Exceptional Service - The Cornerstone of a Successful Business

Marketing is so much more than just advertising.  I’m going to say this until every small business owner gets that through their heads!

Marketing ≠ Advertising

Marketing is a complete set of activities working together to create a positive, memorable brand image of your company.  And one of the most important parts of that is the level of customer service that the customer perceives your company provides.  It’s not just about what level of service you actually provide; it’s about what the customer perceives to be great service.

Having worked in retail management for so long, I am probably now the pickiest customer out there.  I worked hard to create amazing teams of staff members who delivered exceptional service and went above and beyond for each and every customer.  So now, when I go into a store I automatically take note of everything going on in the store.  I pay attention to the cleanliness of the store, the visual layout, the friendliness and professionalism of the staff, and how knowledgeable and customer-oriented the staff are.

These are just a few of the things managers and business owners need to be keenly aware of.  Yes, I’m the picky customer so I notice stuff that maybe other customers wouldn’t be looking for.  But why not strive to impress even the pickiest of customers.  Even the customers who might not have paid attention to the small details will be very happy with what they perceive as “exceptional” service.  After all, who doesn’t want to feel special?

We’ve all had some bad customer service experiences in our lives and they remain stuck in our memory forever.  But fabulous, amazing customer service experiences also stand out in our mind.  One experience stands out in my mind so clearly… and it happened over 9 years ago!  My husband and I had taken our 2 boys to Ottawa to visit my brother and some friends of ours.  We decided to take the boys (who were 2 and 7 at the time) to Moxie's Restaurant for dinner.  The waitress we had that night was absolutely phenomenal.  She did everything possible to make sure our kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves, which of course made the meal that much more enjoyable for my husband and I.  Now, every time I see a Moxie’s Restaurant, I associate the place with happy thoughts and fully recommend the place to all of my friends and family.

That’s what you want your customers to do.

Take an honest look at your own business.  When you take out the bias you have towards your own way of doing things and really look at things from a customer’s perspective, you may not like what you see.  So, don’t scrimp on your training budget when it comes to fully training your staff on exceptional customer service.  Remember that that memorable  image will remain in your customers’ minds for a very long time.

5 Ways To Create Effective Advertising

Advertising is an important part of any marketing plan. But with so much focus on social media these days, you'd think that advertising isn't worth the cost. However, done right advertising can be a really important part of your marketing strategy, especially with a good mix of online and traditional advertising. If you've ever attended one of my workshops or even read some of blog posts you'll know that I am all about consistent, integrated marketing. That means that all of your marketing activities need to work together in a systematic approach to achieving your business goals. And advertising is one of those activities.

The biggest advantage that advertising has over other marketing activities is the sense of control. With proper target marketing you can control (to a point) who sees or hears your ad and you can control when your ad is run. The key to effective advertising is knowing what your objectives are and how you want to approach your campaign. 

Below are 5 elements that you should consider in order to make any form of advertising effective.

1. Advertising should have one of 3 objectives... to inform, remind or persuade your audience. Know what your goals are before you even think about writing the ad. The desired outcome will ultimately determine the look, feel, sound, and distribution of the ad. The goal of most advertising should be to start a relationship, not sell a product or service.

2. Be realistic about what an ad can do. If you are running a small online ad chances are it will be pretty unrealistic to expect a multi-thousand dollar sales achievement from 15 words and a link. When setting your advertising goals, set a realistic goal and set a ‘stretch’ goal to strive for. Also, know that advertising alone cannot be the only metric to measure your success by. There are a lot of factors that go into the buying decisions of consumers.

3. Advertising, both online and offline can be and should be targeted at a narrowly defined viewer. If a radio station that tells you that 75% of its listeners are 18-55 that isn't narrow enough. Know your ideal customer really well, what they want and how they want to communicate with you before implementing any advertising.

There are lots of resources out there to help you learn more about your ideal customer but Google AdWords is a great tool to find out what your customers are looking for. Group your Google AdWords into very tightly crafted keyword groups to target people looking for very specific things. You can also find geo targeted mailing lists and then cross them with lists of people that buy a similar product.

4. Measure everything

The most successful business owners, managers and marketers can tell you exactly how every element of their marketing is performing and why. It takes a great deal of work to get serious about things like analytics and tracking, but you won’t really succeed until you do. By taking the time to create a process that allows you to measure every aspect of your advertising you can see what's working and what isn't, allowing you to make necessary changes and further improve on what is working all the while staying tuned in to what your market wants more of.

