Consistency in your image is crucial

Communicating a consistent message is absolutely imperative to any business, from your marketing materials, to your on line marketing to the look of your business.  That includes the visual layout of the store, the cleanliness of the store and the attire of your staff.  Many small businesses just kind of wing it when it comes to marketing, not really knowing what to do when and not having a lot of money to play with.  But no matter what kind of business you’re in, the first impression a potential customer has when they walk into your business is an impression that will stay with them.  So what kind of impression do want to make?

·         Merchandise your products in a way that is appealing to your target market.  For example, a discount store can put racks of clearance stuff out front and centre because that is what that customer is looking for.  As soon as you put a clearance rack in a store that is geared to the wealthy and affluent customer, they’ll be insulted and walk out.

·         Make sure your company signage reflects your brand.  It doesn’t have to have your logo all over it.  It just needs to reflect the core values of the company.  I have a client that sells all natural products to a very elite target market who expect exceptional quality and service at any cost.  With this client, we needed to develop different sets of signage, some that could be used year round and some that could be used seasonally or during a particular occasion or event.  The signage that she uses everyday shows the products along with a description of the product and the manufacturer.  The other signage reflects the feel of the store with earth tone colours and pictures, without overdoing the “natural” theme or plastering her logo everywhere.

Creating that consistent image doesn’t need to cost a ton of money.  Get creative with decorating your place of business.  Better yet, make sure your place of business is clean and inviting.  Make sure your staff is dressed professionally and they greet your customers with a smile as soon as they walk in the door.  The last thing you want is for your customers have a consistently “bad” image of your company.

Is Your Merchandise Safe?

Sure, your store visuals need to look pretty, but have you really given much thought into the loss prevention side of merchandising? I recently met with a client for the very first time.  The instant I walked into that store, I noticed several things that needed to be changed; not for aesthetics purposes but for loss prevention reasons.  As soon as you walked in the door, there was short slat wall with a rack of pyjamas on it.  Now, the store has 3 levels to it and they generally only staff one employee at a time in there, so the opportunity for someone to step in that front door and swipe all of those jammies is huge. 

I hate to say it, but I’ve seen it time and time again, where people get desperate, especially at this time of year.  If they spot an opportunity to take something and think they can get away with it, they will.  Here are some tips for safeguarding your merchandise while still making your store look nice.

·         Don’t merchandise anything too close to the entrance of the store.

·         If your store is an odd shape, with sections that are sometimes difficult to monitor, consider filling that space with large signage, mannequins or decorative stuff like empty boxes wrapped like Christmas presents.  For example, if you have a sporting goods store, put a snowmobile in there.  Nobody’s going to steal that!  The point here is to put something in there that isn’t going to be easily swiped or if it does, there isn’t any monetary loss from it.

·         Keep the change room area free of displays.  Things can go missing from there very easily unless you have a staff member delegated to monitoring that area at all times.

·         As you’re going around throughout the day straightening things out, putting items away and organizing sections, do a quick check to make sure there aren’t empty spaces where there shouldn’t be, empty hangers or items stuffed under racks.  If there are, that’s an area that will need to be more closely monitored in the future.

·        Be careful where you put small, easy to pocket items.  I’ve seen stores with slat wall on the front of their cash desks.  Big mistake!!  Putting small items there is easy target for someone to easily slip it into their purse or shopping bag all while they’re casually chatting with the salesperson who is ringing up their actual “purchases”.

I could go on and on about loss prevention merchandising, but this gives you a good start in terms of things to think about when designing the layout of your store or place of business.  The majority of us would never dream to take anything from a store, but unfortunately there are people who do.  So you need to think like the thief when displaying product.  Think about how easy you’re making it for them.

One of the things I was most proud of when I was managing a clothing store was when our store was recognized from head office because we had the lowest inventory percent loss in the entire company.  Not only was my staff diligent about shipping and receiving product accurately to reflect accurate inventory counts in the computer system, but we were very creative in our visual merchandising strategies.  We sort of followed the visual sets sent to us by head office, but we always had to get creative because our store was an odd shape.  I was really excited to share with my staff the results from our inventory count.

You too can have the same results.  Take a few minutes to draw out a diagram of your store and decide where you want to position things.  When you’re done, step back and look at it from the thief’s point of view.  Adjust things accordingly and you’ll have a store that is a deterrent to thieves. 

The Importance of Visual Merchandising

With Christmas only 24 days away, retailers everywhere are working their butts off to get through the craziness.  But customers are doing the same thing… just trying to get through the craziness.  So, from a consumer point of view, I want to get in and get out of the store as quickly and efficiently as possible.   But if I’ve never shopped in that store before how would I know whether or not I should go in or not?  Well, for one thing, it needs to be attractive to me.  That’s where some creative visual merchandising comes into play.

