customer service |

Give Your Customers Information

There is nothing more irritating to a customer than a sales associate who hovers and follows them around the showroom. Similarly, there is nothing more irritating to an employee than customers who bombard them with a million questions. One way to give everyone the space they need (and avoid terse interactions that make everyone uncomfortable) is to give your customers the important info up front.

Post signs around your store with information about pricing. Fill your website with helpful blogs and easy to find FAQs (these can also boost your ranking on search engines). If your customers can find key info themselves, they’ll feel like that have more power over their sales experience — and that is always a positive.

Set The Mood

When customers don’t feel comfortable with a shopping experience (as they usually don’t when making big purchases like flooring), they tend to want to keep the experience short and sweet. Of course, we know that finding the right flooring takes time — so it’s up to us to make the process as pleasant as possible.

Choose pleasant overhead music to play in your store. Use aromatherapy to create a comfortable and calming environment. These little tricks can ease the stress of shopping and help your customers enjoy the experience a little bit more.

Use Associates Appropriately

A great sales associate is like seasoning in a recipe: they amplify everything that’s great about the experience and take it to the next level. However, it is possible to “over-season” a customer shopping experience, and that can leave a bad taste in their mouth.

Make sure your sales associates are well trained, knowledgeable, and friendly — but also, make sure they know when to let a customer have some space. Remember that good customer service is about giving the customer what they want (not securing a sale), so make sure your sales team knows how to read the situation and respond appropriately.

Get Social

In today’s world, social media is an invaluable form of marketing. The right viral tweet or five-star Yelp review can really help your business — and a one-star review can do incredible damage.

Make sure you are active on your business’s social media pages. This might mean posting about sales or new floor that’s arrived in the store, or it might mean responding to reviewers who gave you poor reviews (however, when you respond to those reviewers ALWAYS remain professional). If you are engaging with your audience online, you will have a clearer idea of what they want and expect from your business.

Ask for Feedback

Finally, let’s go back to our old adage, “The customer is always right.” One great way to provide customer service is to lean into that belief and simply ask your customers for their feedback. Ask them to take a survey about your store online. Make it easy for them to contact you with questions or comments, and respond to these messages promptly. Simply giving your customers a voice will make them feel like you care — and that’s something everyone appreciates.

Ultimately, the customer service experience is about making your customers feel valuable. If you prove that you value their time, their personal space, and their opinions, they are sure to value your product all the more.

For any business, supply chain management can mean the difference between failure and flourishing. In the floor remodeling market, this rings especially true. How many projects have been derailed when a dream tile or hardwood is out of stock?

Shiny marketing may attract consumers, but inventory and prices form the bedrock of customer satisfaction. At the end of the day, they want practical and stylish flooring available now at the lowest price point possible. If any of these factors don’t align, your customer falls through the supply chain gap.

Technology Intervention

Increasing supply chain efficiency used to require much more legwork. Today, as they say, “There’s an app for that”.

Read on to see how mobile technology can help your business close the gaps.

Mobile vs. Manual Accounting

For efficient inventory management, ditch the paper and turn to cloud-supported accounting like QuickBooks Online or Xero. Mobile accounting allows you to update expenses, orders, and invoices in the moment.

Standing in a bamboo field to source your next supplier? Simply pull out your phone and crunch numbers in the app. The bamboo farmer gets paid, and you jump ahead of bamboo flooring demand.

You can automate inventory by connecting order data to product stock in the cloud. This saves you hours and errors of counting inventory by hand. Buyers will see the difference on the shelves.

Customers need up-to-date pricing and availability so they can get to work on their home project.

Keep Everyone in the Loop

Centralized communication apps, like Slack or Discord, are another powerful tool to support customer satisfaction.

Product updates can reach all employees in a single click. In turn, customers receive correct information about what’s available at what price, with the inventory to back it up. This builds consumer trust in your company.

Consider intercompany channels, the ultimate space for suppliers and retailers to communicate. A request that may have gotten lost in phone-tag or emails can now be found in one spot. It’s all about making communication accessible.

Listen to Your Customers

How often do customer service representatives hear the same complaints? Or the same wishes?

Perhaps a certain type of laminate sells well, but your customer service center receives a high volume of complaints later. “This laminate catches dust and dirt at the seams.” Soon after, customers are calling on their warranties.

Imagine if you could solve the problem months ahead in product design.

Through mobile communication, you can. In-app tags and search tools allow customer feedback to be flagged and gathered. These trends can be analyzed to materialize real changes – before the customers and demand wave disappear.

The Virtual Marketplace

At one time, suppliers and retailers relied on trade shows to find each other. Now, you can discover or be discovered by simply scrolling on your phone.

Apps like VendorPriceBook bring together retailers, suppliers, and brands. Much like a dating app, each business has their own profile with photos and information. Filters allow you to cast a broad or narrow net. And while it might be less romantic than an OkCupid match, sometimes a beautiful vertical alignment is born.

Jump In, Jump Ahead

Floor remodeling customers are a reliable demand stream just waiting for an organized operation to provide the products they desire at competitive prices. Empower your company using mobile technology to tighten the supply chain, wherever you may fall in line.

If you’re not sure where to start, our flooring app contains essential tools to maintain up-to-date inventory and prices. Give it a try for free to see how small tech changes can create big ripples in your business. Our newest features include the ability for retailers to create purchase orders right on the app! VendorPriceBook is truly revolutionizing the way retailers and vendors do business!

Sources
https://www.gocanvas.com/mobile-forms-apps/46-Retail-Sales-Wholesale-Distribution/show_category

https://www.vendhq.com/retail-apps

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tradebeyond-the-fastest-growing-retail-sourcing-app-innovates-with-major-retailers-300823455.html