardware retailer Clas Ohlson has only six stores in England, but its website provides a London telephone number for customer calls. Next provides a mix of UK numbers for local call centres on its various websites, numbers that are generally related to language and time zone.
Flaunt your languages
That little national flag at the top right corner of the landing page has become a readily understood symbol for multilingual websites, although not everyone takes this approach. Land on H&M for the first time and you’re presented with a pop-up window of 60-plus countries. Languages are clearly indicated, including relevant choices for Belgium and Switzerland.
Make it clear who can buy
NotOnTheHighStreet sells items from a great many individual suppliers, so delivery information is included on every product page. This makes prices and lead times easily accessible, as well as highlighting which goods cannot be supplied cross-border.
Be generous about returns
The EU law states that retailers need to offer at least 14 days from receipt for goods to be returned, but others are more generous. IKEA has a “365 days to change your mind” policy. Even if the item has been assembled, as long as it is still saleable, they will still take it back.
Get personal
For many of today’s customers, personalisation is key. Whether personalisation takes the form of a precisely targeted offer, an exclusive loyalty benefit, individualised products, or cosmetics selected in response to a detailed questionnaire about their skin or hair type, shoppers want to feel there’s something that’s been specially designed for them.
Watch your speed
Today’s customers can be intolerant of poor performance. If a page takes too long to load then the odds are they will click onto another site rather than wait. Studies suggest a direct correlation between load time and abandonment: head past four seconds and the chances are that one in four would-be shoppers will go elsewhere.
Make it easy to give feedback
More than half of the Top500 encourage customers to leave product ratings and reviews, with many encouraging feedback on specific parameters. Fat Face asks customers to confirm if the item was “true to size” as well as asking customers to give their age group – useful feedback for any retailer wanting to understand its customer mix.
We’ll be sharing six more approaches in Thursday’s newsletter. This feature first appeared in IREU Top The Customer Dimension Report, produced in association with Cybertill. Click here to explore the report.
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