Customer Service

3 tips for using tech, data to improve customer experience

Here are three technology and data-related suggestions to ensure you deliver the customer experience consumers not only want but expect from your brand.

Photo: Generated by AI. Adobe Stock.

March 14, 2025 by Mike Groesch — Senior VP, Commerce Support, NCR Voyix

Meeting rising consumer expectations is a challenge for all retailers. We want it all from brands — including a consistently positive in-store shopping experience.

Nearly 85% of U.S. retail sales occur in store, which means retailers must ensure back-office operations are synchronized with store floor management to make those seamless in-store experiences possible. Adopting new technology to create more convenience and ease, coupled with a data-driven strategy can help retailers like you drive loyalty and improve business outcomes.

Here are three suggestions to get you started:

1. Introduce more self-service opportunities with technology

Our 2025 Commerce Experience Report shows 77% of in-store shoppers prefer self-checkout because it's faster than staffed checkout. More than one-third of shoppers (36%) select self-checkout because it has shorter lines, while 43% favor bagging their items.

Self-service is also the technology consumers surveyed said they would like to see more of at convenience stores and restaurants.

As customer preferences shift to self-service, it's more important than ever for retailers to adapt to meet demand. Providing options like self-checkout helps create a seamless shopping experience that keeps customers coming back.

2. Use customer data to drive loyalty

Loyalty programs improve customer experience. The same report reveals that 70% are members of a grocery store rewards/loyalty program. Seventy-five percent of those respondents receive personalized offers daily to weekly.

The most effective retail loyalty programs utilize customer activity data for enhanced personalization. By combining customer data with the automation features available through your point-of-sale system, a tailored loyalty and rewards experience can be crafted across various customer touch points.

3. Give customers control

There's personalization, and then there's overstepping boundaries with consumer data. Nobody wants to think a retailer is listening to conversations, observing conversations or stalking consumers for their data.

Avoid being "creepy" by allowing consumers to control their data and just collect the minimum amount to run your business. For instance, a grocery retailer might track data on green bean purchases and find out sales spiked during the holidays as consumers planned to make green bean casserole. This data would allow them to project how many pounds of green beans to purchase during certain times of the year so they could meet demand. But there would be little reason to go beyond that transactional layer of data and collect much more in this instance.

Many customers are leery of providing too much of their data, so it's important to respect their privacy.

Improve the shopping journey

It's commonly said data is the new oil, the new gold or the new currency. Data can help you better understand your customers, stock the right inventory levels, make informed decisions and more.

Knowing this, consider adopting and implementing these three technology and data-related suggestions to ensure you deliver the customer experience consumers not only want but expect from your brand.

About Mike Groesch

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