Let’s face it, today’s customers have changed. They want convenience, and they demand excellence from the brands they trust. There is a lot of pressure for retailers to meet those expectations.
Retailers across industries have had to adapt to changing customer expectations, and those expectations apply to pool and spa retail, too. By adapting to customer wants, needs, and desires, business owners are able to increase brand engagement and build brand loyalty.
The good news is that some of the customer expectations can actually allow pool and spa retailers to make positive changes and open themselves up to new ways of doing things. Likewise, it can motivate retailers to automate some of their processes that will ultimately make their businesses more profitable.
One such automation is self-serve ordering and eCommerce. While the lack of foot traffic into a brick-and-mortar store may have retailers sweating because of the losses in in-person marketing of new products and potential upsales, eCommerce can make up for those losses by giving customers what they want–an easy way to order what they need. Ultimately, happy customers make for better referrals and brand loyalty.
Product delivery is something that a lot of customers are asking for from their trusted brands. Along with self-serve product ordering, customers have to be able to get their products quickly as if they walked into the store and picked them up off the shelves. This can be a hardship for many retailers because of labor shortages and costs associated with offering delivery.
As pool and spa retailers, there is a “Golden Ticket”, a solution! Retailers can offer customers a way to get their products almost instantly and at the same time keep costs down and customer satisfaction up. Curbside pick-up is the answer. It makes your customers’ lives easier and safer, while allowing retailers the ability to give their customers what they want and need.
If a pool and spa business hasn’t entertained the idea of curbside before, now is the time. Curbside pick-up is a winner for many reasons. For one, customers like to have options, and they have become accustomed to being catered to; it signals an “above and beyond” mentality to customer service.
Another way to keep customers happy and to inspire brand loyalty is by keeping prices low. By offering free curbside pick-up instead of delivery with an included service fee, pool and spa retailers can give customers what they want, keep their overhead down, and ultimately, keep prices low. Often retailers up the prices of their products to offset the costs to deliver. By providing curbside pick-up, it becomes a win/win proposition.
If the above explanations aren’t enough, here are some additional reasons to adopt curbside pick-up:
With all its pros, curbside pick-up can cause some logistical problems for a retailer. They need to be planned for and implemented to avoid friction in the sales and pick-up process.
Automating processes as much as possible is essential; fortunately, there is software to help.
We mentioned above that losing profits from a lack of foot traffic and impulse purchases made in their stores is a big concern for retailers who are considering curbside. We get it. Here are a few solutions to that weighty problem:
By adding curbside pick-up, a retailer is adding one more positive layer to the consumer experience. This is a great, fairly simple, and cost-effective opportunity to improve customer delight and loyalty.