Why retail needs data quality
In retail, qualifying customer data as soon as it is entered into contact forms brings multiple benefits in customer service and experience. This happens in real time when the data is collected, as well as over the longer term to reinforce customer follow-up and satisfaction. The key is to qualify and merge customer data at the point of sale and online.
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Whether at the point of sale or on an e-commerce site, the same issues are at hand when it comes to customer data: maintaining reliable, efficient data collection, to support engaging, quality service. Integrating a data quality solution into contact forms at the point of sale or on an e-commerce site ensures usable data for the benefit of both your customers and your sales teams. An overview of the retail challenges posed by the qualification and merging of customer data:
At the point of sale, speeding up data collection and making it more reliable
Customer data is usually collected at checkout. It’s essential that this step be carried out quickly and smoothly, to avoid creating frustration for customers and salespeople alike.
A data quality solution integrated into the checkout tools provides real-time data entry assistance to avoid any delays at checkout. Autocomplete fields help you fill in the form in just a few clicks, selecting the required entry from the suggestions generated as soon as you enter the first few characters. Plus, real-time input control helps to immediately correct any erroneous contact information or input errors.
Another advantage of point-of-sale input help is that qualified data is fed directly into your CRM tools! So data collected in-store is ready to be used by your marketing and CRM departments as soon as it is collected!
E-commerce: simplifying the form experience
On your e-commerce site, customers fill in the form themselves. This input is often carried out when the transaction is wrapped up, and it should never be an operation that discourages the customer and leads to them giving up!
Your web forms should be made interactive and offer a seamless customer experience. Data quality integrated into web forms helps to accomplish this. By checking the validity of the information entered in real time, the user can quickly correct any errors. In addition, autofilling as soon as the first characters are entered speeds up the process and makes it more reliable.
This means that the data collection is finalized by the customer with state-of-the-art technology, and the conversion rate is preserved and even enhanced. This paves the way for a long-lasting relationship.
Helping your salespeople avoid duplicate entries
In addition to the verification and automated input of customer data, data quality plays a role in data collection performance, as it can adapt to the multi-channel purchasing behavior of your consumers. This means that an in-store customer may have already filled in information online, which need not be re-entered at the point of sale.
When connected to both the checkout software and your CRM tool, a data quality solution can identify the customer in real time, saving time and avoiding duplication for in-store sales staff.
A bonus best practice: minimizing the amount of data collected. It’s better to focus on the data you really need for your customer services and relationship-building campaigns, rather than putting customers through filling out long forms. This practice favors the qualification of the customer data collected, speeds up the form-filling stage, and eliminates the risk of duplication.
Getting to know customers in-store, and responding quickly and effectively to their requests
At checkout, what if a customer asks to link their purchase to their loyalty program? The priority is that you can process their request quickly, with the right information, and without delaying or slowing down checkout. You need to know them, recognize them, and respond quickly and effectively!
The key is having a unified, exhaustive view of the customer and their buying journey with the brand. By eliminating duplicates and merging data, a data quality solution helps you identify the customer in real time. And this is carried out according to customized rules for unifying files and accounts, to meet specific needs such as a multi-brand context, international presence, or different types of customers (individuals and businesses).
With just a few clicks, the salesperson can retrieve the customer’s file, identify the customer’s history and provide an accurate, personalized response. And if data is collected, all that’s left to do is fill in the missing information. This eliminates unnecessary data input and the risk of duplicate entries.
Preparing for premium customer care and loyalty
The interactions and data collected at the point of sale or on the e-commerce site feed the customer relationship. In this area, the quality of customer contact information provides a major advantage, since a good customer relationship starts with addressing the right person, with the right contact details, with the right name.
And that’s not all: a well-spelled name, a valid and up-to-date address and a contactable telephone number are essential in the services and communications that follow the purchase. For example, when sending a purchase by parcel post, valid contact information avoids pitfalls such as undeliverable emails for tracking purposes, delivery errors, or telephone numbers that the delivery driver can’t reach on arrival.
So, the quality of contact data is crucial to facilitating exchanges and even avoiding disputes. With a data quality solution, your company can collect reliable data right from the point of sale or e-commerce site. On top of this, the customer database is cleaned up and updated, and its quality is maintained on an ongoing basis. This ensures quality relationships and an engaging post-purchase experience, and encourages repeat purchases.
Strengthening your sales force's data culture
Collecting customer data often seems like a tedious task for your sales staff, including slow checkout times and input errors on online forms. During the sales discount season in particular, you need to prepare your sales force ahead of time for this rush period.
Assistance with input using a data quality solution offers as a front-line tool to support quality data collection. The benefits go even further: with qualified customer data, contact information is reliable, and the merging of different data from the same customer allows for more complete profiles, for example with the confirmation of a first name, a key element for personalizing communications.
At the point of sale, the performance of the sales staff is enhanced, with qualified and reliable data at their fingertips. They have the means to take more initiative in serving customers, which also makes their work more rewarding. This is good motivation for joining the data quality movement!
About DQE
Because data quality is essential to customer knowledge and the construction of a lasting relationship, since 2008, DQE has provided its clients with innovative and comprehensive solutions that facilitate the collection of reliable data.
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