If you provide solutions to retail and restaurant verticals, you should have customer survey solutions in your portfolio to complement the point of sale (POS) or retail or restaurant management systems you sell.
Retailers and restaurateurs are facing stiffer competition than ever before. Traditional lines are blurred – consumers can buy almost anything from pharmaceuticals to auto supplies at big box stores or order what they want online. And diners can pick up a smartphone and use a third-party service to order from virtually any restaurant for delivery. So the question of how to build customer loyalty when consumers have a growing number of choices is probably keeping your clients up at night.
Customer satisfaction has a starring role in customer retention. Therefore, retailers and restaurateurs not only need to provide consumers with the caliber of products and services they demand but also create experiences that make visits to the store or restaurant convenient, productive, and pleasant.
Step One is Knowing the Customers
Before a retail or restaurant business can deliver the experiences their customers want, they must know what they want. Technology can help them create a valuable picture of their client base, collecting data from activity on an e-commerce website, app use, social media engagement, and in-store purchases. But another practical but sometimes overlooked way to find out what customers want is to ask them.
Retail and Restaurant Customer Survey Solutions
Customer surveys are an excellent way to get direct feedback that owners and managers can use to align their businesses with what their customers want. Surveys can cover various topics, including the merchandise or menu items your client offers, good price points and perceived value, sales or promotions, the business’ loyalty program, or the service customers receive.
Although most business owners and managers have probably always looked for ways to gauge customer satisfaction, they may have had to rely on anecdotal information or their intuition. Retail and restaurant customer survey software provides a more accurate, data-based view. First, it gives the merchant a way to give each customer – not only a select few – the opportunity to provide feedback. Then, it analyzes data and produces reports with actionable insights.
Customer survey solutions also give the merchant a way to collect, analyze and report on the data they collect much more quickly and efficiently than if they attempted to conduct the survey via manual methods.
Customer Survey Software Solves the Problems of How and When
Survey software is more than marketing automation that sends survey links out via email – although that is an option your client could choose. Retailers and restaurateurs can choose software to conduct customer surveys right at the checkout, asking one or two easy-to-answer questions on a customer-facing screen as the consumer completes a purchase. Other solutions are designed for kiosks so customers can provide feedback at their convenience.
Your customers also have the option to print links to online surveys on receipts or have them pop up when a customer makes a purchase or browses an e-commerce website. Your customers can even conduct surveys through apps or social media.
Bottom Line
Unless you serve large enterprise clients, the retail or restaurant businesses you work with may not have the advanced technology that helps them track, monitor and analyze their customers’ behaviors. Adding customer survey functionality to your retail or restaurant client’s solution suite can level the playing field to some degree, helping your clients understand their customers better. It can also help them use the collected data to create experiences that their specific client base wants. It’s information that can help them stay competitive, increase revenues, and grow their businesses – and those are always important goals for any solution you provide. 
