How are you managing your business?

This is a great question.

Most retail businesses suffer from a management model based on the past. A model that worked until recently and provided good results to companies that achieved great success in the market. A model that most businesses don’t even question.

These companies and most likely yours too, have been managed based on parameters such as billing, items, stocks, sales by square meter, in addition to the corresponding balance sheet balance sheet and P&L account. This retail management model, which hardly differs from any other type of business, has been perfectly valid for many years.

However, in recent times the role of the customer in the purchasing process has changed dramatically and with it how he connects and interacts with your brand.

Therefore, do not you think that your management model should adapt to this new time?

We are in a new scenario with a consumer who has hundreds of options to choose for each need.

And of course, in this new scenario, to be the preferred option is no longer as easy as it was before.

This has only just begun. As consumers, we will increasingly have more and more alternatives, we will receive more information and we will be impacted by more advertising on multiple digital channels.

At the same time, we will learn to discriminate faster between different options, selecting and paying attention only to those that give us real value.

It is natural, when we received four daily impacts we could analyze them all, when we receive one hundred we are forced to select.

How can you differentiate your business, your brand in this noisy environment?  How can you be, among all the options, the preferred one in the mind of the consumer?

With brands, it happens the same as in personal relationships. We connect with those we feel that they listen to us, pay attention to us and for whom we are important. Would you connect and start a friendship with a person who do not listen to you and speaks with you in an impersonal way?

It is not possible to connect without knowing and to know, demands to listen.

Your customization capacity defines your value. Those who are getting the biggest piece of the pie, the big digital retailers like Amazon or Alibaba know it very well.

So, the question is:

Do you listen to your customers?

Do you know what they are looking for? Who is buying you what? How often does the customer come? Where does it come from?

If you barely know anything about your customers, how do you want to address them in a personalized way? How do you intend to bring proposals that fit their tastes?

It’s true, until recently it might seem enough to launch your promotions and marketing actions based on your product portfolio, targeting your target profiles on social networks.

But believe me, it is no longer enough. You don’t differ anymore. Every time less. You are one more. One more post, one more ad for a customer that receives hundreds every day.

Your customization capacity defines your value. Those who are getting the biggest piece of the pie, the big digital retailers like Amazon or Alibaba know it very well.

We propose a new way to manage your business, with the customer as the center of the strategy.

We are not talking about giving up any of the other management parameters, in fact you should also handle them and in real time with more analysis than you probably have today.

We talk about adding to your management information, behavioral data of your most important asset: your customers. Because all the products and services you can create only make sense if, on the other side, there is a customer that you are able to seduce and satisfy with your proposal.

With information on the behavior of your customers on every purchase channel, you can start segmenting your audience based on different approaches, and address them with omnichannel personalized proposals that fit their tastes and lifestyle and that customers can redeem seamless in any of your physical and online stores.  Customer is “one”, regardless of the sales channel used to check and purchase your products and services, and so you must treat him.

You will be delivering a differential value to your customers. They will look forward to knowing your next proposal or promotion because they expect something that perfectly fits their preferences. It reinforces their emotional bond with your brand. You are no longer one more, but someone who cares about them by meeting and addressing their needs in a personalized way.

Those companies that place the customer at the center of their strategy (Customer Centric) are 60% more profitable than those that do not. Forget intuition and offer your customers what they want:

  • You will increase your sales
  • You will build customer loyalty quickly
  • You will guarantee the survival of your business.

It is up to you where you want to go. Once you know someone well you can surprise him, even excite him by creating memorable experiences.

Evaluate periodically the impact of your actions on each customer profile. Optimize these actions and be more relevant to your public every day.

Believe me, very soon, communication will be personalized or it will be spam. And spam, it´s something that bothers everybody.

But you have the opportunity to be different, to be one of those who ensure your future.

It is up to you to decide what you want to be.

______________________________

José Manuel Maseda

Sales & Marketing Manager

www.wappingweb.com