Here’s a question to start your day.

What type of customer are you trying to attract?

Anyone who will spend their money on your products and services, most likely. That’s a nice goal, but why don’t we narrow it down a little bit.

There are three types of customers that every organisation should aim to attract. They’re the ones you really need in order to ensure success. These include:

• Valuable current customers
• The customers of your competitors
• Valuable customers you have lost

Let’s clarify. There’s a huge difference between a current customer and a “valuable” current customer. A current customer with a really tiny account demanding a huge level of customer service may not be valuable; nor is the guy who forgets to pay his bill every month. These are the customers who actually cost you money to keep. What you really want to do is provide stellar customer service to the guys who pay their bills on time and don’t ask you to go above and beyond the scope of your contract (not too often, anyway). Keep your current customers happy and, later on, up-sell additional products and services.

I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to go after the customers of your competitors. After all, your products and services are better than theirs. RIGHT? If the answer to that question was no, you’d better take a close look at your marketing plan.

Finally, any customer you lost (for any reason) should be saught after (unless, of course, they fall into the category of a customer not worth retaining – in which case you shoudl let them go). Otherwise, remarket your products and services. Perhaps they’re not happy with their new provider and were too embarassed to come back to you. Maybe they realized later that they weren’t getting the same level of service or the same value for their money. It’s up to you to find out.

Make sure you include an evaluation of your customer base the next time your review your current sales process. There may be gaps in the market you haven’t considered and they may mean the difference between failure and success!

Sean

Sales Expert - Marketing Consultant – Motivational Speaker

In these uncertain times of the credit crunch, an uncertain economy and with the large retailers diversifying their product ranges to offer almost anything it leaves the small independent retailer facing a real challenge to survive and thrive. 

Pricing, positioning and distribution are areas where the small retailer find it hard to compete with the big boys but one area where they really do have an advantage, if they do it right that is, are the levels of customer service that they provide to their prospects and clients.

Enter any medium to large sized retailer today and you are often faced with two approaches. You are either pounced upon by a sales assistant as soon as you come through the door or on the other extreme you get totally ignored.

But for the small retailer, this is an area where they can really make a difference to build up a loyal client base who are treated as individuals as opposed to a number.

Here are 5 top tips to turn your retail store into one that really appreciates its customers:

1.     The Customer Experience

Have you clearly articulated to your staff what you are trying to achieve in terms of customer experience? What do you want the experience to include? Friendly? Informative? Helpful? What do you want your browsers and customers to go away from your store saying about you?

2.     Add-Ons

I don’t advocate hard selling but on 80% of the occasions that someone purchases something in your store there is also an opportunity for them to purchase a complementary product too. Items like glue, thread and string can be combined with almost anything can add 5-10% onto the total purchase price without you looking like you are ramming it down their throat.

3.     Can I Help You?

Never ask this question because we all know that the person will come back with “I’m just looking”. Instead, ask “Is there anything I can help you to look for?” By asking this they cannot come back with the just looking excuse!

4.     Did You Find Everything You Were Looking For?

Here’s another golden nugget – when your customers are paying for their items ask “Did you find everything that you were looking for today?” Sometimes, this acts as a memory jogger for other items and sometimes the customer simply could not find what they needed but did not ask. Expect to have a 5-10% increase in your sales by using this approach.

5.     Make It Easy For Your Customers

When all is said and done your customers want an easy life! They want to browse your store, finding things easily with helpful staff. This is an experience that you can create with no excuses. Become well known for your excellent levels of customer service and friendliness and news will soon travel fast.

Sean

Marketing Consultant

So there I was with my wife Donna and two year old daughter Holly in Coventry’s IKEA store.

Now in this store there are 6 floors and you have to go up to the very top floor and work your way down! There’s no cheating!

Floor 6 only goes down to floor 5, floor 5 only goes down to floor 4 etc - That includes the escalator, stairs and lift!

It was driving me nuts!

We found what we wanted on Floor 5 and had to walk around each floor to get to the exit to the next floor down! Plus my little daughter had one on her with the terrible two’s So I just wanted to get out of therE…….quick!

We were in the lift and everyone was commenting on how unfriendly the store layout was and that “I’m not coming here again in a hurry”

This got me thinking about their sales process and why they would want to force you to take a certain course of action. Now I’m all for this type of approach because it maximizes your revenues but it has got to be consumer friendly at the same time.

Their thinking is that by walking through every department, that you will buy more product simply by exposing you to more sales opportunities.

This may or may not be true. But whilst you may increase the average unit of sale, you will decrease the frequency of purchase by not visiting the store as often.

Coventry’s IKEA is not a place I would visit often because the buying process is “so painful”. I can’t simply go in, get what I want and get the heck out of there. Instead I am forced to join my “fellow herd” in following the EXIT signs for 20 minutes to get out of there!

Remember the ways to build a business?

Higher prices, get them to purchase more product, get them to purchase more frequently.

By using this approach IKEA are hoping for you to purchase more product but it will be at the expense of more frequently purchased products – or so 80% of the people (20) in my lift were confessing to anyhow.

Think through your sales process and adjust it accordingly. I sure do hope that Coventry’s IKEA changes it’s sales process because by the looks of it (Saturday afternoon and it was not busy) they may need all of the help they can get.

Happy Selling!

Sean