Retail Contrarian

Thank You, Come Again

As regular readers of this blog and our Dynamic Experiences Group newsletters know, Doug and I are advocates of thank-you cards to help remind customers of their experience and invite them back.  For the past few years, my home state of Maine has taken this approach with the customers of its biggest industry: tourists.  With its reputation as Vacationland, a plethora of shimmering lakes, miles of white, sandy beaches, and more natural wonders than you can shake a pine stick at, Maine sees its population nearly double in the summer months as visitors from all over the world infiltrate the state to eat lobster and make fun of the way natives (supposedly) speak.

Most of these tourists arrive via automobile along Interstate 95, stopping to pay a highway toll at the plaza in the once-sleepy town of York.  Since visitors pay this toll when they enter and exit the state, traffic tends to back up for miles northbound on Memorial Day (the start of the summer tourist season), and southbound on Labor Day (the end of the season).  A few years ago, the state government and Board of Tourism thought it would be a good idea to thank the thousands of visitors exiting the state on Labor Day, and thereby extend the customer experience.  But how?  Hang a banner?  Not personal enough.  Have the Governor personally thank the occupants of each car as it paid its toll?  Maybe too personal.  The final idea was to have state mascots stand in front of the toll booths and wave good-bye to the departing tourists.  And so, for the past four years, Miles the Moose (pictured), LL Lobster, and Baxter the Maine Black Bear have stood and bid farewell to thousands of customers as they leave the store... er, state.

This year, as in years past, travelers will also receive a thank-you gift more tangible than a mere wave from a Highway Department employee in a plush costume.  This year it's a moose-shaped cookie cutter, complete with a printed recipe for shortbread cookies with Maine maple syrup glaze, a personal favorite of Governor John Baldacci and his family.   Vacating vacationers will also get a thank-you card from the governor and his family, inviting visitors to return in the fall to attend any of the autumn fairs and other events listed on the card, a simple reminder that the state is open for business all year round.

If an entire state can thank nearly every customer as it leaves, and invite them back, you'd think more retailers could.  Now, if the Board of Tourism could just get all of the toll-takers on the northbound side to give arriving visitors a warm and friendly welcome, that would really be something.

Cheap Luxury's High Price

Today’s New York Times Op-Ed section has an interesting article on the connection between luxury handbag counterfeiting and terrorism. At first I was skeptical but the article convinced me otherwise.

In Terror’s Purse Strings, Newsweek correspondent and author Dana Thomas shares how important handbags are to the fashion industry.

According to consumer surveys conducted by Coach, the average American woman was buying two new handbags a year in 2000; by 2004, it was more than four. And the average luxury bag retails for 10 to 12 times its production cost.

If the margin is this good for the manufacturers, imagine what it is for counterfeiters!

As soon as a handbag hits big, counterfeiters around the globe churn out fake versions by the thousands. And they have no trouble selling them. Shoppers descend on Canal Street in New York, Santee Alley in Los Angeles and flea markets and purse parties around the country to pick up knockoffs for one-tenth the legitimate bag’s retail cost, then pass them off as real.

Luxury goods counterfeiting is NOT a victimless crime. These same crime rings that counterfeit goods also deal in drugs, weapons, human trafficking, and even terrorism. There is a known connection between counterfeiting rings and numerous terrorist organizations, and even the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

We retailers need to let our customers know that counterfeit goods are not a victimless crime. As long as consumers will buy them, criminals will make them and continue to steal sales from legitimate retailers and luxury good manufacturers. Even worse, the stealing of the lives of children and innocent victims. 

Maybe The Customer Isn't Always Right

I'm sure you've heard the old saying "the customer is always right."  I remember hearing it in the training at my first retail job many moons ago.  I vividly remember thinking "that's impossible, not every customer can be right."  But I didn't dare say anything lest I be picked up by my brand new blue Turnstyle vest and shown the door.

Thirty-odd years later I'm ready to say it out loud: the customer is NOT always right.  But just because they're not right doesn't mean they're wrong.  More often than not the customer is mistaken.  And they're mistaken because they don't have the information or experience that someone like you has.  Let me show you two examples of a customer who is mistaken and what you can do about it.

A customer walks in with a competitor's advertisement for a product that you don't sell and tells you, "I need one of these."  If you assume the customer is always right then you will tell the customer you don't carry the product and send them on to your competitor. But if you believe that customers are not always right but are occasionally mistaken you will say, "That's a fine product but we carry some others that may fit your needs even better.  Let me ask you a few questions."

By exploring the customer's needs you'll discover which products you do sell that will best meets her needs.  It could turn out to be the one in the competitor's advertisement but you won't know unless you make the effort to learn more from the customer.  You're actually doing your customers a service by not assuming that they're always right.

Here's another example.  When a customer says "That's more than I wanted to pay," is he correct?  If you assume he is you will take him at his word and show him a less expensive product.  Which is a shame since you will be doing him a disservice if he is mistaken.  It may be more than he thought he wanted to pay but he might be willing to pay it - or perhaps more - if you tell him why it's worth the price.

