Customers feel comfortable expressing their concerns to you and getting a prompt resolution. If the customers are able to voice their concerns quickly and with minimum effort, the chances of your company winning the award for best customer service in retail are high.
Statista projects that by 2024, global retail sales will exceed $30 trillion. In this highly competitive marketplace of retail services, it is important to be able to offer exceptional customer service. Retailers have a great weapon: knowledge management. It allows them to streamline their operations and produce professional workers.
What is knowledge Management?
Knowledge management, also known as KM, organizes existing information within a company so that it is more accessible, useful, and easily modified whenever needed. KM is also a way to set best practices for storing and sharing information within a company.
Retailers must have knowledge management to be able to set up best practices and access retail knowledge. So what exactly is retail information?
Retail knowledge encompasses everything, from the information about products or services to how to handle clients in a retail setting. Retail knowledge is more than the documentation of products or services.
This means that workers are unable access the information they need. Knowledge management solutions for retail help to end the data curse and improve data flow within any retail setting.
Why choose knowledge-management for retailers?
#1 Assistance with self-service at the store
Optimized self service mediums
It can be frustrating to find out information about a product, service or program that is not available after numerous attempts at self-service tabs.
Customer service can be frustrating if customers make a purchase after they have read outdated information. Retailers benefit from knowledge management. This helps them optimize self-service medias through carefully curated and created information pieces.
Customers get the most relevant information quickly, in a concise and interesting manner. This improves their shopping experience.
Well-trained workforce:
A highly-trained workforce is essential to an efficient self-service platform. Highly-trained employees can assist customers in finding the information they require by having a deep understanding of the information database.
Effective staff in-store can help the client with any query or problem by explaining any aspect of the data. KM allows employees to add notes to the information, and help customers understand what they are doing.
#2 Enables training for retail employees
Onboarding employees
Retailers have the advantage of knowledge management to make their onboarding process fast and efficient. For new employees, it is possible to set up training modules that will help them quickly gain basic and essential knowledge before they can start their work. KM to onboard employees is in line to their expectations. 49% of employees desire to learn when and how they need.
Because the knowledge management system includes different directories or spaces that facilitate the bifurcation, employees can easily learn new information from wherever they are without having to seek out external training.
Re-training workforce:
Employee training is a never-ending process. Knowledge management is the ability to make sure all outlets have the opportunity to access an updated product training module, or learn more about a brand new product.
Retailers can also use knowledge management to manage the flow of the correct information across different outlets.
#3 Provides an easy way to store everything for retail employees
You can quickly access data:
A retail environment can contain complex information. Guides for different products and service, information on the newest products, procedures to deal with customers, auditing methods, and many more are just a few of the complex information that is available in a retail environment. Knowledge Management for Retailers helps to organize all of this information and make it accessible to employees.
Knowledge management software helps employees break down data silos, record customer experience, and gain information that can be used to improve the workplace. This software allows employees to flag any data they want to be reviewed by management. This prevents the knowledge base from being cluttered with irrelevant information.
Multilingual data:
Retailers are no longer required to expand their business in areas where there is a language barrier. Multilingual data assistance with KM allows employees access to data in their preferred tongue. Multilingual support for customer queries allows employees to help customers in local languages. This helps them be more effective with their customers.
Customer data:
Standing out from the crowd is all about customizing. Knowledge management systems can integrate data from CRM to give deep insights into the customer. Based on customer history, employees can sell relevant products to customers. This personal shopping experience increases customer loyalty. In fact, 80% customers will purchase from a company offering a customized shopping experience.
#4 Useful systems to keep your knowledge current
It is possible to omit important information
Retail settings can have an inefficient information base that adds new information. It means that outdated information remains part of the existing information base, in the form files, Excel spreadsheets or media, and can be accessed by anyone.
The likelihood of unneeded and obsolete information creeping up in this situation is high, as there is no way for data to be completely removed from the scattered database.
Knowledge Management for Retailers, on the flip side, makes the knowledge source the’single Source of Truth’ without the concern of irrelevant information being overshadowed by relevant.
Simple and efficient methods for updating knowledge
A central knowledge base for retail businesses ensures an easy and efficient process for updating knowledge. Administrators can quickly identify the knowledge that is needed to be updated and can update that information. This eliminates redundant information which could misinform employees or customers.
#5 Interactive AI use for improved store experience
Interactive chats
AI is revolutionizing the way customers interact within retail environments. With deep insights into customer shopping habits, buying history and shopping preferences, AI chats can offer customized solutions to improve customer experience. After browsing the knowledgebase, the AI will present a customer who is looking for a specific accessory for his washroom.
AI insights
Retailers also have the advantage of knowledge management because they can use AI-driven data to understand their customers’ buying behavior. Retailers can use this information to reinforce their strategies for capturing customer attention and to promote different products.
AI-powered Knowledge Management (by knowledgemax.ai), makes it easy for staff members to quickly locate and resolve questions. Additionally, administrators can use analytics to track the relevancy of the data, and to make the best assessments of commonly accessed knowledge.