5 Product Registration Best Practices

If you’ve spent any time in the business of selling products just about anything, you know how much business dynamics have evolved over the last few decades. Change has been rapid and only brands that have managed to keep up and modify their business models have managed to resonate with consumers and maintain relevance.

These changes have been evident in all aspects of running a business, from changing consumer preferences to how brands perceive feedback and handle customer service. An increasing number of customers value great experiences over just high-quality products. About 76% prefer experience over ownership of material things.

The interaction between the producer of a particular product and their end-consumer has traditionally been minimal. You manufacture something, advertise and stock it in shops, and the consumer buys it. Now, the growth of e-commerce and the constant shifting of consumer preferences have completely re-imagined this methodology.

The manufacturer-to-consumer loop is shorter now, with an emphasis on delivering consumer experiences that add value. Presenting a subpar retail experience is no longer just for cruise companies and exercise studios. Every product’s retail journey is an experience for your customer.

One element that is revolutionizing the retail experience is the product and customer registration. It’s a process that helps you deliver a better grander experience to your customers, even with the purchase of material products. To better understand how customer registration can leverage an enhanced experience throughout your sales funnel, it’s essential to understand what it is and how it works:

What is customer registration?

Customer registration is the after-sales process of getting your consumer to register their purchased products from your brand. They go to your website, fill out a form and register their purchase for any of the following reasons:

To access product information

Usage instructions

To activate warranties

To receive discounts

To access after-sales services

To receive product-related updates

To get help with setting up their new product

To connect with others who have made similar purchases

Customer registration is often the first point of contact the consumer has with your business after the purchase. Your approach towards delivering a streamlined experience could boost customer retention return customers and magnetize new ones.

It’s not necessary that a consumer only registers after they purchase a product of yours. Some customers who are on the fence about buying a big-ticket item might also register to see consumer reviews and ratings of the product.

What’s included in a typical customer registration form?

The consumer and product registration form is used to collect valuable data regarding your consumer and different aspects of their retail and user experience. The details of a consumer registration form are not set in stone. You can modify the standard registration form templates depending on your product type.

Layerise makes this process very easy for you by explaining step by step how to tailor the user flow for your customer registration process. Here are some things typically included in a consumer and product registration form:

Email

Proof of purchase

Contact information

Location of purchase

Product’s serial number

Permission to send promotional emails or SMS

Why is customer registration essential for your business?

Data is king. Imagine selling something to the general public; you tally off the benefits of your product and hope someone will try it out. Now imagine having details of the consumer demographic.

Imagine knowing who’s most likely to make a purchase and be a loyal customer of your brand. How different will your marketing efforts look now? That’s exactly the advantage customer registration can leverage for your business. Having relevant information about your target customers allows you to plan your marketing strategy more effectively and focus your effort on those customers who are more likely to convert.

Gathering consumer data helps you build a database of information. It saves you from casting a wide net and wasting resources on generalized marketing. That information also helps you re-evaluate your products and services. Strategically planning your customer registration process can be a foundation for keeping your brand ahead of the competition.

Why third-party consumer data no longer works

After reviewing what consumer data can do for your business, you might be wondering why you can’t simply use third-party consumer data services. After all, there are so many services available on the internet that offer to do the hard work for you. Why should you be investing time and resources in collecting self-reported data?

Your query is legit and here is why third-party data no longer delivers the results it used to a few short years ago:

Third-party data is extensive. Shifting through all that data will be a time-consuming process that might end up costing you more in the long run. It delivers quantity while the quality of the data suffers.

More than 82% of businesses find that third-party data can steer your advertising campaign in the wrong direction.

That is the era of specialty and niche businesses. Third-party data is mostly generalized and not always refined with your specific product niche in mind.

Who better to report the pros and cons of your product than the user themselves?

 Self-reported data is taken directly from the source you aim to satisfy with your merchandise: your consumer. It’s a specific and valuable insight into how a product can be improved.

Benefits of having excellent customer registration

Customer registration should no longer be optional for any company, be it an e-commerce brand or a store with physical locations. Here are some advantages you can leverage for your brand by optimizing customer registration:

1. Gather data

The single most compelling reason to invest in consumer and product registration is to gather data. It can become your single most valuable source of user-generated data. Here are some examples of data you can expect to gather using customer registration:

Consumer favorites

Customer demographics

Insight regarding your brand’s retail experience

Feedback related to product design and usability

2. Target your marketing campaigns

So what do you do with the database your customer registration generates? One application of this data is in organizing and optimizing your marketing campaigns. The days of cold calls and mass email campaigns are long gone. Gathering the right type of information can help you laser-focus your advertising efforts on the client pool that’s most likely to buy from you.

3. Foster consumer loyalty

Imagine you are a sports equipment brand. A marathon is coming up in the area where most of your customers reside. You can hear the buzz over social media as sports enthusiasts discuss the latest gear.

How can you convert these on-the-fence prospective customers? Sending them an email with a lucrative discount code. That’s how data made available to you through consumer registration helps up your customer loyalty game.

