Tagged with customer retention …

Jan 22 2012
Leave a comment
retail, business, small business, independent retailers

Retail Reversals and Rallies

Laurel Tielis

What’s greater than an electric company’s power surge and more forceful than a hot flash? The power of the people combined with the power of the purse.

With social media, consumers have a voice. And whether it’s the fight against SOPA, the Occupy movement, or retail arrogance, what they’re using it to say is, “I’m mad as Hell, and I’m not going to take this any more.”

Brands that don’t get It, will get it where it hurts. Look at Netflix, Bank of America, and Verizon. Not since the Three Stooges has there been anything so dopey. But while the Stooges were funny, these companies are sad.

As for Amazon, nobody likes a bully–whether it’s in the schoolyard or on the business playing field, Amazon showed it didn’t care at all about the little guy, which was an opportunity for everyone else to say they did. 

Successful Companies Understand Consumers Count

Today, the companies that will be around tomorrow, understand that  it’s a conversation between brands and consumers. Businesses can no longer make decisions without taking consumers into account.The Internet, and social media, make everything visible. There are no secrets. Everyone knows who’s naughty and who’s nice, and they respond accordingly.

That said, companies can make mistakes and learn from them. I think these two “retail rallies” have the potential for customer engagement and retention.

Some Retail Rallies

Target missed the mark when it overpromised and underdelivered on the Missoni collection. But now it’s back with The Shops of Target, a new promotion set to begin May 6th, where the retailer will be teaming up with five small businesses from across the country for a six week run. This is a win for customers who will be able to purchase special items, its a win for the boutiques, whose products will go out to an enormous audience, and it’s a win for Target–if the company executes it properly.

Walmart is also showing that it understands how to engage and retain customers. It made a good start when it brought back layaway for the Christmas season, and now it’s got a great promotion underway called Get on the Shelf. The company has created a contest open to anyone with a product that fits its product categories. Contestants need to submit an online video, and voters will select the three winners. Their products will be sold at www.walmart.com. The grand prize winner will also have his/her products sold in selected stores.

It’s an enormous opportunity for small business owners, it’s a great way for Walmart to position itself as a champion of the little guy, and it’s fun for the rest of us.

If  you want more ideas about bringing in business, I can heIp. I’ve been a retail reporter at Women’s Wear Daily and Home Furnishings News, a columnist at the Miami Herald and a correspondent at People magazine.

I’ve also handled the marketing and public relations at major corporations and small businesses. Need a speaker or a consultant? Connect with me at LinkedIn, or follow me on Twitter @laureltielis.

You can also get in touch at Ask Laurel (one word) at laureltielis.com. For easy and effective ways to bring in more business, read Ka-Ching! How to Ring Up More Sales.

Copyright © 2012 Laurel Tielis

Tagged , , , , , ,
Oct 30 2011
Leave a comment
business, independent retailers, retail, small business

5 Ways to Make Your Store Sensational

Laurel Tielis

Like it or not, if you want to bring more customers in, it makes sense (and dollars as well) to make your establishment sensational. That’s because statistics make it clear that more and more people are shopping on the Internet.

The Internet works for those who are time-deprived, and also those who want to save the last penny. But, luckily, they are not your customers.

There are lots of people who like to shop in stores. Think about the ladies who lunch, and see shopping as “dessert.” They’re your customers as long as you take care of them.

You’re losing business, though, if shoppers are going online because they’re disappointed when they visit your brick and mortar store. It could be by the service, or lack of same they’re receiving, or it could be because your store doesn’t appeal to the senses.

1. Make it visually enticing

Be sure your merchandise display delights the eye. Dress up your dressing rooms with hangers for customers’ clothing and accessories, a chair to sit on, good lighting, and a triple mirror.

2. Can’t you just smell success?

In addition to being visually attractive, the most successful retail outlets please people’s sense of smell. Ask any realtor who’s selling a house how vital aroma is to a speedy sale and the sale price. One of the first things a realtor does is scent the kitchen with cinnamon to make it smell like home and mom’s apple pie (even if mom wasn’t a baker). Merchants need to learn from that.

3. Good sound leads to a sound business

Background music can help you tell your story and sell your merchandise. Vintage clothing and accessories, for example, call for the rhythms of the 1930s and 40s, while children’s toys and games move to a different beat.

4. The real feel

A major reason people prefer to shop in a store, rather than buy online, is because they want to be able to touch the merchandise. So if you want shoppers to come in, and of course you do since people still buy more in-store than they do online, make things easily accessible.

Stocking items too high to reach, or too low for most people to stoop to, is neither in their best interests or yours.

