How to get your customers to “hang out” with your brand

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To attract new customers and create a great customer experience, shoppers also need to feel a connection to your store?s brand. It not just about how quickly they can get in and out of your store. Many consumers still like to use shopping as a leisure activity and are willing to take their time, provided that you offer them things which will make them want to stick around.

For this very reason, retailers need to cook up ways to get people to not just walk into stores or land on websites, but enjoy themselves and want to stick around. After all, the longer consumers browse, the better the chance they?ll make a purchase.

Read more about customer service:

• Five great and five bad examples of customer service
• The secret sauce behind Richard Branson’s customer service success
• Ten barriers to effective customer service

So how can you encourage customers to stay longer and “hang out” with your brand? Below are ideas and tips that could work for your business.

Make room for interesting, immersive experiences

Rather than devoting all the space in your shop for displaying products, consider allocating some time for experiences. For example, you can dedicate a particular part of your store for sampling products???some Lush stores, for example, have large sinks where shoppers can try out soaps, lotions and scrubs.

Alternatively, you could create an area where customers can sit and relax, or have fun. Take for instance, Forever 21. Some of its stores have photo booths where people can snap pictures between shopping.

You could also help customers make better use of your products by either assisting or educating them. For example, beauty retailers like Benefit Cosmetics offer free make overs to showcase the products as well as kick off a positive interaction with customers. Customers are pleased because they get pampered, while the retailers are able to not only sell products, but also connect and get to know shoppers better.

Offer both in-store and online services

It?s important to connect with customers both on and offline. Omni-channel is showing no signs of slowing down, and in order to keep up, retailers ? whether they?ve started in brick and mortar or ecommerce ? will need to merge their physical and digital systems to serve omni-shoppers.

Read on to find out how to create a frictionless customer experience.

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