4 Reasons Why Customer Counting Should Be Part Of Your Loss Prevention Solution

July 5 2015

Customer counting or visitor management are usually not the first words that come to mind when thinking about loss prevention. However, customer counting is a powerful tool for keeping costs down and clients coming back while reducing losses at the same time.

Insights into your peak times and customer numbers allow you to understand better and cater to their needs, adjust your staff on the floor and even measure the effectiveness of specific marketing campaigns.

Here are some of the ways you can use visitor management to delight your guests:

1. Identify Your Store's Peak Hours

At the end of the day, knowing how much revenue you made today is not enough. You need to understand how many people came into your shop, at what times they visited, and how long they stayed.

Knowing how much revenue you made today is not enough

Visitor counting enables you to see patterns in your shopper's behaviour. For example, identifying peak times is incredibly important. Let's say your employees take their lunch hour at 12:30 pm. But your store gets the most foot traffic every weekday between 11:30 am and 1 pm. You need to make sure you have enough salespeople on the floor to assist customers and checkout personnel to avoid long wait times. That means you need to space out your employee's lunch break to accommodate your customer's needs.

2. Manage Your Staff Efficiently

According to an Ernst & Young study, most essential to the “survival [of any business] in the current tough retail environment is labour flexibility — that is, not the total number of hours per week, but the distribution of those hours throughout the week.”

But how do you know how to achieve this flexibility and strike the right balance? Too many employees on the floor will leave staff bored and possibly frustrated because they do not have high enough commissions. Too few employees on the schedule and they become overworked while your customers lack attention.

Visitor counting can allow you to see the regular patterns and plan just the right amount of employees for every shift. Customers can easily find a salesperson and get the attention they deserve. And, the staff is in a better frame of mind and able to give better, more attentive service.

3. Increase The Dwell Time In Your Store

How long do customers typically spend in your store? Visitor counting can give you some insights about when they come in and when they leave. We all know that the longer customers spend in a store, the more money they are likely to spend. Industry analysts at Path Intelligence determined that if you can increase a customer's dwell time by 1 per cent, you will see a 1.3 per cent increase in your sales.

The longer customers spend in a store, the more money they are likely to spend

Calculating your current average dwell time can allow you to make physical changes to your shop, and see if you can coax customers into hanging around a little longer. These changes can create a more enjoyable, relaxing experience for your clients; make a visit to your store an anticipated leisure activity.

4. Measure The Effectiveness Of Your Marketing Campaigns

In the past, marketing was more art than science, but with increased data tracking abilities, we can get a much more accurate idea of how our marketing efforts are paying off.

Measuring the number of visitors in your store, and comparing them against the timing of local ad campaigns can help you identify and duplicate your marketing wins. For instance, if you use proximity advertising on mobile platforms, you'll be able to see right away whether your ad was effective.

Conclusion

Make sure that every system in your business is working for you, in every way possible. By discovering the customer experience benefits of visitor counting, you can not only keep your business safer but also help it grow.

Head of Product Management

Hilbert Dijkstra

Powerful Tool for Keeping Costs Down and Clients Coming Back