Anyone who has been to the store over this holiday season may have noticed store traffic has been decreasing drastically. It was especially apparent to me on Black Friday as I walked around the stores and realized people just don’t like to go to the store anymore when they can shop from home in their PJs while watching football. They don’t want to deal with lines and people unless absolutely necessary, which is something your business needs to consider. The future of your customer’s experience is online and with self-service. Not only that, but they expect your business to run as smoothly and efficiently in stores as they do online and through self service options. Here are some of the things you can do to achieve this new customer experience.

Speedy devils

One thing you will notice is that people like purchasing online because they have infinite amounts of time to decide whether or not they want an item (or which one they really want), but once they decide to make the purchase, they can do it in seconds. It truly is a very quick and efficient way to do business. While in the store, customers want to experience the same kind of speed. Make sure interactions are quick and efficient, so customers can get what they want as quickly as possible. But don’t make them feel rushed to get through the store either.

One way to do this is to give tablets to all employees that they can use to search for any information they don’t know off hand and can checkout the customer whenever they are ready to go. It is a concept Though you definitely want registers available still, having your employees around the store capable will help increase speed and efficiency of conversations and transactions. Also, allowing for two-way text marketing will let your customers communicate with you in whatever way they feel most comfortable.

Personalized accounts

Your customer needs to have a personalized account with your business. Whether they do their business all online or in person, they should be able to easily transfer it over to the other option and still have all their preferences and histories available to them. This can be done with a loyalty card, or even just a phone number that keeps all the information tied together.

Whatever you decide to do, make it so your customers are able to have an amazing experience regardless of whether they choose to shop in stores or online.