Perspective Matters

– Doug Fleener

Look around your store and ask yourself the following three questions:

1. Do I have any "customer landmines?" Customer landmines are policies, procedures, or merchandising methods that unintentionally upset customers and may cause them to leave you for your competition. I call them landmines because so many retailers don't even see them or the harm they can cause to their business. Landmines can make for unhappy customers who decide that shopping with you is not worth the effort. Sometimes this happens when the store's return policy is dictated primarily by what meets the retailer's needs, not the customer's. Less obvious landmines can include the type of music played in the store, the volume level of the music, parking availability, store hours or overcrowded and messy stores. All retailers have customer landmines. Good retailers know how to "sweep" for them on a regular basis.
2. When is the last time I looked at the store hours and asked if they meet the customer's and business needs? Many retailers' hours are set by a landlord but others are set by the owner or company. Retailers who set their own hours need to consider the following:
• Do your hours meet the majority of your customers’ needs and expectations? Locked doors are one of the quickest ways to lose a customer to your competitor. So, it is important to be open when customers have the appropriate expectation that you are. If you are in a strip center or on a block where the majority of the stores open at 10:00 a.m., then you should be open at 10:00 am. If the majority of the stores around you stay open on Thursday or Friday night, then you should too. I'm constantly amazed at the number of retailers who don't do this and, as a result, are slowly losing customers without even realizing it.
• Are your hours easy to remember? A new spice store in the next town over is open Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. but on Saturday they close at 5:00 p.m. It seems to me that it makes sense to close a half-hour later on Saturday so the hours are consistent.
3. How well am I communicating what makes our store different from the competition? Don't leave it to the customer to discover what makes you unique. Tell them and then confirm it with your service, pricing, products, or whatever makes you unique. My friend, Essie, does it by telling every customer coming into her candle store about the unique sniffing bars and how customers can easily sample all the different scents available. Other retailers do it with graphics that show their products in a lifestyle setting or with a primary merchandising display easily visible when the customer first enters the store. The best advice I was ever given was to walk up to my store every morning as a customer and not a person on his way to work.