5. A taste of honey brings in money

Bars offer happy hours for a good reason. They want to bring in customers at the end of the work day. You, though, can easily and inexpensively, make customers happy all day long. Offer sweet treats or mini munchies, along with coffee and tea. Hot drinks are sipped slowly, keeping customers in your store long enough to appreciate, and purchase, the merchandise on your sales floor.

I like these ideas because they’re easy, inexpensive, and effective. What tips and tricks do you use to appeal to shoppers?

If you want more ideas about bringing in business, I can help. I’ve been a retail eporter at Women’s Wear Daily and Home Furnishings News, a columnist at the Miami Herald and a correspondent at People magazine.

I’ve also handled the marketing and public relations at major corporations and small businesses. Need a speaker or a consultant? Connect with me at LinkedIn, or follow me on Twitter @laureltielis.

You can also get in touch at Ask Laurel (one word) at laureltielis.com. For easy and effective ways to bring in more business, read Ka-Ching! How to Ring Up More Sales.

Copyright © 2011 Laurel Tielis

Tagged , , ,
Sep 12 2011
Leave a comment
business, retail

Socially Responsible Retailing from Walmart and Patagonia

Laurel Tielis

Patagonia has long had the reputation of being a socially responsible company. Walmart not so much. But this week, I think they’re telling a similar story. Each company is offering buying choices that positively impact on its core customer, as well as the community at large.

Shopping’s no fun when you’re out of funds

Walmart, in response to cash-short customers, has given them an early Christmas gift by bringing back layaway for the holiday season. Shoppers concerned with higher prices across the board–food, gasoline, energy–told the retailer they are more comfortable paying cash.

Layaway features a small setup fee, and a down payment on items; there are no interest charges. Over time, customers pay for the goods in full. This beats buying on a credit card, then struggling to pay off charges and sky-high interest rates. Shoppers have learned that easy isn’t best, when it comes to credit.

So while Walmart’s reason for bringing back layaway may not be socially responsible–the retailer has been struggling with falling sales for nine consecutive quarters–the result is. As the 2008 recession showed, the economy benefits when people only buy what they can afford. Will Walmart make money from the layaway plan? Probably not directly, but they’ve already reaped a huge bonus in the form of positive publicity.

Buy from Need–Not Greed

Founder and owner of the outdoor wear-and-gear company Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, is asking customers to pledge to reduce, repair, reuse, and recycle its products to help the planet and increase sustainability.

Clearly, this is a one-off in retail. Many companies offer lifetime guarantees for their products, but Patagonia has gone one step farther. Rather than resist reselling, it’s helping customers to do so. It has partnered with eBay to open an online marketplace called Common Threads Initiative. Customers reselling genuine Patagonia products get a badge on their posts, and are included in a new section of the company’s website called used clothing & gear.

Is Patagonia making it better for everyone? I think so. And in doing so, it’s building a better business.

What do you think? How do you show the world at large, and your customer base in particular, that you are an ethical and socially responsible business?

If you want more ideas about bringing in business, I can help. I’ve been a retail reporter at Women’s Wear Daily and Home Furnishings News, a columnist at the Miami Herald and a correspondent at People magazine.

I’ve also handled the marketing and public relations at major corporations and small businesses. Need a speaker or a consultant? Connect with me at LinkedIn, or follow me on Twitter @laureltielis.

You can also get in touch at Ask Laurel (one word) at laureltielis.com. For easy and effective ways to bring in more business, read Ka-Ching! How to Ring Up More Sales.

Copyright © 2011 Laurel Tielis

Tagged , , , ,
Aug 04 2011
Leave a comment
business, retail

Five Fast Ways to Wake Up Your Website

Laurel Tielis

If you’re like most small business owners,your website probably took a lot of time, money, and energy to create. It may have been an exhausting process. But the truth is, the real work only begins, after it’s up and running.

If you want your  site to work for you, you have to work on it. You need to update it frequently, and promote it as a matter of course. Unless you do, visitors will feel that you’re not interested in it. And if you’re not interested, why should they be?

Here are five ways you can show visitors  to your website that you value their interest in your business.

Web Site Success Strategies

1.  See your home page as your store window or storefront

It’s your brand online, so make sure it looks like you. You bring passersby into your store with a compelling window; you bring browsers to your site with an alluring home page.

Just as you create a theme and tell a color story in your window, do the same here. Also, think about what interests you when you “window shop,” and then offer that kind of information to your readers.

2. Keep it current

You change your windows regularly to attract new business; do the same with your site.

One way is to put a box on your home page—it can feature new merchandise, list sale items, highlight industry information, note upcoming in-store events or those that you sponsor in the community. Another is to feature an item or a customer. Update this space daily or weekly to create maximum impact.