When the giant nineteenth century dry goods establishments like Marshall Field & Co. shifted their business from wholesale to retail, the visual display of goods became necessary to attract the general consumers. The store windows were often used to attractively display the store's merchandise. Over time, the design aesthetic used in window displays moved indoors and became part of the overall interior store design.

Visual merchandising has several purposes.

·         It makes it easier for the customer to find what they're looking for

·         It makes it easier for the customer to self-select

·         It makes it possible for the shopper to co-ordinate and accessorise

·         It gives retailers a chance to recommend, highlight and demonstrate particular products at strategic locations

I was in a clothing store recently that I’d never been in before.  This store has only been open for about a year and half and they market themselves as a high end boutique store.  So, needless to say I was a little shocked to walk in the store and find that the store was merchandised like a stock room full of merchandise.  I walked in, spent all of 3 minutes in there and walked right back out. (It didn’t help that the sales clerk couldn’t even take the time to say “hello”.)  It was so frustrating to find anything.

So, how does your place of business look?  Take a serious look at the space that your customers see.  Whether it’s a retail clothing store, a service station, a law office or a car dealership, your business needs to reflect the brand you have been marketing to your potential customers.  Is it attractive?  Is it organized?  Is it clean?  With Christmas just around the corner, more and more people are out and about.  Do you want them to come into your store?  Of course you do.  But you want them to stay there, too.  Don't add to their frustration.

The State of Customer Service in this Country

My personal opinion about customer service in this country is that it has been going downhill for years.   This past weekend was no exception.  My husband I decided to take our kids to the movie theatre.  We very rarely go to the theatre since it’s a little pricey for all 5 of us to go regularly.  Anyhow, I was flabbergasted at the complete lack of service, in fact lack of respect for the customers.  With this kind of service, I don’t plan on going back anytime soon.  In fact, According to American Express, 85% of customers have decided to never do business with a company because of poor customer service in the past.  That’s a lot of people!! 

Now of course when you go anywhere on a weekend, it’s going to be busy and you’re going to encounter teenage sales associates.  I get that.  After all, I was a manager for 10 years and some of my best employees were my students.  However, when we got to the movie theatre, there was line up a mile long.  We got in line, but the line didn’t seem to be moving very quickly.  After standing there for a very long time, the line suddenly split off.  I guess they had decided to open another cash window.  Maybe it’s just me, but really… on a weekend matinee with 5 movies playing that everyone wants to see, you’re only going to open one cash window with a slow moving teenager??  By the time we got to the cash, the teenager did not even look at us, he just told us the total and that was it.  No apology for the wait, no “Thank you for coming”, no acknowledgement what so ever.  Next we headed to the lineup for the popcorn.  Once again we stood there forever.  Once we got to the front, the teenager working this cash was taking his sweet old time, oblivious to the fact that there were 50 people still standing behind me.  Once again, no acknowledgement what so ever.  He just took our order, proceeded to have a conversation with another teenager working the counter, took my money and that was it. 

Now I’m not bashing teenagers (I have a 15 year old son), but what is with the level of customer service lately?  I’m not blaming the teenagers.  After all it’s likely their first job, so they have never had any training on how to be courteous.  (Don’t get me wrong, some of that is common sense and should have been instilled in them at home by now)  When I was a manager, the absolute number one priority in my store was customer service.  The stores I managed were number one in the district and the company for a reason… because we had repeat customers who wouldn’t think to shop anywhere else.

So, how have things changed in terms of customer service training?  Do you have a thorough training plan in place?  Do you have high expectations for your staff (teenagers or not)?  Remember, 85% of your customers won’t come back because of poor service.  Taking the time to adequately train your staff, follow up regularly with them and instill a sense of pride to be working for your company is well worth the time it takes to do that.  Remember that customer retention is so much easier and cheaper than customer acquisition. 

What's in it for me?

As I said in my previous blog, listening to your customers is an extremely important step to customer retention, but there is no way you’re going to remember everything about every customer especially what they’ve all purchased, how often and how much they spend.  That’s why having an accurate, detailed database is vital.  But, database marketing only works to build retention if the customer benefits from the retention strategies.  Which means that you can have all the information possible about your customer but if your marketing retention strategy doesn’t interest them, there’s no point in doing it.  So, really pay very close attention to the information you have and strategically design your marketing strategies from the customer’s point of view. 

