Four Fantastic Point-of-Sale Ideas to Improve the Retail Experience

Find how to improve the point-of-sale experience for your customers.

A recent survey found that 40% of people believed home and DIY stores needed to improve their customer service – making it the worst rated sector in the survey. Builders’ merchants may not completely overlap with the DIY sector, but it’s clear that retail customers expect an improved customer service from merchants. The point-of-sale experience is just one part of the retail environment, but it is here that businesses can make some of the most significant changes to the retail experience, with the potential for a good return on investment. Retail and point-of-sale software can play a key part in point-of-sale overhauls, but how can you use it and other measures to improve the customer experience?

Knowledge

One of the reasons customers come to local builders’ merchants rather than DIY giants is because of the huge amount of knowledge and expertise that smaller merchants have. Customers know that merchants will be able to answer any questions they have and make product recommendations where necessary. It is important that merchants offer this advice at the point-of-sale, as well as around the shop or warehouse. This may well open up opportunities for cross-selling, but to ensure customer loyalty, your recommendations must be honest and not just cynical ways to seek more revenue per customer. Point-of-sale software can assist with this process – product recommendations can be automatically suggested based on customer purchases, acting as a useful reminder to attempt a cross-sell when relevant.

Aesthetics

Your premises almost certainly places substance over style, but your counter is one area that you should consider prioritising aesthetics – or at least sprucing it up a little. A custom counter is a novel way of strengthening your brand, and your customers will certainly remember a unique counter. Design ideas include constructing a facade (or the counter itself) out of materials that would otherwise go to waste – perhaps timber that was damaged in transit, for example. This’ll provide a great conversation starter with your customers, giving you another opportunity to convert a new customer into a loyal one.

Offers and loyalty schemes

Point-of-sale software allows you to easily set up offers and loyalty schemes for customers. Point-of-sale software automatically applies discounts during the transaction, and informs you when loyalty scheme discounts apply. While you may assume these point-of-sale measures lose you revenue, the benefits gained through improved customer loyalty far outweigh the short-term losses.

Electronic quotations and invoices

Some customers will want to speed through the point-of-sale experience as quickly as possible. For many builders’ merchants this isn’t always possible, as quotations need to be calculated and produced – often on the spot. Point-of-sale software can generate electronic quotations automatically based on the products and quantities you input. You can also quickly access a customer’s agreed credit limits and their payment history, allowing you to negotiate quotes quickly and easily. You can then email these quotes to the customer instead of having to print them out.

These are just a handful of ways you can change the retail experience for the better at the point-of-sale. Find out more about the many uses of retail and point-of-sale software for builders’ merchants.