With Maine officially rolling out adult-use cannabis sales on October 9th and Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota, Montana, and Mississippi on the ballot for cannabis legalization this November, seeing more cannabis dispensaries open up across the U.S. is inevitable. According to Zendesk’s Customer Experience Trends Report 2020, “nearly three out of four customers (74%) feel loyal to a specific brand or company, and more than half (52%) will go out of their way to buy from their favorite brands or businesses.” Coming up right behind price, consumers rank customer service as the second most important attribute that makes them feel loyal to a brand.
Across the cannabis industry, companies and brands are missing the opportunity to stand out by collecting and using customer feedback and using that feedback to make better decisions and gain a competitive advantage.
The problem is two-fold and affects both businesses and consumers. First, companies don’t have systems in place to collect, analyze, and act on customer feedback data, and two, so much of the feedback that consumers see online isn’t reliable.
We’ve all seen the fake reviews on Yelp, Google, Amazon, and so on for products in all kinds of industries, and the cannabis industry is not immune to the fake review problem. In fact, finding real customer feedback on businesses and brands in the cannabis industry is close to impossible. However, it’s critical that consumers know they’re buying safe, high quality products from businesses that are doing the right things and following the rules.
At the same time, businesses operating in the cannabis industry need to measure and track customer happiness. They need access to feedback from verified customers so they can build brand loyalty, focus research and development efforts, make critical business decisions, and stand out from the competition (and the illicit market). They need a way to show consumers they’re the best, so the businesses that give the industry a bad name lose, and the businesses that follow the rules win.
Understanding that a customer’s experience drives loyalty and customer loyalty drives sales, we know that now is the time for cannabis businesses to develop strategies to leverage customer experience as a competitive differentiator. QualSCORE, the first fully systematized solution for cannabis businesses to measure and track quality and customer happiness, is excited to announce the launch of its customer feedback and market research platform.
QualSCORE is focused on helping cannabis businesses and brands succeed after successfully completing its beta testing trials with Strawberry Fields Cannabis Dispensaries, an award-winning medical and recreational marijuana company.
“We love the feedback,” shares Ethan Shean, Chief Retail Operations Officer for Strawberry Fields. “QualSCORE allows us to give a voice to our customers regarding their everyday experiences and provides us the feedback needed to deliver top notch quality and customer service with each and every transaction.”
The most important thing cannabis leaders can do is to prioritize their commitment to delivering high quality products and customer experiences, and then, tracking customer feedback to ensure they’re delivering on that promise. By doing so, they’ll gain an advantage in the marketplace, increase customer loyalty, attract more new customers, and so much more.