If you've done a proper job interviewing your customer and learning his needs you should be able to explain why the product he is considering is still an excellent value even though it's more than he originally planned to pay.  If the customer still says that it's more than he wants to pay, then he was correct and you can show him a different product.  No harm, no foul.  The best part is that if the customer was mistaken he'll end up with a better product that meets his needs and you'll end up with a bigger sale.

So let me ask, do you take the time to discover if your customer is correct or perhaps mistaken?  If you don't, you're not doing your job and you're missing sales

Share with us some of other ways your customers are mistaken

Do You Really Know How Effective Your Staff Is?

I’m always surprised at the number of retailers that don’t measure their store’s traffic. Without this vital statistic a retailer cannot measure the true effectiveness of their store staff.

While metrics like average daily sales (ADS) and units per transaction (UPT) do measure a staff's effectiveness with their buying customers, they don't assess how well employees maximize all of their customer opportunities.

One of my favorite metrics is dollar per person.  Dollar per person (DPP) is determined by dividing store sales by the number of people who entered the store.  If a store did $50,000 of sales with 4,000 people coming into the store, the DPP would be $12.50. So it shows the store got $12.50 in sales for every person who walked in the door. DPP is a terrific metric to use when comparing stores companywide. Transactions per person (TPP) is a also a good metric to compare multiple stores' effectiveness, especially if there is a wide variant in average sales throughout the chain.

One of the complaints I do hear from retailers who measure the DPP is the inaccuracy of the traffic counters. Of course you only hear these complaints when a store’s DPP numbers are down. I would agree that traffic counters aren’t 100% perfect, and yes, on slow days the UPS driver hurts your DPP number.   But in the long run the traffic counts are appropriate. As I like to say, as long as it’s historically inaccurate, then it’s accurate.

I would highly recommend that if you’re not currently measuring your store traffic that you begin to do so. Of course, after you start measuring traffic and tracking DPP and TPP any store that falls short will have to resort to the old standby excuse... the weather.

Readin', Ritin', and Ringtones?

Once upon a time back-to-school shopping meant buying some new clothes, a new pair of shoes, a few notebooks, pens, pencils, and - this was the highlight for most kids - the ubiquitous and highly coveted lunchbox, resplendent with the most popular character or idol of the time. And every kid knew that lunchbox had better have a matching Thermos or else you'd be banished to the back of the lunch room.

How times have changed. According to a piece in USA Today, more and more companies are jumping on the bandwagon (or is that schoolbus?) to nab a piece of the back-to-school dollar. From cell phones to liquid hand sanitizer, parents are being inundated with marketing pleas to make their kids as prepared for every conceivable situation. Not only should they buy the Hannah Montana lunchbox, but no self-respecting parent would pack it with anything but whole-grain bread from Sara Lee and plump juicy California raisins, both of which are pushing products via BtS campaigns.

While it's easy to write off this approach as crass marketing, there's sound logic to it. As consumers become more accustomed to seasonal event spending around holidays and special occasions, Back-to-School is the natural fall event to spur and justify their shopping. While there will always be a demand for traditional items like notebooks and three-ring binders (make mine a TrapperKeeper, please), social networking, fads, and youth-oriented lifestyle products will generate opportunities for more and more non-traditional inventory to be included in Back-to-School promotions. Laptops and flat-screen TVs, anyone?

We're curious to hear about any non-traditional products you've been able to move successfully with a Back-to-School promotion. Add your ideas via the Comments link.

How NOT To Deliver a Memorable Retail Experience

Today in The Daily Retail Experience, our subscription daily newsletter, I shared with the readers “Five Tips To Delivering a Memorable Poor Experience”. It was a satirical way to demonstrate that it’s the small details that often makes or breaks a customer’s retail experience.

My favorite tip was #2 - Tell the customer everything you can about yourself even though it’s clear they’re not interested. If you’re going to be stuck at work being miserable you might as well take some hostages, right?  Just this week I met a saleswoman who holds a black belt in too much information.  In return for making one small purchase I was treated to her complete life story.  It’s amazing how many bad relationships that woman has had before the age of thirty.  I’m told that the key to success with this bad experience tactic is that the minute the customer starts to share details about herself you ring her up and send her on her way.  Who has time to listen to customers?

Obviously readers who want to deliver a memorable GREAT experience will not be inclined to follow these tips.  Whatever your experience goals, I hope you work for them with passion and a sense of purpose.

Retailers Already Sweating The Holidays

I just love the fact that we’re not even through August yet and already major retailers are “cautiously optimistic” about this year’s holiday sales. The Washington Post reported in Retailers take cautious view as holidays loom that “an early chill has already crept into their prospects for the all-important holiday season.”

