How To Give Customers A Good Experience At Your Garden Supply Store

Garden center shoppers rarely make impulse purchases or consider pricing a significant influence on their investments. Instead, the ideal shopping experience
 for most people visiting your garden center relies on the customer service they encounter and accessibility to consultants. Your customers want to compare different plants as they walk around your retail garden store and immerse personalized advice and information on specific plants they can purchase for their homes and gardens. When shopping online, they want to see beautiful images with descriptive information about the plants and how they fare in their homes. So, increasing your dollar buy per customer solely depends on your customer satisfaction capabilities. The beauty of a garden center is that mother nature does half the work for you. Without further ado, here is the half to focus on to give your customers the best experience you can master. Shall we?


Know Thy Customer

You cannot offer your customers a good experience if you do not know what they want. For instance, a personalized customer experience is crucial
 because it increases customer loyalty and average order size while reducing the return rate. It is the best strategy to meet your customers' expectations.

However, every customer in your store might have a unique need. For instance, a mother with a stroller needs ample space when walking in your garden center. They should easily access the service carts at the entrance as well. This will mean nothing if moving the carts proves challenging.

Therefore, you must ensure they are often serviced, cleaned, and checked for mobility issues. The same attention should be paid to your in-store shelves and product arrangement. In a word, knowing your customer is imperative to designing your garden center for their comfort
.

For example, keep the popular plants each season at the center of the aisle when displaying your products. Install adjustable shelves where applicable to make your plants accessible to every customer. Otherwise, keep your employees close to give help.

Besides, displaying your merchandise correctly can encourage your customers to make impulse purchases. For instance, include plants with complimentary color combinations next to your best sellers. The dreamy appeal will encourage customers to purchase the mix instead of the one trending plant.

Alternatively, include plant care information for the plant with complimentary tools like shears and fertilizer the customer might need if they do choose to buy the said plant. This value addition enhances the shopping experience and encourages impulse buying.

Use market research, the feedback section on your website, and your social media Q&A sessions to determine your customer needs
. Then, design your garden center with your customer in mind. Here's another example:

If you are in an urban area, your customers do not have large yards or garden spaces. Therefore, their preferred plants and flowers will be indoor plants or small flowers that fit on the patio and balcony of their apartments. This means that your plants should mainly comprise small colorful plants that are easy to maintain.

On the other hand, if your clients are from a suburban neighborhood, then filling your garden center with bushes, shrubs, and perennials might be more fitting. An online retail store might need to consider both choices since the reach is more versatile and wider among online clientele.

Your suppliers can also give you valuable information about your customer preferences and the current plants selling in your area's garden industry.


Empower Your Employees

Remember, valuable insight and advice given to your customers are essential. Since your employees are your first defense against poor customer service, you must empower them with the proper knowledge to assist your customers.

Include training sessions in your business operations to teach all your employees about all the plants you sell, their care tips, and alternatives. Assume the role of a customer and create a training program that meets all your needs, then teach it to your employees.

Make the lessons practical by involving your employees in the gardening processes in your garden center. Give them home plants to plant and care for in their homes and ask them to share their experiences.

This helps them learn about the tips that work best for plant care from each other and their individual experiences. If you have gardening seminars in your local area, enroll your employees or invite gardening experts to your garden center for a fun learning experience.

When introducing a new plant in your garden center, include its information and care in your training documents and update your employees. Also, the training sessions should consist of customer service skills, like smiling at a customer, welcoming them to the store, and helping the elderly push their carts to the checkout counter.

Empowering your employees should also include giving them tools that motivate them to offer the best customer experience to your customers. For instance, ask for your employees' opinions during meetings. They know what works and what doesn't and can surprise you with suggestions that improve the overall efficiency of your garden center.

Add an incentive for employees
 that make significant improvements to your processes to boost their morale further and encourage others to do the same. You cannot go wrong when your employees are happy with their working environment and condition.


For Your Online Retail Store

Businesses today need an online presence to survive because most customers will shop online before visiting the physical store. And when they do, they expect your physical garden center to look like it did online.

This means you must learn how to manage your retail customer experience and avoid disappointment
, whether online or in-store. Therefore, one of the things to ensure you provide your online shoppers is fresh guarantees with their purchases.

Your gardeners expect to quickly find products in your eCommerce store with great advice to help them make purchase decisions. A well-chosen POS software can offer you these solutions
 to better your customer experience.

For instance, the PIM system incorporates all your products catalog with descriptions to guide the customer through purchases.


Let's Not Disappoint Mother Nature

Your customers want to see beautiful plants as they walk through your garden center physically or online. They also want to interact with staff members that are just as enthusiastic as they are about plants and more knowledgeable to give aid where it is needed.

Therefore, aspire to create an inviting culture your customers will appreciate. Besides, your customers and your employees are your biggest advocates. And these tips will help you inspire your customers to return for new planned and impulsive purchases.

As for your employees, why not invest in a garden POS to help make their work more manageable? Our Erply POS solution, for instance, enhances the employee-to-customer interface by providing up-to-date oversight over products and stock levels.

In turn, your employees have more time to interact with customers and cater to their needs fast, like confirming that a product missing from the shelves is in stock in another store location.

We also work on reducing manual labor through automated processes like stock replenishing because we understand how relinquishing specific responsibilities from your employees provides them with the satisfaction they need to offer the best customer experience.

So, reach us today and get a demo with a free consultation
 on how our POS is your key to better customer service
.