  3. Use landing pages

You know the applause a pilot gets when the plane comes in for a landing? That’s the passengers saying they’re exactly where they want to be.

Your landing pages tell visitors just what they want to know. And what they want to know is, What’s in it for them? Do you have what they need? Because as an early jazz song says, If you don’t give me what I need, I’m gonna get it somewhere else.

If you serve different groups–perhaps women in business, at-home moms, grandparents, and others—you should have a variety of landing pages, each focusing on those customers specific needs.

4. Engage browsers to turn them into buyers

Start a dialog with your current customers, former clients, and new  prospects. Entertain them, educate them, or give them information that’s pertinent to their lives.

I’m a fan of fun quotes and one of my favorites would be perfect for anyone working in home or design. Oscar Wilde last words were reputed to be. “Either this wallpaper goes, or I do.”

Ask your customers for their favorite quotes, jokes, or stories. Or start a contest and offer a prize. Post a photo and bio of the winner. At a minimum, she’ll send the link to your site to friends, family members, and colleagues. If he’s on a social media site, he’ll post it there as well.

5. KYSS–Keep Your Site Simple

Save the bells and whistles for training your dog, because frankly, no one has the time or the patience to wait for your site to download. You make more work for yourself, and you lose potential customers, when visitors can’t find what they want quickly and easily.

Suit Your Site toYour Customers

Remember, a static site seems like you’re not involved. You lose buyer interest and ranking on search engines with one. Frequent changes, and attention to customer needs, show that you take them, as well as your business, seriously.

Want more ideas about bringing in business? I can help. I’ve been a retail reporter at Women’s Wear Daily and Home Furnishings News, a columnist at the Miami Herald and a correspondent at People magazine.

I’ve also handled the marketing and public relations at major corporations and small businesses. Need a speaker or a consultant? Get in touch at ringupmoresales@gmail.com. Or, for easy and effective ways to bring in more business, read Ka-Ching! How to Ring Up More Sales.

Copyright © 2011 Laurel Tielis

Tagged , , , ,
Jul 21 2011
Leave a comment
business, retail

Seven Simple Ways for Retailers to Connect with Customers

Laurel Tielis

If you’re working more, and enjoying it less, you are not alone. Many of your customers, and would-be customers, are as well.

A lot of people who are employed are working longer hours and feeling more stress. And they’re the lucky ones. Then there are the unemployed, who work long and hard to find work.

You can grow your business by making your customers lives easier; in current parlance, by adding a WOW! factor. By making yourself and your business indispensable, you’ll hold on to current customers, and boost your new customer base as well.

Ways to WOW! Your Customers

1. Provide a courtesy phone
While most people have cellphones, they don’t always work properly–just ask anyone who’s using an iPhone. Letting people access your landline for local calls will cost you nothing, but pay off nicely.

2. Make free Internet access available
Smartphones are on the rise, and they’re wonderful when they work, but until everyone has one, and the phone service improves,  this is an inexpensive way to make your business a welcoming place to customers.

3. Set out a chair
You may have to ask a customer to wait while you search for something or while you finish working with someone else, and it’s so much nicer for them when they’re comfortably seated. Remember, it’s not just senior citizens who appreciate a place to sit; their younger counterparts do as well.

4. Sit or Squat
People talk about death and taxes as two certainties. There’s a third, though, and you can take advantage of it in your business. Be known for the cleanest, most beautiful bathroom on your street or in the mall.

5. Open the door a few minutes early/close the door a few minutes late
Open five minutes earlier than whatever time you have posted on your door. That way, customers who are in a hurry can get in and out. They’ll really appreciate your courtesy. You may make a bigger sale that way than you do the rest of the day. Ditto for showing customer appreciation at the end of the day.

6. Provide free delivery or shipping to the customer’s home or office
Got a hesitating customer trying to decide about a big ticket item? The decision-making process frequently becomes a little bit easier when you offer free delivery/shipping.

7. Make gift wrapping a present for your customer
Sometimes the hardest part of getting a gift is ensuring it’s properly packaged. If you take care of that, it’s one less thing for the buyer to obsess over.

By providing superior service with style and a smile, you’ll increase customer satisfaction and ensure your ongoing success.

Want more ideas about bringing in business? I can help. I’ve been a retail reporter at Women’s Wear Daily and Home Furnishings News, a columnist at the Miami Herald and a correspondent at People magazine.

I’ve also handled the marketing and public relations at major corporations and small businesses. Need a speaker or a consultant? Get in touch at ringupmoresales@gmail.com. Or, for easy and effective ways to bring in more business, read Ka-Ching! How to Ring Up More Sales.

