The digital age has dramatically transformed business and the customer experience. Gone are the days when customers could walk into a retail store and be greeted by sales associates who recalled every detail of their last visit. As customers seek faster and more seamless services, establishing that one-to-one connection has grown more complicated.
Fortunately, modern businesses can still use personal connections with customers in the digital age through clienteling. When implemented successfully, clienteling can improve customer retention and encourage repeat purchases. So, what does clienteling mean? Let’s explore it in more detail.
Clienteling: Definition
What does clienteling mean? Clienteling encompasses all the tools, processes, and technologies utilized to create personalized customer experiences. Clienteling technologies leverage customer information, including personal data, behaviors, preferences, and purchase history, to transform the customer journey. The process shows how relatable your brand is and builds close relationships with your clients, turning them into customers for life.
Effective clienteling requires extensive customer knowledge and meticulous attention to detail. In the past, most retailers kept track of customer information by hand. However, robust technologies and outsourcing options make this process easier for businesses. For example, third-party service providers offer market research surveys and customer acquisition and retention solutions for businesses.
Why Is Clienteling Important?
Business growth requires engagement, relationship building, and client retention. Successful clienteling, which personalizes customer interactions, enables these initiatives. According to an industry survey, customers value the following aspects of personalization:
- Recognition: 56% of customers are more likely to shop at online or physical stores that recognize them by name.
- Awareness: 65% of customers are more likely to shop in businesses that know their purchase history.
- Recommendations: 58% of customers are more inclined to purchase when businesses offer them relevant recommendations based on past purchases.
In terms of marketing costs, research reveals that selling to a new customer costs five times more than selling to an existing customer. Through clienteling, businesses can nurture their high-value repeat customers. Its focus on improving the long-term customer experience impacts customer retention rates, increasing them by as much as 200%. In the long run, this drives business profitability.
What Is the Difference Between Customer Service and Clienteling?
So we’ve answered the question, “What does clienteling mean?” But how does it differ from customer service? While customer service and clienteling can go hand in hand to create better customer experiences, they differ. This difference boils down to the level of customer service personalization.
Customer service is reactive. It leverages face-value information to create a better experience for a customer in a single interaction. Customer service may include answering customer queries and resolving their current issues.
However, clienteling is proactive. It entails using a lot of information and history about customers to give them personalized experiences and build long-lasting relationships with them. Customer service and clienteling are essential for improving the customer experience, but clienteling focuses on building long-term brand loyalty.
How Do You Do Clienteling?
Knowing what clienteling means helps us see how it can effectively engage customers and build brand loyalty. So how can you leverage this process to your advantage? Here are some best clienteling practices that can help your business:
1. Research
You should learn about your customers to create tailored experiences for them first. You can anticipate their needs with relevant data and know what offerings suit their preferences. Your business can employ customer relationship management systems (CRM), conduct in-house surveys, or outsource services from third-party companies to gather insights.
2. Leverage Technology
Managing client data and tracking customer interactions across different platforms can take time and effort. Through technology, you can automate processes and focus on building relationships with your clients. For example, you can invest in CRM to manage customer information or use automation tools to send emails to inform recent buyers of new offers. Businesses that lack the resources to invest in new technologies can outsource these functions to experts.
3. Empower Your Team
Your employees serve as the bridge between your customers and your brand. They interact with your clients and are in the best position to build better relationships with them. To make each interaction a success, empower your employees by training them and providing them with the necessary tools and technologies. These tools may differ depending on your industry, but they may include CRM systems, point-of-sale systems, or even loyalty programs they can offer your clients.
4. Measure, Analyze & Optimize
Before implementing clienteling strategies, set KPIs and monitor them along the way. These may include NPS scores, response times, the number of messages sent, and total customer interactions. With these metrics, you can see if your efforts made a difference in customer retention, lifetime value, and total purchases. You can use the results to optimize future strategies.
Build Lasting Customer Relationships with the Help of ROI Call Center Solutions
Even when a business has a clear definition of what clienteling means, it may still need assistance implementing it. Partnering with ROI Solutions can help your business overcome this challenge. We provide call center solutions to businesses to improve the customer experience they offer. To learn more about how we can help, reach out today!