By Christine Corelli

How to increase store traffic, turn shoppers into buyers and increase your retail sales.

The customer rules. It is an all-too-familiar mantra, but it warrants repeating. After all, customers ultimately decide whether your retail business will succeed or fail. That fact, alone, puts them in charge.

Today’s customers are more demanding than their predecessors. They are better informed, have higher expectations, routinely compare prices and often state that they can get a product more cheaply from a competitor to try to intimidate you.

To win them over, you have to give them what they want, when they want it, at a price that they are willing to pay for it. You have to gain their trust and provide the best service, or they will simply go to your competitor or to a big-box store to make their purchase. That is the cold, hard truth.

Christine Corelli

How do you compete in this environment? How can you increase store traffic? In essence, how do you turn shoppers into buyers? Even more important, how can you make them loyal advocates who keep coming back, and who send other customers to you? By doing three things: developing creative advertising, marketing and promotional strategies; training your employees to apply masterful sales-communication skills; and giving customers something to come back to and to talk about: a dynamic store atmosphere, superior service and a consistently great customer experience. If you do not, they may visit your store only once. Worse, they may never visit at all. The process that follows can help you get better results and position your store for greater success.

Think Creatively
Tap into your creativity and develop new advertising and marketing slogans that will stand out in your customers’ minds. Average is boring, and being boring is out of fashion; humor, eye-catching graphics, characters and mascots are in style.

Remember the success of Tony the Tiger and the Keebler Elves? They keep coming back, every now and then, because they are such successful company symbols. Look at the more recent success of Aflac Insurance (Columbus, Ga.). No one ever heard of the company until it took a risk and came out with a powerful campaign featuring a funny, talking duck. The gecko representing Government Employees Insurance Co., or GEICO (Chevy Chase, Md.), will go down in marketing history. While these advertising characters are used by conglomerates with huge advertising budgets, specialty retailers can use them, too. All you need is a good graphic artist and a photographer.

What can you try that you have not tried before?

How about a new marketing slogan? It should be tied to your product line and be memorable, such as, “Fire to warm your soul - hearth to warm your heart,” or, “Beautiful new ways to warm up your home,” or, perhaps, “Put fire into your lifeless fireplace.” The patio retailer can consider, “A great patio to make your day,” or, “We provide the perfect patio. You provide the fun.” Aim for energy and fun to keep your customers happy.

Risk taking, supported by reason, can be a source of unlimited potential. You will never know what will work unless you are bold enough to try it.

Up-to-date Marketing
Next, look at your marketing. Are you using state-of-the art marketing technology to capture vital customer information? Do monthly email marketing campaigns with special promotions and discounts keep your name in front of the customer? Do you have an online store? To obtain ideas, subscribe to email notification services at Alstos.com, LampsPlus.com and the Web sites of other specialty online retailers to see their creative monthly campaigns. If you are not doing these things and more, then your competitors will have the advantage.

The Consultant in You
Detach yourself emotionally from your owner or store-manager role. To help yourself do this, think of yourself as a sharp retail consultant or a potential customer who is looking at your retail business with fresh eyes.

Look at your store sign. Is it time for a new one? A new sign, or a more eye-catching one, can make a big difference in drawing more attention. If your outside sign is great, think about adding one across the entire inside window, where it can be seen by passing drivers, pedestrians and shoppers. Make sure it that it has bold colors and huge lettering, and that it stretches across the top of the windows so that it does not block the view of merchandise. Be sure that the sign does not just say, “Now Open,” or, “Sensational Sale,” but that it also has a great slogan, or words such as, “For the Shopper Who Loves to Live Well.”

Look at how your entire store appears from the outside. Does it look appealing? Is there any debris present in the front entrance or in the parking area? Do you have lovely flowers and planters near the door? When potential customers look in your window, your store atmosphere should scream, “Come in!”

Make certain that your store is appealing, and that it sets the proper tone for the merchandise. Since you are selling items for leisure, relaxation and fun, make sure that your customer can feel both a sense of relaxation in your fireplace/hearth area and a sense of fun in your patio area. The merchandise must be beautifully displayed, floor plans must flow well and everything must be easy to see and/or access. Customers should walk away thinking that your store is not only a great place to shop, but a refuge from the busy outside world. Starbucks Coffee Co. (Seattle) has made millions by recognizing that people love an atmosphere where they find refuge. When you provide this atmosphere, shoppers will tend to visit more often and to stay longer.

What feeling do you get when you enter? Remember, we are living in the experience economy, and customers want an experience when they visit. Your goal is to give them one that they will remember and will tell others about, too. Give them something to talk about. When you step through the door, does the atmosphere appeal to all five senses (sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch)? Tap into your creativity and think of ways to add ambience to your store in which all the senses are stimulated. Do you have a bottle of wine, two glasses and reading material displayed by the fireplace? Do you have a fountain near the patio-furniture area?

