When your business has to put its prices up, the important thing is to have a strategy for holding onto your customers. The way the economy is going, businesses have little choice but to raise prices, so shops need to work harder at staying close to their customers. If you are going to move your prices with the market, doing it abruptly will take customers by surprise; leaning on promotions softens the change. Adding a loyalty scheme, for instance, makes customers feel better about it.
Inflation is one of the main reasons businesses are having to charge more. In 2023, inflation in Thailand ran between 1.0% and 1.7%, with a midpoint of 1.35%. And on top of higher outgoings and higher ingredient costs, businesses are facing rising costs across the board — rent, utilities and wages.
Coping with inflation is no easy thing for an SME. The challenge is finding the middle ground between raising prices enough to cover your costs and raising them so far that customers take offence and go to a competitor.
The increase has to be enough to cover the added cost without making your offer uncompetitive. The other thing to weigh up is how customers will perceive the rise. An increase that comes out of nowhere, or that looks unfair, can leave customers unhappy or send them elsewhere. Beyond working hard to keep retail costs down, businesses can prepare for 2024 in other ways. So that none of this happens to you, here are four ways to get your business ready for what is coming.
Communication is the crux of it
Talking to customers openly and straightforwardly is the foundation of all of this. Businesses should explain the reasons behind a price rise and what sits behind them. That explanation is what helps customers understand why the increase is happening, and being transparent about it takes the edge off any resentment or resistance.
Engaging customers actively matters just as much at this stage. Use a range of channels — social media, email and the shop itself — to reach people before the new prices take effect. Telling customers in advance gives them time to prepare for the change, and approaching them early and consistently makes the new prices far easier to introduce.
Adopt value-driven pricing
Value-driven pricing means setting the price of a product or service by the value the customer perceives, rather than by what it costs to make or what the market charges. You can run this alongside everything else by adding value to what you sell — improving quality, adding extras, offering better service, or including a privilege of some kind — which makes the new price easier to justify. It shifts the customer's attention away from the price and onto what they get for it. Do it well and you can raise prices and still leave customers satisfied, because they feel they are getting their money's worth.
Malaysia's AirAsia, for example, has made a success of value-driven pricing by offering affordable air travel alongside extras such as easy online booking, customisable travel options and premium add-ons, letting customers shape the journey to suit themselves. Or take Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer programme, which makes consumers feel they are getting something back from everyday spending as the miles add up — it makes customers feel special and deepens their loyalty to the brand.
Make the most of Qashier's loyalty programme
Make customers feel rewarded all the time. A steady stream of positive experiences softens the impact of a price rise and leaves customers feeling they are getting better value when they buy from you.Qashier's loyalty programme works for any kind of business: run Qashier's POS system and you can have one. There are no loyalty cards to hand out, either — customers collect their points straight from the Qashier terminal.
You can also decide what customers get in return, and tailor the scheme to what they want, with options such as credit or points designed to suit different businesses and different customer expectations.
Best of all, it is easy to use. Customers can sign up at the counter with nothing more than a phone number, which is quick and painless and raises the standard of service your business offers. That makes Qashier a POS suited to every kind of business, whether that is a POS for a retail shop, a restaurant or a POS for a beauty salon
Survey what your customers think through QashierHQ
You have put your prices up and started running a loyalty programme — what next? Following and analysing customer feedback is essential if you want to know when to adjust your approach. Qashier makes gathering that information easy: with a Qashier smart POS terminal, customers can rate how satisfied they are with the shop on the terminal itself after every transaction. You can then go into QashierHQ, the online back office, to see the overall picture of how happy customers are, and dig into what it tells you.
This feature is genuinely useful for any business trying to put things right. You can see the feedback as it comes in, follow it up and fix the problem promptly, and raise the quality of your service. That feedback loop is a key part of shaping how you retain customers and how you fine-tune value-based pricing, and it helps a business bring its strategy closer to what customers expect.
In summary
Adjusting prices effectively — as businesses in Singapore had to after the GST rise — takes a range of approaches at once. Finding the middle ground is a challenge, but not an impossible one. Qashier lets a business concentrate on what it does best: giving customers excellent service and real value without eroding its margins.
Start running your shop better with Qashier today
If you would like Qashier to be your restaurant's right hand, get in touch and we will tell you more. We are ready to support you, whether that means POS terminals for restaurants and shops alike, an effective POS system, or support from our team seven days a week.
For more details, contact our Line Official: @qashier.th or call 02 544 0267