5. Test, test, and test again

This last element goes hand in hand with measurement, but takes it a step further. Once you have a baseline you can start to work on improving your results by simply tweaking things like headlines, calls to action, visual elements, keywords, content, publications and lists. Once you know what’s working in one place you can expand on it to test it in other places. Google AdWords is an inexpensive way to test thing out before broadcasting more widely. As for online advertising, particularly in social networks, you also might want to test out new social networks and their advertising structure to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t, providing it reaches your target audience.

So, even with the advent of social media, advertising still has its place in your marketing strategy. Advertising has changed its distribution channels over the years and that will continue for many more years to come. But no matter what distribution channel you use, whether it’s online or off ine advertising, using these tips will allow you to create advertising that resonates with your customers.

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!!

Direct Marketing - It's Not Just Junk Mail

We have all had “junk” mail appear in our mail boxes.  Well, it’s only junk if it doesn’t interest you.  But that doesn’t mean direct response marketing doesn’t work.  If it didn’t work, nobody would do it.   Similar to sales promotion activities, direct response marketing is designed to encourage immediate action.  Things like catalogues, direct mail flyers, sales or fundraising letters, magazine inserts and statement stuffers.  Even some forms of television can be considered direct marketing.  Things like infomercials and commercials that encourage you to “Buy now!  Just call the toll free number on the screen.  If you call in the next 10 minutes, you’ll receive a free bonus gift!”  Direct marketing is very highly targeted to ensure that the advertiser is reaching only a very specific target market as opposed to mass marketing which attempts to reach a much broader audience.

 

Advantages of Direct Marketing:

·         Allows you to target your message to a very specific audience.   Whatever kind of business you have, you will have defined specific target markets when creating your marketing plan.  Mail-outs can be sent specifically to those people only instead of mass mailing something.  Also, each specific piece can be customized to each person in that target market.

·         You can evaluate its effectiveness. If you compare the number of responses to the number of pieces mailed, you can calculate the response rate. If you include coded coupons or response cards you can keep track of exactly who responded and from where.

·         Mail readers are actively involved.  When people take the time to read their mail, your message will have their undivided attention while they open and scan through it.

Disadvantages of Direct Marketing:

·         Many people don't like unsolicited offers and many are skeptical of their validity.

·         Increasingly, busy people don't even open what they view as "junk mail."

·         Using this method of advertising requires thorough maintenance of mail lists. Many small business owners don't take the time to update their mailing lists. With outdated lists, however, mail goes to undeliverable addresses, which is a waste of money.   Another possible glitch - an inaccurate list may misspell names or address a person who has died. These kinds of errors annoy, or worse yet offend, the recipient.

·         Some groups are concerned about the environmental impact of resources used for advertising mailings.

·         It can be expensive.  When creating a direct marketing campaign, you really need to weigh out the cost differential between producing the materials and the profits earned from any new business the campaign will generate.

Tips on Developing Your Direct Mail Piece

·         Focus on customer benefits and do it right at the beginning. The first sentence (the lead) in a direct mail letter should be about benefits.   Your prospective customer only takes a second or two to decide whether or not to keep reading or to pitch it.  So, make sure the benefits of your product or service are offered right up front.

·         Keep the offer simple, easy to understand and persuasive.

·         Include a "call to action."

·         Ask the customer to "call today."

·         Include a postage-paid reply card.

·         Make the offer for a limited time to encourage prospects to act.

·         Make it easy to respond or place an order. Include order forms if appropriate for your product. Include a:

o   toll-free phone number (24-hour ordering if possible)

o   fax numbers

o   email addresses

o   payment options such as credit cards

o   payment plans for big ticket items

·         Use a personal and friendly writing style. Mail is a one-to-one communication; make it sound that way.

·         Create different direct mail pieces to address different audiences - even when you're offering the same product. Your product or service may have a different benefit for different target markets. So, create multiple forms of the same offer for those different audiences.

·         Consider making your mailing "3D" by including an object in the envelope that will peak the recipient's curiosity.

Mailing List Options:

Mailing lists are available for purchase, but they can be quite costly, especially for small businesses on a tight budget.  A better option is to use your house list.  That means that you really need to be diligent about obtaining information from your current customers and people who have inquired about your product or service in the past and maintaining it.  Keep your mailing list current by periodically asking your customers for their current mailing address.

