Customer Retention: How Does Your Order Taking Process Affect It?

Companies can have a diverse approach on their order taking process, depending on the products and services they offer.

One company can have a simple order taking process. Another can have a more complex one depending on what they are trying to sell and who they are selling to.

For example, fast-food companies have simpler order taking process. You just click the menu, order your favorite meal, upsize or pick ala carte, then check out. You can order as many as you want.  However, other products aren’t like that. Concert ticket customers, for instance, can only order a limited number of tickets per transaction. Moreover, there is a time limit before checking out.

Companies that do not think about customer engagement would usually brush off their order taking process and how it affects their business. They would think that a customer would order however and whatever it takes if they really like a product or service. But that is not the case anymore. There are many other companies that offer better services and consumers are aware of it.

This is where customer retention would, and frankly, should be important to you and your business.

 

Customer Retention Statistics To Prove Its Relevance

Many companies think that it is more vital to acquire new customers. Though it might look good and it might make you feel you have increased your sales, giving more importance to a new customer or prospect while little or no attention to your old customers would likely make you lose the latter.

This information just proves further that you have to take care of your repeat customers. They are more willing and are more loyal to you and your brand. ROI is bigger with returning customers than new ones.

Adobe also stated in their study that loyal customers:

• buy 30 percent more per order than first-time shoppers
• spend almost 50 percent more than first-time buyers during holidays
• make seven times more revenue per visit

With all the facts given, customer retention should be a priority for all companies. But what is the relation of it to order taking process?

When customers order from a site or an app, they are being serviced by the company. This is where everything starts. If they feel like the process is hard, they will abandon the cart. Or if a website or the app crashes more than once during the order process, it will probably frustrate the customer; making them leave the site.

Knowing why your customers leave is very important. Solving that issue would increase your customer retention.

 

Ways to improve customer retention through order taking process

One innovative company is known for making its order taking process a customer-centric one. It puts customer’s convenience first and that what makes them be loved by their consumers. That company is Starbucks. The coffee chain giant has an app that lets customers order coffee before they even go inside a store and pick it up minutes later.

In the eye of a customer, it makes them see Starbucks as someone/something that values their time because they need not to wait another ten minutes before they can drink their coffee. This move by the largest coffee chain in the world actually makes them have high customer retention.

Another strategy to use is to personalize the order taking process. With a returning customer, you can match the products or services they are looking for with their purchase history. This will make the customer think that you do know them and you know what they want.

Setting expectations and clear purpose of the products and services during the order taking process is important. This strategy would make you seem honest and authentic to your customers and prospects alike. It would surely make them come back as you tell the truth and what they see is what they get.

For online orders, making sure that everything is going smoothly and the customer representative knows what they are doing will make your customers stay and be loyal. There are times or incidences that there are lost or misplaced orders. Those moments are expected but preventable. If you have omnichannel order medium, it is best to keep them connected so that orders will be properly addressed.

It is also important and a smart strategy to update your inventory often. When a customer orders a product and it is frequently out of stock, they will be forced to look for other companies that offer the same product they want from you. That is not good. You need to restock often, especially your best-selling products.

Last but not the least is having a 24-7 order taking service. This way, your loyal customers can order anytime they want and feel. This would make them feel important and will also encourage them to order more.

Managing orders and processing them on your own can be very time-consuming. It can also lead up to mistakes that might appall your customers and prospects. To better serve them, contact us for order taking services!