Customer engagement is about creating deeply relevant experiences for the customers who visit your shop, showroom or mall. When there is customer engagement there is an increase in sales and more loyalty is nurtured towards your brand, product or service.
The power of communication – whether online or at point-of-sale – holds the key to successful marketing and customer loyalty. Reaching out to customers and learning more about them leads to better, more customised marketing campaigns and eventually sales growth. With a few relatively cost-effective strategies using available technology, small merchants can tap into this potential.
One of the increasingly important technologies is the application of digital points-of-sale not only as a sales tool but as a way to enhance customer experience. Hotels are adopting digital signage inside their lobbies to help customers find the information they need at will and in their own time. Localities, museums and shopping malls are applying them as a map-finding facility and to help visitors orientate themselves. Even car showrooms are introducing freestanding digital totems that offer the possibility to visitors to request information about specific car models at the touch of a button.
Car dealers in Italy have started using interactive stations on showroom floors to drive information about available financial services for their cars.
Totem-style freestanding displays function as brand marketing displays but go interactive when people step in front of it. The totems replace paper-based institutional point-of-sale material which many deem are now dated. The new totems combine interactive digital signage with the traditional paper brochure, which customers can take away with them.
“These products deliver real-time information and can perform electronic processes for companies and organisations while giving customers more autonomy, flexibility and availability of products and services at their convenience,” explains Christopher Demicoli, business development manager, Smart Technologies, which is offering this technology in Malta.
Providing an interactive platform triggers customers to acquire the product which is already at hand
“We are seeing a lot of potential locally for this technology even in a sector like hospitality, a sector which is constantly reaching out and delivering the best experience to guests and travellers. We are, in fact, equipped to offer both the hardware and software for these set-ups from our range of multimedia products and solutions for digital signage and interactive kiosks. Our technical staff can also assist companies with the installation, management and integration of the vendor’s software and information with these point-of-sale systems,” added Demicoli.
Studies confirm that people are researching more the products they want to buy and after having informed themselves, they seek to experience the product in the shop.
Providing an interactive platform where customers can better inform themselves about the product inside the shop triggers them to acquire the product which is already at hand.
“For smaller merchants, gaining and keeping a competitive edge is challenging and although they acknowledge that technological products and solutions can help make operations more efficient, limited budgets could be a hindrance. In this case, we also offer them the opportunity to lease these interactive channels without the need to incur major capital expenses and still enjoy the advantages and the opportunities that this technology offers,” added Demicoli.