Customer Experience for Digital Natives

 Top 8 Tips for Customer Experience for Digital Natives 

Who are the digital natives? I keep writing articles for Retail about Millennials, so sneaky me (after some backlash over the keyword millennials), I'll just call them digital natives from now on. Why do I keep writing about this? Because I'm passionate about optimizing retail independent stores to omnichannel, SaaS upgrades, local search and the new mobile reality driven by digital natives. These are the consumers that will become the biggest buyers in the next few years. They also happen to be the folk who are driving digital evolution. 

#SkillsGap describes how professionals are upgrading themselves this year. 

In fact, a lot of SMB local stores will be targeting lifestyle interests (health food, vape, new age boutique, tattoo parlour, etc... ), their main audience and driving demographic they will target with their Loyalty reward programs integrated with their cloud POS system, is precisely, younger folk who are digital natives and using mobile devices in-store. 

In recent years there are these "buzz" words that drive our interest, because we know they represent digital disruption. They encapsulate what we see on the street and on the web. Some of theses trending keywords are related to retail technology as well, think: 

• Omnichannel 
• Customer Experience
• Digital Disruption 
• Click and Shop (tendency of Millennials to buy online and pick up in-store)

Source: CRM Trends. 2016. Evolving Consumer Demographics. https://www.crmtrends.com/ConsumerDemographics.html via SweetIQ. 

Why I Care

As I'm passionate about empowering SMB independent retail and these tips for geared to those entrepreneurial folk who are often family owned businesses and people who are entrepreneurs,  people who sacrifice their savings for a dream.

They are folk who are passionate about offering a service, product or experience to other people that they feel contributes good in the world. They are people who love what they do, operate on slim margins and sometimes can require some marketing insight to boost their adaption to these 'digital natives'.  

I consider it my moral obligation then, to share what I know about this, in the hopes that some store owner out there, can make a profit, no matter how small, to validate what they do and the community prosperity they contribute to.

Culture and shopping local does not have a price tag, it's part of the lifeblood of our neighborhoods, urban diversity and cosmopolitan charm. 

I'm deeply moved by the entrepreneurs, the Mompreneurs, the ones who are brave enough to dive in. It's to these indie retail audiences, that I serve. 

Top 8 Tips for Digital Natives 

Do Glance Marketing on Contemporary Channels 

1- Stores should have an active profile on Instagram that has the very best photography your business can provide and be easily findable & identifiable with smart industry targeted #hashtags. Instagram is a key channel for your store to seem accessible to digital natives. You need to actively relate to and mirror your audience to gain rapport as a brand. 

Show your Face Digitally 

2- Create video content on how your store was founded, your stories, your customer success. Have a YouTube channel and get customer testimonials if you can, just put faces to your business, be seen, be friendly, support community. This makes you more visible and provides an more intimate backstage pass/inside scoop as to what you guys are about. 

Stimulate Creative Interaction 

3- Create UGC contests that are linked to Corporate Social Responsibility. This means holding contests that demonstrate how your customers can create visual or video content about your business that's for a good cause. Pair this with a loyalty points accelerator program that is time-urgent. People like to share projects that do good in the world. No matter how busy you are as a retailer, UGC went mainstream in 2015. Digital natives trust their peers, not brands. 

Build Loyalty 

4- Link your store to community, local events, sustainability, social good. Create custom campaigns (12-24 a year) that are targeted to your high-value customers, VIP customers, that top 15% that drives the net margins of your store. This isn't difficult to do, if you are with a solution that has sophisticated analytics on ROI and can link Email and SMS marketing with loyalty, data and analytics on sales figures. Campaigns that demonstrate your store values and contributes to the local community, will empower digital natives to want to shop local. 

Bring Their World into your Store 

5- Optimize your store with product iPads, tablets with DIY on boarding of your loyalty program, a branded landing page you can advertise to get demonstrate the benefits of your LRP (loyalty rewards program) and more interactive setups at the store to lure digital natives to interact with your products and staff better. Digital natives are at home, online and on  multiple devices, so sync with your customers. 

The Sky is the Limit 

6- This is a big one. Get your store on the cloud. This is imperative because it provides access to SaaS (software as a solution integrations) and point of sale systems that are getting more sophisticated. This will help you manage your stores better, AND have analytics on your customers. With data, your marketing can be automated, greatly improved and your customers can get promotions and offers that are more personalized to them. Without being on the cloud, how can a brick-and-mortar store compete with Ecommerce setups really?

Less Clicks is More 

7- Look into social commerce, that's ecommerce directly hosted on social channels. If they come to pick up their stuff at your store, they may spend more, if your display is top notch. Focus on increasing in-store traffic. Even consider live-streaming events, where you can interview customers or do some creative public relations or publicity stunts (e.g. random acts of kindness, free product giveaways, etc...)

Integrated Omnichannel 

8- To connect the dots between your social omnichannel efforts and your brick-and-mortar experiences of customers, you have to realize how customers get to know your business, find ways to increase word of mouth marketing (both online and offline).

You also have to connect the dots between social media, marketing promotions, loyalty, store BI (business intelligence/insights), in-store optimization and custom campaigns that move in the direction of better customer analytics towards a predictive analytics of highly personalized experiences. 

This requires some creativity on the part of store owners, and a sense for which technology solutions can actually create the highest ROI, with the most streamlined simplicity for your customers. 

Digital influences on Retail isn't just contemporary, it's big business. So if you are a store owner or know somebody who is, recommend this article if it was helpful.