4. Streamline communication

Managing all the channels of correspondence with your client base can be challenging. When you use customer registration to interact with your customers, all communication happens on one platform. Meaning it becomes easier to track consumer behaviors. One-click can show you details of any particular consumer and keep track of details such:

Complains

Returned products

Purchase history

Recommendations

Order delivery time

Reviews and feedback

5. Make better assessments

What’s worse than the missed opportunity of selling out mid-season? Customer registration helps you make more accurate estimates regarding scaling your production up or down.

Customer registration provides a database of computable figures. Based on past years, it helps predict how much merchandise needs to hit store shelves during any particular season.

6. Establish authenticity

One downside of online retail is the plague of counterfeited items. It becomes hard to differentiate counterfeits from authentic products. When customers register their product with your website, they know they paid for the real thing. You make it much harder for counterfeiters to sell duplicates of your product and boaster brand protection simultaneously.

7. Generate accurate statistics

In the age of artificial technology, anyone not investing in acquiring data and turning them into statistics might not be able to stay in business for long. Statistics help you improve things like customer service and consumer retention as well as your product lines. Consumer-driven data can help you gather statistics on every element of your business including:

Common complaints

Frequently asked questions

How to improve packaging

Which products sell the best?

What new products do consumers want?

What time of year is your consumer most likely to make a purchase?

5 Customer registration best practices

Customer registration can do a lot for your company. But how can you maximize these benefits of customer registration in your favor? Here are our six top strategies for optimizing your customer registration:

1. Simplify the process

Do you know what keeps the majority of your customers from registering? The effort involved! Most companies bombard their customers with queries about serial numbers, contact information and sales offers as soon as they log on to register. And that makes them reluctant to spend the time and effort.

Simplifying customer registration can do wonders in increasing the number of registered customers. Here are some simple steps that can make registration easier:

Include a QR code on product packaging. Not the user manual, as most consumers don’t really bother reading that. A QR code means a simple scan does most of the work for your consumer.hat keeps the majority of your customers from registering? The effort involved! Most companies bombard their customers with queries about serial numbers, contact information and sales offers as soon as they log on to register. And that makes them reluctant to spend the time and effort.

Simplifying customer registration can do wonders in increasing the number of registered customers. Here are some simple steps that can make registration easier:

Include a QR code on product packaging

Not the user manual, as most consumers don’t really bother reading that. A QR code means a simple scan does most of the work for your consumer.

Digitalize your consumer registration

Most of us use our phones for pretty much everything these days. Make registration easy enough to do while waiting in line at Starbucks, and more consumers might actually do it.

Make it a one-time thing and save user data for next time

That would prompt users to register all new purchases and increase the chance of repeat business.

Make canceling registration simple as well

Customers are more likely to register if they have an easy option to opt out.

2. Show customers what’s in it for them

Consumers don’t do what they don’t see any value in. One surefire practice to increase registration is attaching tangible benefits to the registration process. Here are some ways you can add value to the customer registration experience:

Exclusive free shipping on further purchases

Offer discount codes for future purchases

Make access to your customer service department easier via registration

Add them to your mailing list to receive sale, promotional, and discount information

3. Incentivize sharing the experience

Got them to register? Good! Now encourage your customers to connect with other customers and share the product experience.

Fostering a sense of community while maintaining exclusivity adds to the buyer's experience. So make it easier for customers to interact and network. Remember, word-of-mouth is the best form of marketing. Here are some ways you can use social media platforms to help do that:

Hold competitions

Create a hashtag

Support local causes and mobilize customers

Encourage customers to snap pictures of your product

4. Guarantee data safety

Data collection has been stigmatized thanks to third-party data collection practices. Customers prefer not to register because they fear their data will end up in the wrong hands.

Ensuring safe handling of all data can help broaden your customer registration pool while generating consumer trust in your brand. Here are some ways to enhance consumer’s trust in your registration process:

Always ask for consent before sharing or saving any consumer data

Be transparent about your policy on storing and handling customer data

Offer user-friendly and secure payment solutions directly through their registration link

Use data for meaningful post-retail communication, not bombarding them with sales pitches

Make sure all outsourced data-related tasks also adhere to these guidelines

5. Facilitate the set-up process

Selling an air fryer? Give access to exclusive healthy recipes. Selling gym equipment? Share exercise videos customized for your gym wear.

Add further value to the registration process by offering access to exclusive content related to your consumer's purchase. Content that further cements a sense of exclusivity for your consumers. Show them how registration is the next natural step after purchase by helping them set up their items. Here are a few things you can offer to customers that register:

User’s manual

Assembling tutorials

DIY ideas to customize products

Recipes based on your product

Usage and care instruction videos

Access to games or quizzes if selling children’s products

Videos troubleshooting common issues your consumer might face

Membership in online communities that share similar challenges (lactose intolerance/gluten sensitivity)

Layerise makes your customer registration more effective

Layerise streamlines your customer registration practices to enhance customer retention and repeat sales. Delivering a better after-sales experience helps maintain your current customers as well as grow your business by onboarding new consumers.

Book a demo today to see how Layerise can add that missing element to your business outreach strategy. Use Layerise to understand your consumer base better while delivering what they expect from your brand.