The customer has always been the king in the market. Today this saying has gained all the more importance because in any product or any market there is so much competition that it is totally a buyer’s market unlike earlier times when the market was ruled by the sellers. Today the market comprises of small retailers, big stores, mega malls and online sellers. This gives the customer a big choice for the smallest to the biggest item one wants to purchase. Hence customer satisfaction is the key to success today. An unhappycustomer can ruin the image of the store whereas a happy and satisfied customer can be loyal for a lifetime. Therefore getting the right feedback from the customer is of utmost importance.
- An Independent View
The audit by an outside agency brings out the true picture without any bias. This is important to understand the ground realities and make future planning effective. The studies show that around a billion pounds are spent every year in UK alone at point of purchase for product promotions. This is simply because of the reason that getting the customer satisfied in store itself has never been more important.
- Measure Customer Experience
The specialized services provided by the auditors help measure the customer experience at all the points in the store which come in direct contact of the customers. These programs manage and improve the customer experience which leads to greater customer retention along with improved customer advocacy and higher transaction values.
- Customer Intelligence
The customer intelligence is gathered by the auditors through different means and by using a combination of many things like footfall data, on-line surveys, mystery shopping, audit of in-store brand compliance as well as the financial data. By using the specialized systems and means of analyzing the inputs from the customers, meaningful results are drawn which help in planning for better footfall in the store and higher conversion into actual purchases.
- Changes for Betterment
Just like business intelligence is important to summarize financial performance of the companies, customer intelligence is important to understand what the customers think about a product, a store or a company. Why does the customer buy product of a particular brand and why the liking for the other brand is not so much? Hence the audits are the means for better POS compliance and guide by means of suggesting changes for betterment.
- Audits are Specific
The audits are specific about a brand, a product, a company or a store and hence are in a position to pin-point the specific problem areas or the things that need focus and improvement. The audit can specifically speak out as to what is happening in a particular store and what strategies can be used to increase the footfall.
- Increase Revenues
With the critical analysis done on the real-time data, the measures can be taken to ensure better customer satisfaction and hence higher footfalls and increased revenues for the store, which is the ultimate goal of any business.