Make Work-Life Balance a Priority Over The Holidays

Christmas is my favourite time of the year.  Cooking, baking and wrapping presents with my family are experiences I will remember forever.  But as an entrepreneur, a wife and a mom, I sometimes don’t feel like I have enough hours in the day.  Now that my kids are home from school for the holidays it really becomes a balancing act of priorities.

Business owners all across the country struggle with the juggling act every day.  But I’ve started to look at things from a different perspective lately.  I used to get stressed out easily trying to be too many things to too many people.  Then I suddenly had a “light bulb moment” and realized that I was trying to please everyone else, but I was miserable.  I started to take stock of the things that were absolute priorities in my life.  I did some de-cluttering of my life and really made a conscious effort to focus on only the things that were really important to me.

For me that means raising my children the best that I can, loving my husband just the way he is, growing my business through dedicated daily effort, surrounding myself with people who are loving and supportive, and being the best friend I can be to the people who genuinely mean the most to me.

So, as you can see my business is a major priority for me.  But it’s not my only priority.  As we soon head into the New Year I have a clearer focus on my future now that I have gotten rid of the clutter.  I have discovered that when I make myself happy, I am less stressed out which in turn make the other people around me happy.  As an entrepreneur you never stop thinking about your business but over the next few days, take the time to put business thoughts aside for a while and really focus on the people in your life.

Merry Christmas everyone!

In memory of Allen Wayne Latham (1947-2001)

How to Increase Your Sales This Week

I often hear people say that Christmas has become too commercialized and that it’s not about the true meaning of the holiday anymore.  But no matter what your thoughts are on this, this weekend is the busiest shopping week of the year.  In fact, according the 2012 BMO Holiday Spending Outlook, it is estimated that Canadians will spend an average of $1610 per person this holiday season.  That’s a lot of money! 

Having worked as a store manager, area manager, and regional manager in the retail industry for over 10 years I know firsthand what it takes to operate a successful retail location.  As a retailer you can capitalize on consumers’ spending this week to increase the amount customers spend in your store (instead of your competitors’ store!) with a few simple sales tactics that really work.

·         Encourage multiple unit sales (UPT’s) – Set a UPT goal and hold a contest among your staff to see who can get the most units in one sale.

·         Increase your average total transaction dollar amount – Encourage your staff to make each sale a minimum amount, for example $50 per sale.

·         Show complimentary items. Don’t just tell customers about the other items in your store.  Show them!  And present them with items they already want to purchase.

·         Put items near the cash so customers will see them when they already have their money in their hand.  These are referred to as Point-of-Purchase items (or POP’s) for a good reason.  Often customers will pick up one of these items just out of curiosity while you’re entering their other items into the cash.  Train your staff well on providing exceptional customer service and selling these items will just come naturally to them.

·         Create displays that tell a story.  People purchase benefits not products.  When they can see themselves using a particular product that’s when they will buy it.  Get creative with your displays, but don’t overdo it.  You don’t want it to be so busy that the customer gets overwhelmed and walks away.

Try these tricks in your store and you’ll reap the rewards of having more sales in your cash and you'll be able to say that you helped put more money into the economy.  But amidst all the craziness, don’t forget why we celebrate Christmas in the first place.  Happy selling!

Creating a Positive Company Image During the Holidays

The holiday season is upon us in full force.  Santa is at the shopping malls and in parades all across the country and people are lining up outside stores to get the best deals on gifts.  But lately over the past several years, I’ve noticed a difference in how people approach the holiday season.  Have people gotten more lazy, less thoughtful, less considerate,  andless respectful over the years?  Or am I just getting old and expect some good old-fashioned manners?

Maybe when I was younger I just didn’t notice, but it seems that people are now a lot less thoughtful.  I realize we’re all busy, trying to do too much to make Christmas a wonderful experience for everyone we love.  But imagine that every time you step out your front door that you are a representative of your company.  No matter what position you hold in that company, whether you are the CEO or the stock boy, you represent that company every time you talk to someone.  You may not be talking business, but the image you project will be remembered by the people you spoke to.

 

Marketing is about creating a positive image in the minds of your customers.  And there are lots of marketing communications tools to do that with.  But have you ever given much thought as to how your personal image reflects on your business?

Remember that no matter who you’re talking to, that person could someday be a potential client or may refer you to a friend who could give you your next big break.  I know we’re all busy, but this season when you’re out running around, take the time to say please and thank you to the sales associates helping you, be considerate of the other shoppers, help someone just because.  These are not only good business practices but they are things that should be in everyone’s daily repertoire anyway.  

So, like I was saying it’s a busy time of year.  People are rushed and tired and sometimes in a grumpy mood and we’ve all seen people at the grocery store in their pyjama bottoms.  Think about this before you leave the house… you never know who you’re going to meet throughout the day.  I doubt you’d want your first meeting with a potential client to happen in your jammies!  I'm not saying you need to go shopping in a business suit, but getting dressed is a good first step.  And, remember that Santa’s watching… so you might want to make sure you’re on the “nice” list and not on the “naughty” list!

How to Leverage Customer Service to Avoid Negative Business Reviews

Later this week I will be attending a luncheon hosted by our local Chamber of Commerce.  The guest speaker is my personal friend and social media celebrity Dave Carroll.  Dave’s a musician who has used his talents to raise awareness of customer service in this country.  For anyone who hasn’t heard of him, you can visit his website at www.davecarrollmusic.com for the full story.

So since we’re only 3 weeks away from Christmas I thought this would be a fitting time to talk about the most important thing to a business… customers!  One of the most important parts of the marketing plan is your personal selling activities.  The customer experience is what people talk about when they talk about your business.  Do you want people giving rave reviews about your business or do you want people telling their friends to never shop in your store?

This is the time of year where you need to put aside your ego and pride, just buckle down and do whatever needs to be done.  Whatever the customer wants, you make it happen.  I would hope that you’re doing that all year long, but at this time of the year, when you have 10 times more people in your store than usual, it really is a challenge to stay on top of every customer.  But I can guarantee you that if you can just focus on providing exceptional service to each and every customer they will remember and appreciate it.

For many years I was a retail sales manager, first for a telecommunications company, then for a clothing retailer.  Each store that I managed achieved sales results that surpassed the competition and the other store locations within the company.  And I truly believe it was primarily because our customers felt appreciated in our store and kept coming back… and bringing their friends with them.

Here are some tips to help you provide the best possible customer experience.

·         Treat your customers like they are guests in your home.

·         Brace yourself for the craziness.  You know it’s going to be crazy busy so just go with the flow.  No point in stressing out over it.  Customers are already stressed out as it is trying to complete their shopping.  They don’t need you to be all frazzled too.

·         Anticipate your customers’ needs and order enough product to have on hand.  Not having enough product leaves you with unhappy customers and lost sales.

·         Train your staff well.  Staff need to be trained in customer service and they need to know how to multi-task.

·         Drop everything when a customer enters your store.  Stop chatting with your co-workers, put down the new shipment of product you just received, tell the Purolator guy he’ll have to wait a second, and make your customer your number one focus.

·         Conversations that are private in nature need to held in a staff room where customers can’t hear you.  I once walked into a store where a manager was reprimanding an employee for being late, completely oblivious that a customer had just walked into the store.  That just makes the whole shopping experience very uncomfortable.

So, unless you want to end up like United Air Lines as the subject of a viral YouTube video bringing their terrible customer service to light, give your customers everything they want and you just might be the subject of a viral YouTube video praising your amazing company instead.

Happy selling!!

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.