Customer expectations have hit an all-time high, with shoppers wanting personalized experiences and support on their terms. Roughly 80% of customers now say the experience a company provides is as necessary as its product (Salesforce, 2023). They expect on-demand access to expertise and intuitive self-service channels around the clock.
In this environment, simply reacting to inquiries or issues will not suffice. Retailers must aggregate data from sales, inventory, and customer interactions and leverage data analytics to anticipate needs and reach out with help or offers before customers even ask. Proactive digital engagement solutions can help retailers achieve that, as well as eliminate friction throughout the shopping journey that today’s forward-thinking customers expect.
Let’s explore what you can expect from a modern customer loyalty solution and how a cutting-edge omnichannel platform like Veras Reach meets these demands.
Anticipating Customer Needs with Proactive Outreach
Proactive outreach means engaging customers before issues arise or needs become explicit, using data and digital channels to touch base at the right time. For example, if analytics flags a delayed shipment or recurring question, the system can automatically notify the customers with helpful information or offer assistance.
How does it do so, you ask? Well, this anticipatory approach relies on having a unified view of the customer. Purchase history, interaction records, and preferences, all into one accessible profile. In practice, a retailer might review recent buying patterns and offer complementary product suggestions. Or they can alert shoppers to store events relevant to their best interests and offer coupons before they even realize they need them.
Proactively contacting a shopper makes them more likely to trust your brand and engage openly. Moreover, anticipating customer needs ensures their shopping journey remains uninterrupted. And over time, those positive proactive experiences create a strong foundation of loyalty and trust!
Why Proactive Digital Engagement Solutions Drive Loyalty and Confidence
- Increased Customer Confidence: When you reach out first, customers see that your brand is attentive and cares about their satisfaction. Indeed, surveys by Gartner show that receiving proactive support can measurably boost customer value.
- Fostered Loyalty: 91% of consumers say they are likelier to shop with brands that recognize them and offer relevant recommendations (Accenture, 2018). Proactive outreach, whether a personalized sale alert or a curated product suggestion, makes shoppers feel part of an exclusive community. It reinforces the brand-customer relationship.
- Issue Resolution Before Escalation: Cutting-edge proactive digital engagement solutions can flag issues, such as a payment problem or a failed delivery, and automatically address them before the customer complains. Thereby, it mitigates customer frustration from boiling over and saves on costly support interventions later.
- Enhanced Overall CX: Customers notice when a brand anticipates their needs, like reminding them of a wedding anniversary gift opportunity or offering a discount on refillable items. These little gestures increase the likelihood that shoppers will come back and even introduce the brand to others.
Retailers that consistently exceed expectations by providing timely value stand out and gain market share. By positioning your retail solution as one that goes the extra mile with customers, you attract and retain shoppers who have plenty of other choices.
And they also spread positive word-of-mouth!
Key Features of Effective Proactive Digital Engagement Solutions
- Real-Time Data Sharing Across Channels:
When a shopper buys an item online, walks into a store, or contacts support, the customer loyalty solution should update immediately so that any touchpoint has the latest context.
Real-time data ensures that proactive messages are timely, and it also allows frontline workers with up-to-date info on purchases and support requests to personalize conversations on the spot.
- Robust Loyalty engine
A configurable loyalty engine lets you run multiple loyalty programs at once (tiered, points-based, or event-driven) and tailor complex reward strategies to different segments. The goal is to incentivize further engagement, so customers keep coming back.
- Target Campaign Builder:
Proactive engagement means reaching the right customers with the right message. Marketers should be able to segment audiences based on cross-channel purchase history and behavior.
For example, you could target customers who bought winter gear last year but haven’t shopped yet this season.
With these segments, personalized campaigns, such as dynamic email promotions, SMS alerts, or app notifications, can be timed to each customer’s profile. This improves ROI on marketing spend.
- AI-Powered Clienteling Module:
79% of customers say engaging with knowledgeable store associates is very important (Retail Trends Playbook 2020, Microsoft/PSFK).
Through an intelligent clienteling retail solution, sales associates benefit from the same data intelligence as online channels: AI-driven prompts and customer profiles on their mobile devices.
They can then make personalized and proactive interactions to understand a particular shopper’s needs immediately as they walk in.
- Customer Privacy:
Trust also hinges on respecting customer data. 71% say they trust companies more if data use is clearly explained (Salesforce, 2023).
Proactive digital engagement solutions must comply with regulations such as CCPA and GDPR and allow customers to easily manage their data, opt out, or request deletion.
Moreover, with privacy as a feature, companies can still leverage data responsibly to enhance experiences because customers trust how their data is being used.
- Easy Integration:
An effective customer loyalty solution must plug into your existing retail infrastructure. Easy integration with POS, e-commerce platforms, and marketing tools ensures all channels feed into the central CRM.
Without this integration, data silos would break the flow of insights. Proactive engagement at every touchpoint can be achieved only when data is up to date, and it flows freely from store to system to consumer.
Veras Reach: Your Omnichannel Customer Engagement Platform for Proactive Retail
High expectations and fickle loyalty define the current era of retail. Retailers that wait for customers to ask for help are missing opportunities to delight. By contrast, those that anticipate needs and reach out with relevant offers and support are leading the pack.
Veras Reach is a retail-centric omnichannel CRM and engagement platform built precisely for this “proactive” approach. It provides centralized customer management (with industry-leading data integrity) and a comprehensive suite of tools that transform how retailers engage shoppers.
Not to mention, Veras Reach brings all the above features to life, including targeted, optimized promotions, a rich loyalty engine, AI-driven clienteling, and more. Combined, these capabilities make it an ideal omnichannel retail solution for proactive engagement.
Retailers using our proactive digital engagement solutions report stronger customer satisfaction, more personalized 1-on-1 experiences, much higher loyalty program participation, and improved lifetime value; all because they can anticipate needs and deliver value proactively.
FAQs
1. How quickly can Veras Reach start proactive campaigns?
You can launch targeted outreach within days of implementation, once customer data is centralized and basic segments are defined.
2. Can proactive digital engagement solutions reduce customer support costs?
Yes. Deflecting inbound inquiries becomes easier by anticipating issues and automating alerts, which, in turn, reduces call center volume and support expenses.
3. Can a small retail business benefit from Veras Retail’s customer loyalty solution?
Veras Reach, among Veras Retail’s various retail solutions, is highly configurable and scalable. Retail businesses of both mid-market and enterprise scale can use our retail management tools to foster lasting customer relationships. Master proactive engagement, and you will see higher conversion rates and growth!
4. How crucial is data quality for the success of proactive customer engagement?
Your proactive outreach is only as effective as the data behind it. Superior data integrity ensures personalized messages and recommendations are relevant and well-received (e.g., avoiding duplicate emails). Additionally, omnichannel systems that centralize data allow faster response and more tailored interactions.