So, what kinds of strategies work?  Well, that depends on your industry and your clients’ preferences, but here are some commonly used things that work well.

·         Membership cards

·         Welcome and thank you communications

·         Satisfaction surveys

·         Enhanced technical support with follow up satisfaction calls

·         Frequent Buyer Programs

Most importantly, as I’ve said before, listen to what the customers want.  Do they want free stuff?  A Frequent Buyer Program might be a great option.  Do they want to share their input on your products, services and company?  Having their voices heard might mean they’d take the time to complete a satisfaction survey.  But, get creative.  Personally, I use a referral program.  When one of my clients refers another client to me, the referring client gets 15% off their next purchase.  As most of my clients are owners of very small businesses, they are more than happy to save some money on professional services.

The key to customer retention is to ensure that you have developed a very comprehensive Integrated Marketing Communications plan aimed specifically at your existing customers, designed to build loyalty.  Have fun with it.  Get creative.  Better yet, ask your customers what they want and give them exactly that.

LISTEN! PLEASE JUST LISTEN!!

Customer retention is so much cheaper and easier that customer acquisition.  But I see it time and time again, where small business owners work their butts off to try and get customers to come to their place of business and buy their products, but fail to build a relationship with their customers.  As a marketer, I know how absolutely vital it is to generate awareness of a company.  But, where advertising creates an image for your company, your relationship building skills (or unfortunately as we’ve all seen, lack thereof) solidifies that image in the eyes of the consumer.

Your primary focus is to listen to your customers.  You’ve gotten them interested enough to come to your store/office/etc.  Now ask questions and really (I mean REALLY) listen to what they have to say. 

So, what questions do I ask?  Don’t get so wrapped up in a conversation about your business and what you can do for your customer.  Your goal is to dig a little deeper, find out stuff about the person.  People like to talk about themselves and the things they tell you can be incredibly enlightening.  You can learn so much from your customers.  And by taking the time to listen to them, you are creating an atmosphere of trust.  That trust goes a long way in developing a long-term relationship with your customers. 

Years ago, when I was a manager of cellular phone store, I had a gentleman come into my store to find out some stuff about phones.  He was an older guy, maybe in his 60’s and knew nothing about cell phones, but his kids were telling him he should get one for emergencies.  He must have spent about 45 minutes in the store that day.  We had quite a conversation about his kids, his grandkids and his love of motorcycles.  He left the store that day without a phone, but he came back about 2 weeks later with his son to get himself a phone.  When he arrived, I had just stepped out of the store for a minute, so he told my co-worker that he would wait for me because he told her, “She knows me”.  Based on all of the information I had gathered from him, I got him exactly what he needed… nothing fancy or expensive, but something that was useful for him.  The one thing he hadn't mentioned in our conversations was that his son was a business owner.  A month after I made the sale to the father, the son came in and wanted to switch ALL of his company’s current cellular business lines to us.  He said that he was so impressed with how I treated his dad, that he wanted to be sure his company and his employees would get that same service.  They became long-time customers of ours all because I took the time to listen to his dad.

So, take the time to engage in a 2-way conversation with your customers.  Don’t just go off on some rehearsed sales pitch about what you can do for them. Of course you can’t please everybody all the time, but your goal here is to let the customer know that you sincerely want to hear what they have to say.  Let’s face it, we all want to be heard, understood and appreciated from time to time.  Let your customers know that you are genuinely interested in what they have to say. You never know where that relationship can lead to.

The Key to Driving More Customers to Your Business

What does every business need to do every day?  Sell something!!  If you're not making money, it's not a business; it's a hobby.  But of course that's easy to say when you have customers flowing into your business non-stop, but how do you attract those customers in the first place?  Simple.  It's called target marketing.

Marketing involves so many aspects that it generally scares a lot of small business owners because it seems so completely overwhelming, not to mention expensive.  It definitely takes a lot of hard work and dedication to get it right (and even some of us marketers who have been doing this a long time, don't always get it 'right'), but it really is possible to drive more customers into your business without working 20 hour days for the rest of your life.

The key to driving more customers into your business is to know who your customer is.  You can't be everything to everybody, and frankly you don't want to be.  What business are you in?  Do have a retail clothing store?  Think about the niche markets that currently are untapped in your area.  Are you looking to attract the young (teen to early 20's) crowd or are you trying to attract the middle age women?  Make sure your product line and your entire company image reflect that image so that nobody is confused about who you are.  Don't even try to compete with the big guys because you'll wear yourself out and not see any reward for it.  Stay true to who you are and focus on your intended target market.  It'll make your life so much less stressful.