By Alicia Fiorletta, Senior Editor
I’m pretty sure every retailer wants to learn how to turn their customers and employees into brand advocates. After all, there are several benefits of leveraging these fans to ramp up bottom-line results: They act on your behalf, share valuable feedback and positive word-of-mouth, and are typically the first people to purchase your new products.
But let’s be real: The value of identifying and engaging brand advocates isn’t all about getting the sale. It’s about building relationships and generating trust and loyalty among consumers and employees alike.
How can retailers do this successfully? During a special ThinkWire chat, Ted Rubin, our keynote speaker for the Retail Innovation Conference, shared some great tips for getting a strong return on your relationships:
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1. Think about the human connection: “Actually engaging and interacting in a human way is so overlooked,” Rubin said. Rather than focusing on being the fastest to respond, or the retailer to send the most data-driven coupons and messages, they should encourage their team members to get personal.
2. Learn that platforms aren’t always the answer: While solutions and technologies can undoubtedly help make your employees’ lives easier, they aren’t the silver bullet for building engagement. It’s as simple as looking at a customer’s Facebook page, blogs or web sites, and using that information to have relevant conversations.
3. Be present: “You know when you meet someone at a conference or networking event and they’re constantly looking around the room to see who else is there, looking at their watch or anywhere except you?” Rubin said. “Those signals mean they aren’t really ‘present’ in the conversation, so there’s no true connection. The same principles apply to online relationships.”
4. Add value that aligns with their wants and needs: By looking at customer behaviors and even social information, retailers can gain a wealth of insight about their shoppers, and acquire fuel for more valuable conversations. “Show consumers you care about them, not just selling more,” Rubin advised. “Add value to their lives and they will keep coming back.” Customer information should be shared across the entire organization so everyone, from store associates, to call center agents, can have these more valuable conversations.
5. Think less about targeting, and more about matchmaking: Simply saying “how may I serve you?” makes an impact in Rubin’s eyes. “No one wants to be a target, everyone wants to find a match!”
6. Motivate your employees: Building a base of motivated and engaged employees all ties to company culture. To drive this culture, retailers need to improve their leadership team and their overall perspective, Rubin explained. “Another great way to motivate employees is to support them.” He noted that in today’s world, the average job length is approximately three years. That means employees will have up to 15 jobs throughout their career! “The key lies in revamping the employee-employer relationship. If you want to build a winning team that stays with you, advocates for you and gets ahead as a company, you have to treat them with respect.”
Want to collect more valuable insights from Rubin? Check out the entire ThinkWire panel here!
