Operating a successful cannabis dispensary is no walk in the park. Navigating an ever changing regulatory landscape, while managing inventory, retaining key employees and keeping customers happy takes time and energy — often at the expense of creating or expanding a profitable and efficient business.
Success for retailers is driven by strong customer relationships, experience, and education, speed of transaction from patient in and out of the buying process, and inventory management.
Below we outline five keys to improve your processes and increase the efficiency of your cannabis dispensary.
Streamline Customer Check-In
How do you set up your dispensary to keep your customers coming back for more? Focus on the overall customer experience. Start by speeding up the check-in process. No one likes waiting in line. With MJ Retail, your team has the ability to scan and validate IDs, register, manage, and place customers in a queue with the click of a button from anywhere in the store.
Once they are added to the queue you can easily see who has checked in, paid, or is waiting on an order. You can even see how much of their order has been fulfilled – all on a simple-to-read, color-coded dashboard. This allows you to move customers through their visit efficiently, keeping your staff and your customers happy.
Build Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty can help your dispensary prosper in the best of times, but (as we have all learned in the past couple of years) it can also help you survive in challenging times. Cannabis retailers implementing customer loyalty programs see an immediate lift in customer traffic, repeat visits, and sales.
Marketing platforms offer campaigns for online ordering, loyalty programs, and text messaging. Allowing you to notify your loyal customers of point updates, in-store promotions, and deals.
Improve Budtender Performance
For your dispensary to thrive, finding and retaining the best employees is vital. Frequent turnover has a negative effect on employee morale, productivity, and ultimately revenue.
Good budtenders are hard to find. First-time purchasers and long-standing customers rely on budtenders to educate them about new products based on their needs. As new products enter the market and with the increasing number of new customers, an emphasis on budtender training is an important differentiator for your dispensary.
Having a budtender training program can boost morale and increase employee engagement because they see you investing in their future. It can also help boost your bottom line, as highly engaged teams show 21 percent greater profitability.
Real-time Inventory Management
Inventory management is critical across the entire cannabis supply chain. However, dispensaries, above all other verticals, have the most benefit from real-time inventory management.
People joke about being sold out as a great problem to have. In reality, it is disappointing for customers and opens up the door to them switching loyalties. You’ll want to keep inventory levels matched between your point-of-sale system and back-of-house operations so that over-committing on a product is a thing of the past.
Leverage Customer Analytics
Whether it’s in-store, online or curbside pickup, customers expect an easygoing shopping experience. Data gathered from MJ Analytics can help support these experiences.
Analytical data on your customers, such as age, gender, frequency and product preferences can help you understand the demographics and purchasing behavior of your core clientele.
You can optimize everything from designing your dispensaries to stocking high-performing products to optimizing the performance of your team.
This allows you to make on-the-fly adjustments in pricing strategy, staffing needs, and inventory management, ensuring the continued growth and success of your cannabis retail operation.
Interested in learning more about the solutions we’ve created to help your dispensary run smoothly? Request a demo today!
