4 Ways to Improve Customer Experience for Restaurants and Retailers
In the customer service industry, a business is only as good as the experience they offer. Whether you have the trendiest fashion or tastiest burgers in town, if your customer service is lackluster, your business won’t last long. Rapidly advancing technology and ever-changing preferences require customer-facing businesses like restaurants and retailers to constantly adapt their operations in order to create an experience their customers will remember. As more businesses begin opening up this year, it’s more crucial than ever for restaurants and retailers to evaluate the quality of their customer experience. New technologies and POS features can make customers happier by catering to their preferences and offering higher-quality service. Keep reading to discover how to improve customer experience with your POS.
1. Support Alternative Payment Methods
Just as technology has advanced, so have the ways in which customers pay. In 2021, a cash register with a card reader and no other payment options isn’t enough. When looking at how to improve customer experience, restaurants and retailers should look to support a variety of alternative payment methods to cater to customer’s preferred form of payment.
The number of people paying in cash dwindles every day, with more and more leaning towards alternative payment options such as contactless, eWallets, QR codes, and more. While small businesses may have gotten away with traditional cash and card transactions in recent years, they’ll need to embrace the technological renaissance if they hope to compete against the bigger players in their industry.
Offering a variety of payments not only caters to the customer, but ensures that your business never loses a sale due to lack of payment options. Nothing is worse than turning away a customer simply because you can’t support Apple Pay or Google Pay. As you turn away more customers, they’ll likely take their business elsewhere where they know their payments will be supported and their time not wasted.
2. Provide a Personalized Experience
It’s no secret that personalization is key to higher profits and happier customers. A sure-fire method when looking at how to improve customer experience is to take a unique, personalized approach through loyalty programs and targeted marketing efforts. By figuring out what your customers want, you can provide a more personalized experience based on their actual preferences rather than guesswork.
Loyalty programs will build trust and create a relationship between you and your customers that will keep them coming back again and again. Leverage email marketing and send out promotions and discounts targeted on recent order history, special occasions, and more. An exclusive rewards program will give you the information you need to learn more about customer preferences and how you can best nurture the relationship moving forward.
3. Shorten Wait Times
“The food was amazing, but we waited on the bill for half of an hour.”
“I love their products, but the checkout line was so long I gave up!”
Sound familiar? As insignificant as they seem in the long run, long wait times can be the downfall of your business. Your customer experience could be on point from the moment your customers walk through the door; however, if you make them wait for their bill at the end of their meal or force them to wait in a long line just to check out, it can quickly turn a positive experience into a negative one.
In a world where convenience reigns supreme, it’s crucial to shorten wait times in restaurants and retail stores. A customer’s time is precious, and while you shouldn’t be rushing them, you shouldn’t make them wait for an extended amount of time, either. Make sure your POS offers line-busting capabilities, such as:
- Support with mobile POS so that staff can checkout customers from anywhere, at anytime
- Self-service kiosk support to allow customers to skip lines and check themselves out
- Pay-at-table integration to ensure customers are never waiting around for their bill
4. Equip Staff with Tools for High-Quality Service
Another thing to consider when looking at how to improve customer experience is the tools you give to your staff. Restaurants and retailers rely heavily on their staff to be the face of their company, providing customers with A+ service at all times. However, at the end of the day, your staff’s performance is highly dependent on the technology they’re provided with. Slow equipment will not only result in longer wait times for your customers, but will also frustrate your employees, putting them in a position where they can’t perform to the best of their ability.
Outdated, low-tech equipment will result in a less-than-satisfactory customer experience, so much so that you might be better off with no technology at all. For this reason, ensure you’re equipping your staff with modern, up-to-date technology that will enable them to enhance their service quality. A modern mobile POS will provide staff with information at their fingertips, allowing them to quickly assist customers by checking inventory or looking up menu item ingredients with ease.
When looking at how to improve customer experience, there are many routes you can take, but alternative payment methods, personalized experiences, shorter wait times, and up-to-date technology are amongst the most important. The right POS system will be chalk-full of these capabilities that you can leverage to improve your restaurant or retail store. If you’re looking to upgrade your current POS system, look to NCC for a reliable, scalable, and proven point of sale solution. Contact us now!
