Use Your POS Software to Generate More Repeat Business

How To: from Jeff Haefner article

by Shannon Dewald

One of the most obvious ways to create more repeat business is to track your customers and communicate with them in some manner. Typically this requires asking for customer information at the POS. Ideally, you want to collect name, phone number, and/or e-mail addresses as they are making purchases. (Develop a "talk track" for how you want your staff to ask for this information - i.e. it's more effective to ask if they want to be added to your promotion or coupon e-mail list than just asking for their e-mail address without providing the why).

With this information you can select criteria for how you want to segment your customer base and the offers that you want to provide for each customer. For example, if you've received a new shipment of a particular brand, you may want to notify customers who have purchased items from this brand previously.

You would segment your customers based on their past purchase history and then export the list to your e-mail contact program for those customers with e-mail addresses. You may also have a staff member call those customers that have not provided an e-mail address. You will have gone above and beyond what most of your competitors are doing. If you provide an offer to these customers as well and track the redemption then you will also know exactly how profitable the extra effort was to your bottom line.