The customer file is the key to boosting your sales as a business, boutique, store, restaurant... But how can you build and enrich it easily - in compliance with the RGPD? And above all, without spending too much time on it? We explain it all to you with 4 very practical tips for multiplying the new entries in your customer base - and in your store!
If done right, building a customer file for a business is easy, fast and inexpensive! Above all, it's highly profitable: customer data is a powerful lever for increasing sales in the long term.
In practical terms, this is still all too often achieved by means of an Excel customer file, which is neither very engaging nor very time-consuming! Personally, we see far more advantages in opting for online customer file software, or a dedicated platform, which is far more attractive. It's much easier for your staff to enroll customers, and allows you to implement the 4 tips below.
Data is a win-win situation! If a store wants to enrich its customer database, it had better offer something in return. Otherwise, only loyal customers will participate - whereas the aim is to broaden your customer base.
We've noticed that, in fact, customers are always willing to leave a 06 or an email. Promotional SMS has become part of their habits, on one condition: they must clearly perceive the benefits of their participation.
When it comes to onboarding a customer file, a merchant (or his or her staff) simply has to spell out the benefits. These can be of any kind:
- loyalty program rewards
- promotions
- goodies
- immediate discount
- coupons
- vouchers
- etc...
To work at full speed, it's vital to make enrolment fun. Firstly, the loyalty program or benefits should be offered directly by the retailer at the checkout. Secondly, enrolment can be carried out via a fun interface on a touch-sensitive tablet, close to the checkout area!
A display like "Pssst! We've got a surprise for you", for example, is very effective. Curiosity does the rest: thanks to the touchpad, it's the customers themselves who register by entering their details, giving their consent, consulting the legal notices, etc... This type of onboarding lightens up the store's staff, while being highly effective in boosting the store's customer file.
Offering a loyalty program is like activating turbo mode for your customer file! It allows you to combine all the above advantages. It also needs to be digitized, fun and progressive. Immediately releasable rewards are vital to increase program commitment.
This is a key element: repeated interaction with the loyalty program enriches a store's customer database. This is no longer limited to contact data, but also records consumption habits, frequency of visits, etc. This is the key to taking the usefulness of the customer file to the next level.
Among other benefits (including customer loyalty), a new formula loyalty program will enable you to increase the number ofentries in your customer file tenfold. All the more reason to boost your next marketing campaigns!
A loyalty program is great, but you don't have to stop there! A customer file can be fed by several channels, strategies, engagement levers... The only constant is that all entries must comply with the RGPD, always informing customers of the purpose and the existence of the right to deletion.
What strategies can you use to develop your customer database? There are so many! We've written an article on the subject, with 11 effective strategies for collecting customer data.
