The Ultimate Guide to Enhancing Customer Experience for Your Online Cannabis Business
Cannabis businesses have been forced to make swift adaptations in the eCommerce industry thanks to the digital revolution. Unlike other industries which have been using eCommerce for many years, the cannabis industry is relatively new when it comes to eCommerce. Thus cannabis businesses shave plenty of opportunities to create a fundamentally radical and unique customer experience. With such a customer experience, one can stand out and effectively differentiate their business from traditional retail stores.
Most cannabis businesses are strategically located to provide easy access to their products and services to their various target market. The strategic location of your business is the first step to enhancing positive customer experience. However, being optimally located close to your target market might not equal many customers visiting your store. Therefore one needs to go back to the drawing board and develop a more robust strategy and technique to appeal to your target market.
The following cues will help you enhance the overall customer experience of your clients.
Having Convenient Buying Options
Buying options play a crucial role in the overall customer experience, whether they are making an online or physical purchase. Cannabis-based e-commerce platforms like Vende provide cannabis retailers with convenient and safe buying options which their customers can use when shopping online. These convenient buying options increase brand recognition and customer loyalty. While the physical purchase of cannabis ad cannabis-related products is limited to only cash payment options, the eCommerce options have incorporated various payment options. A convenient buying experience is a simple and effective way of meeting the target market’s demand.
A safe and secure in-store experience
While most businesses focus on having very secure eCommerce platforms, they might need to pay more attention to the importance of having a secure and safe physical space for face-to-face transactions. Some cannabis enthusiasts still prefer walking to a cannabis retail store or dispensary and making a physical purchase. Thus one needs to ensure the environment of their cannabis business is safe and secure. You can provide your customers with a safer shopping experience through the following tips:
Implement an efficient queue management system that eliminates overcrowding in the cannabis retail store.
Using self-service kiosks and touchscreen menus to give customers faster and more convenient access to the product catalogue.
Setting up dedicated consultation booths, which can handle any query or concern a customer might have.
Creating a practical online customer experience
More than 90% of the customers who visit your store or purchase your products will probably be using the internet. While face-to-face interaction can be limited to a few minutes, online customer engagement can take place anywhere and time with no restrictions. Increase your brand’s online presence by creating an Omni-channeled customer experience. While many people use the internet, everyone prefers which platforms to use. That's why most businesses have set up business profiles on all the popular online channels.
Social media presence: social media has become one of the most powerful tools for customer engagement and experience. You can use your businesses’’ social media profile to chat with your customers and target market and even educate them about your brand.
Resourceful website: while social media is suitable for customer engagement, your website will play a key role in customer retention. Cannabis enthusiasts will visit your website frequently if it has plenty of resourceful information. Ensure the website is easy to access, with a synchronized and chronological order of information.
Virtual Budtender Consultation: customers always look for quick ways of contacting businesses. Live chats have become very popular among service-based businesses. Your business can have a virtual budtender consultation available on all the digital platforms operating 24/7.
Customer Feedback
One of the oldest ways of improving customer experience is by requesting customer reviews and feedback. When customers provide reviews and feedback about your service, it makes it easy for you to identify your weak and most vital points. The business can therefore come up with effective measures to handle any setbacks which could have caused customer dissatisfaction. Customer feedback is a double-edged sword that will come with good and bad reviews.
You must respond to every review in the most professional way. Existing customers and target markets rely significantly on customer reviews and how a business responds to reviews when evaluating the brand's credibility. Every customer feedback should be welcomed positively and make the customer feel appreciated and understood. Always thank the customer for any review they give your business and apologize for any inconvenience caused.
Proper training of staff
When operating a cannabis retail store, your staff will spend more than 80% of their time interacting with the customers. They will also be interacting with online inquiries about the brand, products, and services. Thus, they must undergo all the required training related to compliance, licensing, business operations and how to respond to customer inquiries. The training should be more comprehensive than just the budtenders but to everyone working on the business premise. Customers need to feel comfortable asking for help from any of your staff. If your staff can’t handle a simple query from a customer regarding a product or licensing, it questions your business's credibility.
As you have read in this article it is not as straightforward as other industries. Operating a cannabis business is extremely difficult, and not having the know how can really affect your bottom line. Vende POS is made to help its clients run the business they have always wanted. Providing you with all the necessary tools for your business to succeed is our goal. Schedule a demo with us today and see how running your business on the Vende platform can help.