As unlikely as it may seem, this can present branding and marketing opportunities for entrepreneurial businesses that are prepared to think outside the box.
Most paper end up crumpled in your pocket or left in a desk or cabinet drawer, forgotten to all expect time. However, a digital receipt presents an opportunity – one that all businesses should consider.
Why? Every brand in the world, from start-ups with a couple of months trading under their belt to commercial giants like Amazon, ExxonMobil and Johnson & Johnson should be concerned with customer experience. Utilizing receipt OCR API technology (from a firm like Tabscanner) to streamline receipt data collection has many benefits from accounting to loyalty rewards schemes.
Engage Customers
Every opportunity should be taken to maximise your customer base. That’s how you grow your business – you create an indelible imprint on consumers, etching your brand in their minds forever. Digital things are a great way to reinforce your brand.
Source: ceo-review.com
Let’s look at something as simple as your company logo. Many of us have visual memories. An iconic company logo like Starbucks, McDonalds, Nike or Apple is instantly recognisable. Why not engage your customers by printing your logo clearly on your receipts?
Going digital presents myriad benefits that brands can pass on to their clients. This can help the relationship to prosper over time. Valuable data can be gleaned to help improve the customer experience. This data can help brands to personalise their marketing strategies.
Loyalty and Promotional Schemes
It has long been understood that, when online, consumers want a personal shopping experience. They want to easily find and buy products they like. Why do you think brands invest so much time and effort in targeted marketing?
Digital receipts allow retailers to track each customer’s product preferences and instantly deliver special offers that will appeal to them. Customers then associate your brand with what they want – something that drives long-term loyalty.
Receipt scanning from a paper to a digital format gives brands the opportunity to use digital receipts to tailor their advertising campaigns directly to their customer demographic. This will maximise their selling potential and allow them to run enticing loyalty and promotional schemes that are bound to appeal to target demographics.
Customer Feedback
Business directors cannot oversee every single aspect of their enterprise (well, maybe at the start but not as the business grows!) However, they can collect valuable data from across the business.
Source: impactplus.com
Customer feedback is pivotal to help businesses improve their operations, enhance overall customer satisfaction and build brand loyalty. Digital receipts can do this in one simple way – by inviting customers to comment on the service they received.
Once gathered, this data can then be used by decision-makers to improve their level of service and tailor what they offer specifically to their customers. They can spot trends in customer experience and make any necessary changes to their service.
Using digital receipt OCR, brands can cross reference customer’s spending to each demographic, with the sole purpose of improving their level of service.
Accessibility
How often do you leave home without your smartphone? Often? Once-in-a-while? Never? We want access to data immediately – in the palm of our hands.
The great thing with digital receipts or apps that feature receipt scanning OCR is that they allow users to easier store and access their digital receipts wherever they are.
Let’s look at something as simple as returns. What if you want to return an item to a retailer but you’ve lost the receipt? Well, with digital receipts stored on your phone you’ll never need to worry about losing another receipt again. All you need to do is bag the item (if small enough, of course), grab your smartphone and head to the retailer.
No brand wants to have customers return their products but knowing that any returns can be done simply and efficiently with just a smartphone offers assurance – and bolsters a positive brand identity.
Source: farfetchtechblog.com
Digital receipts will drive customer engagement. From branding opportunities to shopping ease and convenience, the true extent of their positive impact is difficult to gauge. Are you taking advantage by engaging customers with digital receipts?
Switching to Digital Means Now is the Time to Organise Your Current Receipts
When you have everything digital all your expense documentation should be safely stored in a Cloud account), we thought that we’d show you how you can organise your receipts into digital files.
Use the Cloud
Cloud computing makes it easy for anyone to organise, store and access digital copies of their receipts. All you’ll need is a secure internet connection and device of your choosing.
Apps help both businesses and people to effectively organise their receipts and create expense reports quickly and easily – wherever you are. The best apps use OCR to meticulously pull in all relevant data. You’ll never have to worry about a receipt fading in the sun again or losing important paper records of your purchases!
Once receipt data has been captured, you can upload the document to the Cloud. Here, it’ll be saved forever – or for as long as you need it! The Cloud has made safe and comprehensive storage of vital information a breeze.
Use Mobile Apps
By now, most of us in the world rely on apps to organise, inform and even entertain us every single day. So, why not use mobile apps to efficiently track your receipts! Evolving technology has seen apps developed, specifically for scanning receipts.
Source: smartinsights.com
An OCR receipt scanner app can be a Godsend to anyone intent on managing their finances effectively. Using your camera, all you need to do is take a picture of your receipts and upload it to the app.
Some apps even offer fully automated processing by importing details directly from your credit card or mobile phone scan, instantly generating detailed expense reports which can include date, vendor, cost categorisation and any other relevant information. The best news? Your receipt data is recorded to a very high degree of accuracy, meaning manually inputting expenses and amounts is a thing of the past!
Use Receipt Scanner Software
Anyone hoarding mountains of receipts in their pockets or desk this summer, or who has the none-too enviable task of collating, organising and reimbursing a wealth of business-related expenses will find desktop receipt scanning software essential.
There’s some great software available for both Macs and PC’s that will help you to organise, categorise and store receipts safely. Mobile scanners can be purchased at any good computer outlet which, much like receipt and invoice scanning for mobile phones, will record and translate receipt data, storing it in a safe and secure file to access at any time.
