The Top 15 Reasons To Use Biometric Technology In Workforce Management And Retail Point Of Sale – Reason #6 – Build Customer Loyalty

Blog Series – “The Top 15 Reasons To Use Biometric Technology In Workforce Management And Retail Point Of Sale”

Leading up to our participation in the National Retail Federation’s 2011 “Retail’s Big Show” from January 9 – 12 in New York city, M2SYS Technology is publishing a blog series on the top 15 reasons that biometrics is a smart choice for retail organizations to consider as an authentication technology in workforce management and retail point of sale applications.

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In case you missed it, here are the links to our prior posts in the series:

Reason #1 – Stop Buddy Punching
Reason #2 – Increase Productivity
Reason #3 – Enhance Loss Prevention
Reason #4 – Establish Accountability
Reason #5 – Going Green

And now on to our next post…

Reason #6 – Build Customer Loyalty

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How Do You Define A “Loyal” Customer?

All businesses strive to create a loyal customer base.  Loyal customers not only bring repeat business, but they also act as your own army of evangelists, telling their friends, coworkers, family and even strangers to buy from you and frequent your establishment.  The dawn of social and digital media has had a huge impact on communication for loyal customers, providing them with a platform and a seamless distribution network to sing their praises and draw attention to your business through reviews, recommendations and opinions.

Loyal customers can be quick to defend you against negative press or chatter about your product or service.  However, we all know that it usually only takes one miniscule slip up on your part to turn a loyal customer into a snarky pest, bent on incessantly bashing your company so the world knows what a terrible job you are doing.  How then do you keep loyal customers loyal?  What steps do you take and what types of ongoing programs do you have in place to ensure that loyal customers remain happy and continue to virally spread the positive word about your product or service?

Creating And Maintaining “Loyalty” Requires A Multi-Faceted Plan

It is highly unlikely that you can create and maintain a semblance of customer loyalty through an isolated campaign.  That may be enough to reign in a customer and establish and initial stroke of loyal behavior, but to make loyalty stick, you need a well thought out, multi-faceted approach to harvesting customer loyalty and making it last.  Usually, this requires a superior customer service platform that quickly and efficiently responds to customer requests, complaints and issues.  Coupled with that is normally a campaign that rewards customers for purchases and provides them with incentives to purchase more through discounts and special offers.  You may also establish a referral program which encourages loyal, happy customers to refer their friends, family or co-workers to buy your product or use your service in return for a finder’s fee or a discount on an upcoming purchase.  There are a million and one initiatives you can concoct and put into action to nurture customer loyalty, but often times the secret to consistently creating and maintaining loyal customers lies within their experience and interactions while they visit your place of business.

Biometric Technology Helps To Create And Maintain Loyal Customers

To combat the massive amount of return fraud that retail establishments experience, imagine if you owned a store and decided to institute a policy which required a customer to provide biometric information for return of merchandise without a receipt.  You may hear a few gripes from customers that this is an unnecessary policy and the “honors system” should be enough to merit a return absent of a receipt but you have decided that this is the only sure way to curb fraudulent returns and help stop profit loss.  At the risk of losing a small amount of customers that refuse to provide their biometric data for returns without a receipt, you realize that this biometric identification policy not only helps eliminate the proliferation of fraudulent returns, but it also demonstrates to customers that you want to keep the prices of your products low by instituting policies and procedures that safeguard against return fraud.

Enacting policies which prove to create savings that will ultimately be passed on to your customers is a smart way to create and maintain loyal customers.  Instead of exclusively focusing on programs that reward customers by providing incentives to purchase more, you cover the back end of your business with a policy that clearly demonstrates your willingness to hold prices down by removing the ability of criminals to essentially take advantage of your existing customers by artificially inflating costs through their fraudulent returns.  Smart move.

How Do You Know Which Biometric System Is A Good Fit?

Determining the type of biometric identification system that best suits your needs is an important first step.  There are different biometric software systems that perform different functions.  Biometric hardware also comes in different forms, each with its own advantages and functionalities.  The key is consulting with an expert, like the ones on staff here at M2SYS.  We can help you to identify and deploy the correct biometric system with the correct hardware to ensure near 100% read rates.

Please contact us to learn more about biometric technology and the advantages that it can create for your business.

What other non-traditional customer loyalty programs to you have that work well?  Please share them in the comments below.