Clienteling By The Numbers

Successful clienteling is not something that happens by accident. Retailers must strategize their customer relationships and get intentional about building them “from the ground up.” If you get this part of retailing right, you’re just a hop and a skip from getting the rest of it right. Without happy customers, having an efficient supply chain, a handle on budgeting, and great promotions will only get you so far. Clienteling is the process that leads to happy customers.
Here’s how to build a successful clienteling process in three simple steps:
- Collect the right data through the right channels – Capturing customer data is intrinsic to successful clienteling. Your customer relationships will only be as strong as the information you have on your customers. That’s why it’s so important to get this part right. But in today’s retail environment, your customers can shop through any number of channels, and switch back and forth between them. So you need to collect data about your customers (who they are, where they live, what they purchase) through every channel that they shop.
- Analyze your data – Collecting data on your customers and being able to analyze the data you collect are two different things. There are some fundamental things you need to know about your customers if you’re going to build a successful retail business that caters to their needs. That’s why the RFM analysis model is so helpful. It helps you determine how recent customers have been to your store, how frequent they shop at each of your channels, and how much money they spend on each visit. Knowing these details about your customers can help you build a better budget, buy the right products in the right amounts, and promote your specials to the right customers–at a bare minimum.
- Build loyalty – At the end of the day, clienteling is about building customer loyalty. There are several ways of making that happen. You can start with gift cards and loyalty programs. Reward your most frequent shoppers. Also, you can promote loyalty on specific channels by offering coupons, discounts, and perks for shopping through those channels. And you can build customized and personalized marketing campaigns to customers in different segments to foster a more meaningful relationship with those segments.
When it comes to clienteling, putting careful thought into the information you collect about your customers, and the channels through which you collect it, is a fit beginning. After that, you’ve got to analyze the information so that you better understand your customers, then you use it to build loyalty to your retail brand. It’s as simple as 1-2-3.