Lighting can make a huge difference in how customers react to what they see by creating a range of identity and mood. The bright lighting in a big-box store says discount, while the low-level lighting (with crisp accents) of a specialty store draws them toward the merchandise.

To obtain ideas, visit the local stores of highly successful retailers such as Starbucks Coffee Co.; Crate & Barrel (Northbrook, Ill.); Victoria’s Secret (Columbus, Ohio); American Girl Place (Middleton, Wis.); Trader Joe’s (Pasadena, Calif.) and other specialty stores. While their merchandise is completely different from yours, think of how you can apply what you see to create an atmosphere that will work for you. Remember, you want appeal to customers so that they not only want come back, but will send others to shop, too.

This would be a good time to do some customer research, perhaps holding a few small focus groups of customers at the store, after hours. Ask your employees to invite one person who fits the model of your average customer. For a small gift and dessert, these individuals will reward you with more ideas than you will know what to do with.

Review the appearance of your cash-register area. What happens when customers make a purchase? Studies have proven that this is the least desirable area of the store. Do you have a bowl of candy for customers to help themselves to while their purchase is being processed? If a customer has to wait in line, does an employee offer a glass of water, apple cider or another refreshment? Is there a small play area for children, so they will be occupied while their parents shop? Do you give them balloons or small toys when their parents make a purchase? What do buyers receive? You should hand each of them a discount coupon toward their next purchase, and a small (but significant) gift for giving you their email addresses and agreeing to be on your email list.

Think of how you can diversify your offerings. In addition to the accessories that you already offer, can you sell mirrors, art, photos and even paintings to go over a fireplace? How about carrying a few fountains for patio areas?

Minding Your Store
Observe your employees. They are the most important part of the customer’s experience. They reflect what your store stands for; they are the first line of interaction when a customer enters your space. Therefore, during every customer interaction, all salespeople must demonstrate a positive and professional attitude. They must treat each and every customer as the most important one of the day. They must genuinely want to serve their customers well. Regardless of a customer’s appearance or expenditure, he or she should be treated with respect. You never know when that customer will be back again, with more needs to meet.

Everything you and your people say and do has an effect on customers. If you do not say and do the right things, you can destroy the reputation of your store and your relationship with your customer. Everyone must understand the importance of providing exceptional service and of consistently acting as ambassadors who promote goodwill. They must realize that the customer is the person who creates and sustains their jobs.

Customer-service Policy
Sit down with your employees. Involve them in creating a written customer-service policy and ask them to agree to adhere to it. Ask for their assistance in creating guiding principles that require all store employees to uphold core values of honesty, professionalism, ethics, integrity, health, safety, environmental concerns, respect, caring and other values that are important to you. Then, create specific examples of how you will treat customers and each other:

• we will greet every customer who walks through the door and treat him or her as if he or she were a guest in our home;
• we will make customers feel as if they were at home and as if they were family members;
• when customers telephone, we will greet them in an upbeat manner;
• we will use a warm and cooperative tone of voice;
• we will address customers by name, whenever possible;
• if a customer has a complaint or problem, we will apologize immediately and address the problem;
• we will be supportive of each other and will be responsible and accountable to each other, not only for our sales performance and the level of service that we provide, but also for the attitude that we bring to our jobs each day;
• as a team, we will identify any service flaws that may exist and strive to find cutting-edge solutions to problems;
• we will make every effort to say yes to any reasonable request;
• we will always think of how we can say yes before we ever say no;
• we will be proactive in preventing service problems;
• we will handle difficult customers and situations with class and professionalism; and
• we will keep the store clean and neat at all times, with special attention to the restrooms.

Start at the top
Ask for cooperation from your team: it can make a real difference. Cooperation, however, is not something that is given; it is earned. Strive to develop strong relationships with everyone on staff. Working in a place where a spirit of cooperation exists will help maintain high morale.

Set the example for cooperation and service excellence. Always treat your employees with respect. After all, if you do not treat your staff well, they will not treat your customers well. Treat each person in your store as well as you would treat a customer who is making a big purchase. Make your people feel that they are working with you, not for you. If you display dynamic leadership, treat them like family members and are loyal to your employees, they will want to work hard for you. If rewards (even small ones) are in the picture, you will see an even a bigger difference in how they perform. Give employees rewards for biggest purchase of the month, best display of exceeding expectations, being employee of the month and more. Make your store a fun place to come to work each day.

Develop an obsession for delivering exceptional service, being a great boss and providing a consistently great experience for customers. If your employees need help with retail sales communication, get them the training that they need. If you need help, hire a consultant to point you in the right direction. Do whatever it takes to keep customers in your store, and to keep them coming back to it. Success in retail requires all of these plus a great store location, smart strategies, tactics, dynamic displays, creative in-store promotions and a great deal more.

For now, as you go about your retail business each day, ask yourself this critical question: would you buy from you?

PHPR March/April 2007

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