As retailers continue to react to current industry trends, such as personalization and leveraging data-driven insights to promote customer retention, brands have also upgraded their clienteling practices. Clienteling refers to the use of customer data, like preferences and purchase behavior, to drive relationships, and brands are taking advantage of the efficiencies and functionalities afforded by modern technology to do just that. One such example of the reinvigoration of clienteling activities is the utilization of mobile applications as a centralized repository for inventory data, customer relationship management, and pricing information. But as with many software implementations, retailers have a choice between building their own application in-house or buying a solution from a vendor. Below, we walk through the advantages and challenges of how to build a clienteling solution and the dos and don’ts of these implementations. 

Advantages of Building In-House 

The biggest advantage of building an in-house clienteling solution is the flexibility that this approach provides. Not only does an in-house solution avoid locking your team in a long-term contract with a vendor, but it also gives your team more creative control over the look, feel, and functionality of the app. Rather than being limited to the constraints of an out-of-the-box solution (or paying for customized enhancements), an in-house application can be created based on the specific use cases that are most relevant to your brand. Furthermore, by keeping development in-house, the project team has more visibility into and control over timing and prioritization of enhancements or bug fixes. When executed effectively, developing a clienteling solution internally is faster, cheaper, and more scalable than buying a solution from a vendor. 

Challenges of Building In-House 

As with any in-house development project, creating a clienteling application in-house and without a vendor partnership has its challenges. For one, there is no template to build from; all design and functionality decisions must be made by the product owner and key stakeholders. Additionally, an in-house project requires more resources than a vendor-supported build, so resource planning becomes critical. Finally, an application that is built internally will not have access to the curated reporting and analytics capabilities offered by many software vendors. If the above challenges are considered during project planning, though, data and resource gaps can be preemptively eliminated.  

The Dos and Don’ts as You Build a Clienteling Solution 

Based on our experience helping retailers build in-house clienteling solutions, Clarkston suggests the following recommendations to make your implementation successful: 

Do: 

• Break development up into phases – Start with a minimum viable product (MVP) that can provide early benefits to store teams without significant development efforts. 

• Manage stakeholder expectations carefully – Only commit to what you know can be delivered and be conservative in your commitments to allow for unexpected roadblocks. 

• Conduct a pilot launch – Release the app to a subset of your fleet to gather initial feedback. This approach quiets the noise that comes with a large implementation by limiting the amount of feedback for the team to evaluate. 

• Seek stakeholder feedback constantly – Be generous with your product demos and user acceptance testing, both before and after MVP release. Establishing a good working partnership with those closest to your end-users will set the clienteling program up for success. 

• Set clear metrics for success – Ensure that goals associated with each phase of the project are visible and agreed on by business and tech stakeholders.

Don’t: 

• Underestimate the importance of cross-functional collaboration – To promote successful change management and buy-in from store teams, the project team must prioritize stakeholder relationships during all phases of the project. Giving project partners a seat at the table to provide feedback, share concerns, and give insight into the store experience is essential to launching a useful application. 

• Over-promise (and under-deliver) – Be realistic and conservative in timing and scope estimations. Although stakeholders will often ask for more enhancements and a quicker pace, it’s never worth agreeing to these requests if you’re not confident that you can deliver on them. Instead, try to find a compromise. 

• Lose sight of future scope planning – It’s important to keep track of post-MVP feature requests and conduct regular prioritization exercises with key stakeholders. Don’t lose momentum after the initial launch – with an in-house, customized solution, the opportunities are endless! 

Looking Ahead: Building a Clienteling Solution

When managed thoughtfully and intentionally, in-house development of your clienteling solution can provide numerous opportunities for increased creativity and flexibility, ultimately improving the effectiveness of associate-customer interactions. Clarkston’s retail experts can help you at any stage of the development process, from coming up with MVP functionality to stakeholder management.  

To learn more about how Clarkston helps retail companies tackle their biggest challenges, contact us today.