Having bilingual customer service representatives can help increase customer satisfaction and grow your business.

Have you underestimated the impact that customer service has on your organization? Customer service representatives can make or break how your customers feel about your business — especially if there are language barriers that make communication falter.

Sales are easy. Customer demands are not.

We all want life to be easy, but it rarely is. So a person, product or institution that makes it easy to get what we need or do what we want is memorable. We look forward to interacting with them again.

When it’s harder than it should be to get something we need or want, we’ll look for other ways to accomplish our goals. This is especially true for retail, where customers vote with their wallets. If one merchant makes it hard to get a product, or makes it difficult and expensive to return something, we’ll look for another one who won’t.

Soon customers won’t distinguish between shopping on their phones, online or in your store. Big data can help you prepare.

Americans are obsessed with smartphones. We use them morning, noon and night to manage our daily activities, follow the news, and stay in touch with friends and family. A new study by Asurion says we check them almost 80 times a day!

We also use mobile devices to shop. Mobile, or “m-commerce,” is growing 3x faster than traditional e-commerce, a phenomenon directly correlated to the explosive growth of smartphones. In 2017:

Here are 6 ways retail is using big data to keep operation costs low, increase customer satisfication, and increase profits.

When it comes to retail, the smallest gains can count the most. With such small margins, every bit helps to keep the bottom line in the black. This goes into keeping track of overhead as well as delivery costs. Now analysts are able to use data to keep operation costs low, increase customer satisfaction, and increase profits. So how are retailers using big data to bolster their sales and marketing efforts?

Package theft is particularly problematic around the holidays. But will that make consumers more open to delivery people entering their homes with Amazon Key?

Nearly 11 million U.S. homeowners had a delivered package stolen within the past year. This unfortunate side effect of the e-retail boom has many consumers searching for secure measures to keep their packages safe. Amazon, the company who is responsible for more e-retail than anyone else in this country, thinks they may have the solution in Amazon Key.

Consider customer geography, transportation infrastructure, the local talent pool, and cost when choosing a location for a last-mile distribution center.

Last-mile distribution centers can help retailers improve the most challenging and important aspect of delivery. These sales centers are not only convenient for customers, but they can be financially beneficial for businesses as well.

Retail is evolving.

Retail is changing so fast, it’s hard to keep up.

• Online merchants are going traditional and buying entire brick-and-mortar chains. (Amazon buys Whole Foods).
• Traditional retailers are buying same-day local delivery companies to compete with online merchants. (Walmart buys Parcel).
• Big-box retailers are encouraging customers to demo products without ever entering the store. (Ikea uses augmented reality to bring the showroom to your home.)

The one thing that never changes, however, is that the customer is always right.  Why? Because they always have the final say on whether to give their business to you or someone else.   

You’ve decided to open a last-mile distribution center. Congratulations! These managed sales centers can be a great way to reduce shipping costs while getting product into your customers’ hands faster than traditional shipping methods. So how can you make your local community aware that your last-mile distribution center is open for business?

Last-mile challenges are a constant thorn in the side for most e-commerce businesses. Artificial intelligence, however, may have a role to play in solving this problem.

So goes e-commerce, so go last-mile solutions

As e-commerce continues its rise, the importance of last-mile delivery services only increases. Often a business’ reputation is tied to the type of delivery service a customer receives. Knowing this, it becomes imperative for e-commerce businesses to stand out and deliver the goods (literally and figuratively) in a timely manner.

How well do you know millennial shoppers?

By now most retailers should be familiar with the millennial shopper:

• 80 million U.S. consumers born between 1980 and 2000
• The first truly digital generation, they are “more wired, more community conscious, and more skeptical of traditional business practices” than previous generations.
• They spend $600 billion annually on goods and services.
• They are savvy value shoppers, relying on peer recommendations, online reviews and “show-rooming” to get the best prices.
• They prefer to spend money on experiences, not “stuff;” many don’t see themselves ever buying a car or a TV.