4 Advantages of Using Predictive Analytics Tools for Retail Businesses

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Being in business can sometimes make you feel like a rock in the desert.

The days are extremely hot and the nights extremely cold. These two extreme weather conditions assault this piece of rock, compromising its structural integrity.

Let me put this in familiar terms:

Retail businesses are usually caught between periods of lull and periods of heavy activity. Does this sound familiar? Sure it does. This happens to every retail business, some more than others.

Based on your experience, you may have a sense of when you have periods of low and high activity. But there are times when certain waves of high activity hit you and your staff unexpectedly.

What do you do in such instances? How do you manage when that storm rolls in? Don’t have an idea?

We have one…

And it is called predictive analytics tool. It is a combination of Wi-Fi analytics softwares and a smart algorithm. The Wi-Fi analytics platform collects customer data while the algorithm uses this data to predict periods of high business activity.

Pretty cool, right?

Of course it is. Can you imagine all the things you can do with a tool like this?

By the way, here are important factors to consider when choosing Wi-Fi marketing and analytics software.

Below we have outlined four advantages of such a tool to your business.

  1. Improve Shopping Experience

You want to maintain the experience your customers have at all times. They expect this from you always.

Many of your loyal customers do business with you because of the experience they get when they do. Currently, the number of staff you have can easily and efficiently attend to your regular number of customers.

But what happens when a busy weekend or holiday hits suddenly? What happens when your daily influx of visitors quadruples and you find yourself grossly understaffed?

You may lose a loyal customer or more. Because they may not receive the same treatment or have the same experience on a busy day as they would on a regular day.

A predictive analytics tool can spot this a mile away and give you fair warning. With that, you can make arrangement for contingency staffs.

  1. Increase Your Busy-Day Revenue

If you think annoying one customer is bad, imagine what annoying a crowd of them will do.

When you are understaffed and a peak day hits, your services become slower, your customer service becomes poorer. As a consequence you will have long lines of impatient (and sweaty) customers.

This scenario will read as a bad experience in the minds of the waiting customers. They will probably be doing their next shopping elsewhere.

Furthermore, it drives away other potential customers who walk in and see the long queues. In both scenarios, you are bleeding revenue. And hurting your brand image, as well.

With Wi-Fi and predictive analytics tools you can confidently tell when busy days are close and ‘staff up’ to the challenge. Make sure you get the right number of staff to match the number of customer the predictive analytics tools ‘foresees’.

This way, you can offer great experience to every customer that walks in regardless of the time of the year.

  1. Strengthen Staff Morale

If your customers are annoyed about your poor service, you bet your staffs are, too. But your staff may be upset for a different reason.

The shear amount of customers they have to handle during the peak periods will overwhelm them. This work overload will get them tired and therefore easily irritated. Ultimately, they could transfer their irritation to your customers.

You should show your staff that you care about them and want to make their work easier. Using predictive analytics tools, you can reassure your staff that they’d get the backup they need when the time comes.

This will improve their morale and keep them in high spirits during the peak days.

  1. Make It Look Easy

This may not sound much like an advantage but it is.

While you staffs are happy and providing excellent service to your customers, your customers see how efficiently you handle a busy day. This will sell your business as a reputable one that people can trust to deliver on their promises.

Incorporating predictive analytics into your business can improve your staff morale, give your customers a great experience, improve your staff morale, and ultimately increase revenue. It’s a win-win-win for everyone.

If you want to learn more about predictive analytics tools, kindly contact us now. You can request a free demo to see how our Wi-Fi marketing & analytics platform works.

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