This blog introduces the seventh step, of the “10-steps to retail success“, Customer Engagement. 10-steps to retail success is a process / methodology I’ve developed for my 1-2-1 mentoring clients. Over the coming weeks / months I’ll be introducing each step with a little more detail.
Customer Engagement Cycle
When I talk or write about customer engagement I break it down into a 4-step cycle which can create an upward spirial.
Customer Attraction
If you know your customers, as you will from step 3, ideal customer, then you’ll already have all the right product (step 4, range planning) at the right price (step 5, pricing and promotions) and in the right location (step 6, channel and location). Step 8, supply chain, will address the issue of availability. So, with this in mind you need to make sure you TELL your potential customers where you are and what you’ve got for them. How?
Well, you need to BE WHERE YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE! Although this time I mean in terms of media (online or off line) – so make sure that you get visibility in all the right places and use the right mix of media to attract more of the right customers.
Customer Conversion
This process should almost happen naturally and because you’ve delivered on all your promises (think about my positioning mantra from step 2!) The store or ecommerce site is merely there to facilitate the customers choice to purchase (because you’ve got the right product, prices and availability) and to capture the transaction.
Remind yourself and your staff, if a customer was to leave empty handed you’ve failed them – they wanted to shop and were unable to buy… so it’s not about selling at all (which many people dislike) it’s all about enabling the customer to buy easily!
Customer Retention
This happens because you consistently deliver on your service promise, you build loyalty by doing a great job and customer keep coming back because you make shopping a simple process and a pleasurable one.
Customer Advocacy
This is when your customers start to recommend and refer you to their network – this aspect creates the “upward spiral” effect of the customer engagement cycle because once customers reach the advocacy position they essentially contribute to the overall attraction process.
Introducing Step 8 of the 10-steps to retail success – Supply Chain
In the next blog about the 10 steps to retail success I’ll be introducing step 8, Supply Chain. If you can’t wait then don’t forget that I’m also offering the “Be a retail champion by next year” programme, which includes 52 FREE weekly retail tips by email.
To sign up for that visit www.retailchampion.co.uk/retail-tips
About Clare Bailey
Clare Bailey, The Retail Champion (formerly Clare Rayner), is one of the most well-known and respected retail experts in the UK. With unrivalled knowledge in retail, high streets and consumer matters, she offers unbiased, independent content – whether engaged as a professional speaker, for broadcast media, or for a written feature.
Clare is a business woman, entrepreneur and founder of several small businesses. Having been born into a family of successful business owners, it was inevitable that she’d eventually jump off the corporate treadmill and step out on her own! Today her brand portfolio includes The Retail Champion, The Retail Conference, the Future High Street Summit and the Support for Independent Retail campaign. In addition, she is co-founder of Mobaro Retail UK and a non-exec director of Beed Virtual Assistant Services.
Having started her career as a fast-track store management trainee for McDonalds, she went on to work with leading retailers such as M&S, Dixons and Argos. She moved swiftly into management roles before being headhunted into senior consulting roles with global software giant SAP, and international management consulting brand, Accenture.
Her corporate background in senior retail, consulting and technology roles, coupled with her experience of creating and running her own business, has enabled her to be equally capable whether consulting to global brands or micro businesses. This unique blend has not only positioned her as a leading expert in all things retail, but has enabled her to add meaningful commentary and insight to the debate around the future of the high street, and, how technology is driving fundamental change in the way consumers, and businesses, interact.
Clare has become an influential voice in her field, which has resulted in her becoming a regular media contributor and sought-after conference speaker. Often seen on Good Morning Britain, BBC Breakfast, Sky News, and Chanel 5 (to name a few), Clare speaks on a myriad of retail, high street and consumer issues – but is particular adept when it comes to explaining the context behind retail trading results, newly released data, and government stats, in a palatable and informative manner.
In addition to broadcast and conference speaking, Clare is the proud author of two best-selling business books published by Kogan Page - The Retail Champion: 10 Steps to Retail Success, published July 2012 and How to Sell to Retail: The Secrets of Getting Your Product to Market, published February 2013. She has provided contributions to various academic texts, including Retail Marketing Management (published by Pearson).
With an engaging, conversational yet informative style, Clare writes for press and content agencies, providing features, articles, blogs and opinion pieces as well as contributions to white papers and reports.
However, when the situation demands a more serious style, Clare can deliver - In 2016 she wrote an extensive report for a major insurance and risk law firm, as a retail expert witness, to support a public liability suit. She found that project particularly enjoyable as it played well to her strengths – assimilating large amounts of data and information, identifying the key points and articulating that in an understandable manner.
When not on TV or speaking at conferences, Clare’s “day job” sees her supporting consumer-facing businesses through her consultancy services.
When asked to describe what she most loves about retail consulting it is typically the opportunity to “dig deep”, getting “under the bonnet”, in order to leverage the business data to uncover the insights that lead to “lightbulb moments”. She also loves working on business change programmes that centre on improving the processes and systems to increase profitability by supporting more rapid, better informed decision making, improving the customer experience, or simply by become more efficient and streamlined. In this respect she considers herself a “business engineer” with a brain that works like a relational database! Due to her years of experience, her logical, objective approach, her quick, rational thinking, she is known for being able to cut through complexity, seeing right through to the crux of issues, finding creative solutions that others may have overlooked.
As if all that wasn’t enough, Clare is a working mum, juggling a home life in rural Lincolnshire with her partner, their 5 kids, 4 cats, and geriatric Labrador!
For all enquiries, contact Clare directly on 01727 238890 or email champion@retailchampion.co.uk.
Clare Bailey: The Retail Champion 
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