Could Your Cell Service Be the Cause of Poor Customer Ratings?

Customers shopping in retail stores expect to be able to use their cellular devices for a variety of reasons as they shop, from calling friends to comparing prices. If the cellular signals in your store are too weak to handle day-to-day traffic, your customers are left to try to connect to WiFi, or they just won't use their devices at all. 

That’s where retail cell phone booster solutions come in. When retail stores are threatened with potentially poor customer ratings due to less-than-stellar cell service, store owners and operators should look at how a passive distributed antenna system (DAS), also known as a cell phone signal booster, can make up for disappointing in-store experiences and the ire of disgruntled shoppers.

How Poor Cellular Signals Affect Customer Satisfaction

Brand awareness spirals outward at lightning speed from individual customers to their networks when social media is the mechanism for communication. Customers walking through stores can provide free publicity if they’re posting about their impressions and experiences on social media while doing so. But if what they’re posting is their real-time frustration with spotty service, or if a bad signal inhibits them from posting to their social networks at all, their immediate dissatisfaction will not bode well for future brand loyalty or earn the retailer new customers.

There’s another angle to this as well. As the on-demand economy increases, so do retail shoppers’ expectations of seamless and personalized service in all buying scenarios. For example, TimeTrade’s 2017 survey of more than 5,000 customers found that:

• Only 27 percent feel retailers provide a consistent customer experience across channels

• Fifty-nine percent wish store associates knew the items in their online shopping carts

• Only 24 percent of retailers currently have this ability

This heightened need for consistent and on-demand service is why a boosted cellular signal can go a long way toward meeting customers’ in-store expectations and increasing their satisfaction.

How Cell Phone Signal Boosters Work

A passive DAS, or signal booster, eliminates cellular connectivity problems by capturing and increasing — by up to 32 times — the existing cellular signal’s power in retail locations and other commercial spaces. This solution is flexible and carrier-agnostic, and also provides a number of specific benefits to customers:

First, it enhances customer engagement and delight by allowing customers to interact with digital apps while shopping, making it easy to cash in emailed coupons or promotion codes, or take advantage of exclusive deals.

It also increases security. Although Wi-Fi enables customer connectivity, customers can run into problems if there is a lack of designated customer networks or firewalls, which can leave customer data vulnerable. A strong cellular signal circumvents these issues by providing a positive in-store experience without all the security concerns.

Finally, it improves point-of-sale operations. Being able to check out quickly and easily is one of the hallmarks of good customer service in retail operations. Slow or unresponsive systems, coupled with long lines and wait times to check out, are among the most common customer complaints.

The WilsonPro Cell Booster can help. Click here to learn more about Wilson's solutions, and click here to contact your local Accu-Tech representative.