Success Measurements:

When you include coded coupons or response cards, you can track how many you have received and where they came from.  Direct mail experts tell clients to expect anywhere between a .05 percent and 1 percent response rate.  That means that if you mailed out 1,000 direct mail pieces, expect to receive about 10 responses.  That might not sound like a lot, but it’s better to receive 10 actual sales, than 500 “maybes” that you could be chasing down forever.  So, don’t increase the number of mail outs just to increase your response rate.  The quality of the response is what’s important.

Public Relations - A Key Component to Your Marketing Wheel

Public relations is an incredibly important part of your marketing communications plan.  It is essentially free advertising, done by journalists and reporters.  It is used to promote products, people, places, ideas, activities, organizations, and even entire countries!

The benefit to public relations is that it is more credible than traditional advertising.  News stories, feature articles, and events seem more real and believable to readers than ads do.

 Some of the public relations tools that you can use are:

·         Press releases
·         Speeches
·         Product publicity
·         Public affairs
·         Lobbying
·         Investor relations
·        Product Development
·         Special Events
·         Public service activities

Here’s where your marketing wheel starts to take place.  Remember that in the first blog of this series, I talked about your website being the centre of the wheel and everything you do needs to lead back to your website.  Your website is a great tool to use for public relations.  People search the internet for information, not necessarily to purchase something.  Using your website as a public relations tool gives your customers the information they are looking for.  If your company has appeared in the news, put a link to that newscast on your website.  Had an article written about you or your company?  Put that in there too.  Maybe your company just won an award.  That needs to be broadcast too.  All of this is giving customers information about your company, which is what they are really looking for.

 Your marketing team needs to have a great working relationship with journalists and reporters that represent your industry and your target market.   You need to know how they prefer to receive stories, whether it be by email or through a press release distribution site.  I have also just called up some of my contacts and asked if they would be willing to do a story on a certain topic.  If they have the time and they find it newsworthy, they’ll do it.

 Now, here are some tips when submitting a press release.  If you would like to submit a press release that will actually be effective

a)      Make sure you have something newsworthy to say
b)      Make sure your press release is professionally written
c)       Make sure it’s truthful and it isn’t an outright advertisement
d)      Make sure you are sending it to the correct place and contact person

So, remember to include public relations activities into your marketing communications plan.  It will help build your reputation without breaking your bank account.

Your Website - The Centre of the Wheel

In this article, the second of an 8 part series on how to build a strong marketing communications plan, I want to impress upon you the importance of a well-designed website.  Since on-line marketing is so important for any business nowadays, your entire marketing plan needs to be developed around your website.  As more and more people search on line for companies (instead of using a phone book) the most important part of your marketing strategy is having a website that clearly gives your customers all the answers they’re looking for.  Every other marketing activity you do needs to lead back to your website.

So, what does your website need to do for your company?  Well, I could go on for days and days about website optimization, but for now I’ll just give you the basics.  So, the answer to that question is, depending on the company and the industry the content will be different, but the main points that the website needs to be are:

·         Informative

·         Inviting

·         Interactive

Give me information:

Creating an informative website is the most important thing you can possibly do for your business.  When someone is searching for your company, the want all of the information they need right at their fingertips.  Remember that when people read stuff on the internet, they just scan it.  People do not sit and actively read word for word the entire page to find what they want.  So, it’s up to you as a business owner to make sure that you have provided all the information a customer could ever want to know about your business and make sure it’s right where they can find it.   Your content needs to be of high value to your customers, otherwise they’ll leave your website and search out a competitor.

Part of creating that content is making your website searchable.  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is really important when developing the content of your website.  Key words that are important to your company, your industry and your market are what will help bring your website up to the top in search engines. (I will go into further detail about this in an upcoming blog about your overall on-line marketing activities.)