Copyright © 2011 Laurel Tielis

Tagged , , ,
Jun 13 2011
Leave a comment
Uncategorized

Interested in Customer Retention? Niceness Counts!

Laurel Tielis

Your current customers are your most valuable resource. When you take care of them, you maintain and grow your business. Make sure they know  how much you appreciate them as people, as well as customers, in small as well as large ways.

One  easy and inexpensive way to do this, is by getting in touch after someone’s made a purchase. Send off a handwritten note, write an email, or make a quick phone call, asking whether the dress was appropriate for the event, the gift was a success, or the color was a match.

Another way to build relationships is to get in touch regardless of a purchase. A lot of businesses do this at Christmas, but you’ll get more attention if you choose another time of year.

For example, you can send out cards on Independence Day, July 4th, telling customers how much you appreciate their support of your independent business. For Thanksgiving the message might be, I’m thankful to have you as a client and friend. For Valentine’s Day try, I love doing business with you, or Good customers like you are the heart of my business.

Then, you’ll want to get in touch on your customers’ birthdays. Large stores like Loehmann’s and DSW  send discount coupons good for a week or even the entire month of the birth date. You can do it in a more personal way by sending an actual birthday card and offering anything from a gift coupon to an invitation to the store and a cupcake saying Happy Birthday.

You can also send out birthday greetings for YOUR birthday. It’s my birthday, you might write, but you get the present. Offer something special to everyone who comes in to celebrate with you.

This serves two functions: It brings customers into your store, and it also makes you more real. It’s another way for you to become more of a friend and less of a salesperson. Here’s a tip. If you’re giving customers a gift, consider a  good looking, reusable shopping bag. It’s a great way to green your business and get your name out.

Want more ideas about bringing in business? I can help. I’ve been a retail reporter at Women’s Wear Daily and Home Furnishings News, a columnist at the Miami Herald and a correspondent at People magazine.

I’ve also handled the marketing and public relations at major corporations and small businesses. Need a speaker or a consultant? Get in touch at  ringupmoresales@gmail.com. Or, for easy and effective ways to bring in more business, read Ka-Ching! How to Ring Up More Sales.

Copyright © 2011 Laurel Tielis

Tagged , , ,
Oct 09 2010
Leave a comment
business, entrepreneurs, independent retailers, retail, small business

Know you, like you, trust you, buy from you

Laurel Tielis

I remember my aunt coming home from the hairdresser’s, looking in the mirror, and saying, “It’s not the best haircut I ever got, but  I really like the stylist. I’m always comfortable sitting in her chair.”

As far as I’m concerned, that is the secret of success in business. When people know you, trust you, and like you, they will keep coming back. Not only will they return, they’ll tell other people about you. They are influencers.  Every business can profit from them.

So aside from being the kind of merchant that people like, how do you get a lot of influencers who will get the word out for you?

One good way is to create a customer advisory board. This board is different from a formal advisory board made up of accountants, lawyers, and bankers. Those people are knowledgeable about the financial  and legal aspects of running a business.

But a customer advisory board focuses on what shoppers need and want. And after all, who knows better? You’re looking for people who come in frequently, spend time in your store, and are always friendly, even if they’re voicing a complaint. In essence, your customer advisory board should be made up of your best customers.

Here’s my tip for you: Some store owners have more than one board. The owner of a children’s clothing store, for example, has three—one composed of the kids themselves, a second made up of their parents, and a third for their grandparents (who often the best buyers).

Invite them to a monthly or quarterly meet-and-greet after work. Offer drinks, snacks, a small gift and a discount on larger purchases to show how much you appreciate their help. Ask them what they can do to make the store even more appealing to them.

Ideas can range from merchandising to display to sales. Be open to ideas and  try to implement as many as possible. It’s so easy as a merchant to think, “I know what my customers want,” and it’s equally easy to be wrong. Here, you’re getting it directly from the customers. What a gift! It’s market research in a friendly, open fashion.

Once a year,  reward these business “partners” by inviting them to your home or to a restaurant. It’s a great way to form a community. And business today is all about community.

Your reward will be people who like you influencing other people to know you, trust you, like you, and buy from you.

If you want more ideas about bringing in business while running a business, I can help. I’ve been a retail reporter at Women’s Wear Daily and Home Furnishings News, a columnist at the Miami Herald and a correspondent at People.  

I’ve also handled the marketing and public relations at major corporations and small businesses. Need a speaker or a consultant? Connect with me at LinkedIn, or follow me on Twitter @laureltielis.

You can also get in touch at Ask Laurel (one word) at laureltielis.com. For easy and effective ways to bring in more business, read Ka-Ching! How to Ring Up More Sales.

Copyright © 2010 Laurel Tielis

Tagged , , , , ,
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.