Man oh man, can we at least finish our summer vacation before the annual doom and gloom holiday predictions begin? Isn’t August a little early to start talking about why retailers are going to be “challenged” this holiday? Hellooo? Retail is challenging every month! We’re masochist to be in it…..but of course we wouldn’t think of doing anything else.

In the defense of the reporters who write these stories, they’re just reporting what the publicly held retailers are saying on their quarterly earnings calls. When a retailer says they are “cautiously optimistic” what they’re really saying is, “We’re hoping like hell to hit our holiday number. If we hit them then we did a great job. If we fall short it's clearly the economy’s fault.” And most of the time that’s true…..but can we at least wait until the summer vacations are over?

Unless you’re a public company, please don’t start obsessing about the holidays just yet. We’ve got plenty of time to do that. Until then, enjoy the beach and of course be on the look-out for good seasonal help since you're planning on having a great holiday.

Apple Goes PC?

Apple introduced an update to its popular iMac computer last week. Accompanying the product release was an ad campaign that touted the new machine's slimmer styling and higher performance. The tag-line used in the campaign somewhat provocatively stated "You can't be too thin or too powerful." Evidently, there was enough online chatter in eating-disorder and social-equality groups to prompt Apple to suspend the slogan, as the company has since removed the tag from its advertising and website.

It can often be difficult to extol the virtues of a product or service without offending somebody. It's obvious that Apple's slogan was a play on the phrase "You can't be too rich or too thin," most often attributed to Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor. In trying to summarize the benefits of its product into a memorable and apt ad line, Apple (and/or its advertising firm) inadvertently broached a sensitive area for some. It's certainly not the first time it's happened to a company of Apple's magnitude, and it's probably not the last time. It just goes to show that not all definitions of what is "politically correct" are created equal, and while you might think your messaging is perfect in every way, it never hurts to have a back-up message and the flexibility and wisdom to know when to use it.

Exercises For Healthier Sales and Profits

Recently I was asked to give some advice to a group of salespeople who were relatively new to retail and wanted some helpful hints on improving their on-floor performance.  They were pretty adept at following a structured sales process, and were just aces at making customers feel welcome when they enter the store.  What they needed were a few exercises that they could use to hone their interpersonal skills.  I was more than happy to oblige.

I gave them a list of things they could practice on the sales floor, alone or with each other.  I suggested the store manager build a contest around the list, and now each day when the staff arrives they find out what the day's "challenge" is and whoever can go their entire shift without fouling up receives a gift card to the local coffee hut.

Try to avoid saying the word "no" for an entire day. It's hard.  "No" is one of the first words we learn to comprehend as children.  If you find it too difficult to totally eliminate the word from your vocabulary for 24 hours, just try to keep from starting sentences with it.  Even that can be a challenge.  The point is to focus on the positive, and be able to tell your customer what you can do, not what you can't.

Try to avoid saying "I don't know" for an entire day.  This one isn't as tricky as avoiding "no", but you might be surprised how often you'll catch yourself.  If you're asked a question that you don't know the answer to, simply say something along the lines of "That's a good question.  I'm not sure, so let me get you a definite answer."  You owe it to yourself and to your customer to have accurate information.

Speak to your colleagues only in questions.  This one can be tricky.  If you're not careful it can quickly become annoying to others.  A helpful tip is to watch how you speak your questions.   Also, make sure you're asking complete questions, not just asking "why?"  That doesn't count.

Speaking of questions, here's one you should already be doing but I'll throw it in because it never hurts to practice.

Only ask questions that can't be answered with a "yes" or "no". Open-ended questions are your best tool for learning about customers' needs.  Star your questions with "who", "what", "where", "when", or "why" and you'll unearth a wealth of information to help you find the right product for your customer.

Go a day without wearing your watch. Again, another tough exercise.  You customers deserve your undivided attention.  Looking at your watch, even for a moment, can detract from your interaction with them.  Even if you're not directly engaged with a customer, looking at your watch can make you look aloof and anxious to move on to your next activity.  Granted, you might be late for a lunch break, or overstay your shift, but you'll find that there's one less distraction to take you away from serving your customer.  Of course, if your job is selling watches, you might want to skip this particular exercise.

Go a day without anything in your pockets.  This follows along the same theme as a day without your watch.  When you arrive at work, empty your pockets and put your belongings in a safe place.  Now go through the day without putting anything in your pockets.  No pens, no notes, no business cards, no change, and especially not your hands.  Think of all the things you stuff in your pockets during the course of the day, and most of it is either ignored at the end of the day or ends up in the wash.  And nobody likes to see a salesperson standing around with his or her hands in their pockets. - Matt

So what do you think? Are you willing to try a new exercise program this week? Let us know how it works out or any other thoughts you have on our comments section.

CE Store Video - Is It a Parody or Not?

A Retail Contrarian reader told us we should watch this video and they were right. It's pretty funny. It's a tad long, but watching the consumer electronic salespeople in it is worth it.

Almost makes you wonder if it is a parody or not?