Invite your customers in:

Now, content is one thing, but the website needs to be inviting.  Like a good host, you would make your guests feel welcome in your home so they want to stay.  Think of your customers as your guests.  You want them to visit, but you also want them to stay for more than a few seconds.  Remember that your website also needs to accurately reflect the company image.  Creating an inviting website that clearly tells your customers who you are can be achieved by using some of the following tips:

·         Be consistent in your colours and fonts

·         Don’t clutter it up with too much stuff

·         Use a pleasing color scheme

·         Incorporate clear and easy-to-use navigation

·         Employ quick-loading graphics

·         Make sure your contact information is easy to find

·         Use simple graphics

·         Choose headings that catch the interest of your reader

·         Create a section for electronic news releases and media materials

·         Post success stories and testimonials (with permission, of course)

Talk to me:

And of course, once you’ve gotten your customer to visit your website, you ideally want them to interact with you.

·         Offer discount incentives for online purchase of products and gift certificates

·         Promote online appointment scheduling by offering package deals

·         Provide a way for visitors to give you feedback (e.g., a “Contact Me” form, direct e-mail link, or a survey)

·         Purchase a digital camera so you can take pictures at events and upload them to your site

·         Host regular Webinars

·         Offer free stuff, like a free estimate or assessment

So, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  Marketing is not just advertising.  It’s about creating that memorable impression, by creating an experience that your customers are going to remember.  Your website is the centre of that marketing wheel.  It’s what’s holding the wheel together.  So don’t let your “wheel” fall apart with a poorly designed website.  Take the time to properly design it and update it regularly.

Messages from different promotional approaches all become part of a single message about the company.  So keep it consistent!

Marketing is not just Advertising

Marketing is not just advertising.   It’s about developing a brand, an image that customers will remember.  It’s about delivering a memorable experience.  Sure, advertising is a part of that, but so are a lot of other things.  In the next few weeks, I will be posting an 8 part series centred around creating that memorable impression.   This first post is an overview on how to create that memorable impression.

I often refer to what I call the “marketing wheel”.  (I’m not the first or only one to refer to it this way, nor is my “wheel” the only one out there.)  Here’s how it works.  Advertising messages from different media and different promotional approaches all become part of a single message about the company.  So, it stands to reason that marketing is not just about advertising… it’s about the entire package that the company portrays.  So, all of your marketing activities need to work together to deliver the same consistent message.

If you look at the “marketing wheel”, you’ll see that the company website is right in the centre of the wheel.  That’s because these days, if you don’t have a website, nobody is going to know you exist.  Think about it; when you’re looking for a company, do you still look in the yellow pages?  Likely not.  Instead you “Google” it.  So, your entire marketing communications plan needs to centre around your website.  Every other marketing activity needs to lead back to that website.

I love the advertising campaign for Franks Red Hot Sauce.  The old lady that says she “puts that sh#t on everything” is hilarious.  But think about that tag line and use it in relation to your website.  Put it on EVERYTHING!

Advertising is pretty self-explanatory, but a lot of people think that advertising isn’t important anymore because companies have so much more available to them on-line.  And it’s free.  Well, advertising is still extremely important.  Just remember that your traditional advertising needs to reach your intended target market and it needs to present that consistent image.  Your traditional advertising needs to lead your customers back to your website.

Public relations is a great way to get customers to trust you.  Anytime you have the opportunity to get in front of a camera or get an article printed in a newspaper or magazine, you have just solidified your place in the world as the expert in your field.  Make sure that your company spokesperson is articulate and professional.  Remember, you’re trying to create a positive image for your company!

Sales promotions and direct marketing are great for driving traffic into your business.  The downside is that they don’t develop that brand loyalty you want.  However, that’s not to say that they should never be implemented.  These are really important parts of the “marketing wheel”.  Once again, make sure the image you have projected in your website and in your advertising is carried over into your sales promotion activities.

Personal selling is by far one of the most important aspects to developing that brand for your company.  Your sales team needs to know exactly what your company mission and vision are and they need to live that every day.  The last thing you want is for customers to have a bad experience with a sales associate because they will tell a lot of people to never shop in your store ever again. 

And of course, on-line marketing is extremely important to your marketing plan.  15 years ago, this was not something that companies thought about.   Now it’s absolutely vital that you are able to be found on the web.  Remember that whatever you put on the internet stays there forever.  No matter how well you think it might be hidden, it can always be found, so anytime you post anything on the internet think about how that is going to reflect your image.

In the rest of the posts, I will start going into more depth about each section of the wheel, starting with the website.  If you take away only one thing from these posts, I want it to be this:

Advertising messages from different media and different promotional approaches all become part of a single message about the company.  So keep it consistent!

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.

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.