Complacency…8 Important Retail Trouble Spots

By Rich Gordon

Complacency. . .What’s New and What Should Be New, In Your Store

I visited with a retailer a few weeks ago and asked her how things were going.  She began venting to me about all of her to-do lists and all of the projects that she had been working on. She was working on a number of changes including some new fixtures, a new wall color and some new product lines. She told me she also needed to hire and train a couple of new people.   I expected to hear her tell me also that business was really down and she was desperately trying to turn things around.  But I was wrong!

So wrong. . .in fact she’s coming off close to a record year. That really impressed me.  Here she is talking about all of the improvements she needs to make and it’s not because she’s hurting or desperate.  She wants to keep her store new, exciting and interesting.  More importantly, she wants to keep her store relevant to her target customers.  As a matter of fact she is trying to more narrowly focus her store to better appeal to her core customers. This is such a change in story and attitude from the one I usually hear and it is an important difference between average and mediocre retailers and aggressive, healthy and cutting edge retailers.

Great retailers are driven or compelled to keep improving and upgrading their physical store, their atmosphere and their product lines regardless of their sales.  In fact, this attitude is what sets them apart to begin with.  Complacency even while successful can be your worst enemy!

Year after year, even a successful company may keep doing what’s always worked for them, but over time they fail to realize that they’re slowly slipping and often becoming less relevant, and more and more ho-hum. . . boring! 

Here are some things to consider along those lines:

1. Are you still hanging on to an old product line or product assortment that just isn’t performing like it used to do? Old loyalties die hard, but maybe it’s time to get more production out of the square footage your tying up with merchandise that just doesn’t cut the mustard any longer.  Are your old product lines still relevant and important to your target customer?   Do you know who exactly your target customer is and are they still excited about your store. Remember, it really is easier to adjust your product assortment and brands for your customers changing taste than it is to find new customers for old products and product lines.

2. When’s the last time you took a field trip to a few competitors you admire? Don’t go by yourself.  Take a couple of other employees with you and split up.  Each of you should at whatever you choose.  Then get back together and exchange views and notes.  You might even want to revisit the store after talking.  If you’re visiting a chain store or a retailer with deep pockets, take a look at how you might be able to implement some of their ideas and presentations with budget that meets your needs.

3. Do you invest in new and interesting ways to display your merchandise? Yes, it cost more money, but it really is an important part of staying fresh and exciting to your customers, especially where you key bread and butter lines are concerned. If you’ve got product lines that are critical to your success then you must invest in them.  You can’t afford to let its importance become lost in old, worn and outdated fixtures.  New fixtures mean putting things in a new light and bringing attention to products in a different way. Putting new and state of the art products on old and tired fixtures or even old tired and uninteresting walls are like putting hot pants on mom or worse yet grandma. Can you imagine seeing the latest iPads displayed on a shelf up against some pegboard?  Or can you imagine seeing a “Coach” purse locked up in an old dingy glass display case from the 60’s?   The point is that if you don’t invest in new and inventive ways of showing your merchandise, you’ll pay a much higher price down the road.

4. Take an honest look at your store through the eye of the lens.  Take a couple of dozen photos of your in 5-10’ sections.  After you’ve taken them, either print them out or look at them closely in full screen size on your computer monitor.  What do you see?  Does each photo you have reflect the image you want of your store?  Take some notes about every photo.  Make note of the good things too. They may be worth reinforcing to your people or duplicating somewhere else in your store.

5. Are you bringing in new categories and lines to test and excite your target customer? The longer your business has been around, the more dangerous and easy it is for it to become passé or boring. Too often some retailers will bring in the old tried and true products year after year with just slight changes in presentation, signage or anything else, and they wonder why sales are lethargic and daily traffic is dropping off.  (Yes, it must be the discount store down the street or it’s the economy.)  You should constantly be thinking about what else you could do to excite and sell to your current customer base. There are always more possibilities and opportunities around than any of us are aware of, including me!

What if a new direct competitor opened up across the street from you?  What would you do?  Remember one of the things about new stores.  They’re fresh and they offer little surprises. They’re clean, bright and all new and shiny.  Customers are always ready to check something out like that.  What would you do?    Then my next question is, why should you wait only until that happens.  You’ve got to keep your store fresh and interesting all the time!

6. Have you graded your housekeeping and general appearance? Are you waiting until the one hole in the carpet enlarges and meets up with the other hole in the carpeting? Are you still looking up at the stains on the ceiling tile and blaming the landlord for that old leak two years ago?  You say that landlord won’t replace the tiles so you’re at his mercy?  Ever heard of some fresh white paint.  Paint the tiles.  Don’t worry about who’s responsibility it is, worry instead about the image your convey!  Maybe the landlord will at least reimburse you for the paint, but don’t wait—as Nike says, “just do it!”  I’m sure that like a lot of retailers many of you feel that you can’t afford to replace carpeting or fixtures or invest in some new lighting, considering the economy. And yes, you do need to watch expenses very closely, but I also feel that you can’t necessarily afford not to change it!  If you’ve been thinking for a while now that you need to update, repaint, or replace some things in your store, the odds are that you’re probably way overdue.

More than two-thirds of consumers say they have avoided a place of business based on its external appearance. We’re talking about its presentation from the street.  More than 80 percent of consumers admit they have shopped only once at a location and never returned because it did not meet their expectations. A full one-third have not returned to a place because it was perceived as “dirty.”  Statistics Source:  Morpace Market Research & Consulting, Omnibus Survey

7. What have you been doing the same way forever? What have you always had behind the counter?  Why?  What kind of shopping bags do you provide?  Why?  Could they be better. . .different, have a message, be more classy?  Go over every step that you’ve taught your people when completing the transaction at your POS terminal.  What could be changed and made more efficient?  Question everything you do and how it might be done faster or better, or why you do it at all.  Why is everything placed around your counter as it is?  What could make it better for your customers?  Everything you do that involves the customer should be revisited.  How can it be better for the customer?  How can it be more fun, more pleasant, and more efficient?  If it doesn’t benefit the customer, ask yourself how important it is to begin with?

8. Have a long overdue conversation with your staff about what they believe and what they do to make customer service great for your customers. Have this conversation with everyone present so each employee can hear and challenge the answers.  Is everyone on the same page about what good or great customer service is?  What is your viewpoint vs. your staff’s view of great customer service?  Ask for examples of what they’ve done, what they’ve seen and what they’ve heard regarding customer service?  Do you keep growing and developing your staff so they don’t drift from tried and true to tired and through? Complacency with regard to customer service is a business killer and indifferent or poor customer service is still the leading reason by far, for customers who leave and never return.

In Conclusion:

Having a retail store can be compared to being an artist.  When you work in the same space and environment on a daily basis, you begin to not see it. . . .not really, not as customers see it.   It really is a matter of perspective.  If you’re a painter, with a 50’ long painting, you’re too close to the painting and you lose the big picture.  Your view is highly skewed. In both cases, you can only see the big picture when you stand back and observe the store, or the canvas at a distance.  Even then you may not be looking at things honestly and critically. I guarantee you, based on what I see, either retailers are not looking at their stores honestly and critically because they’re too close to the situation, or they have some really poor standards and they are in denial.  In a challenging retail business climate, you can certainly make the case for reducing expenses, but scaling back improvement can come at a painful price.   If you are oblivious or unwilling to adapt to a changing customer or a more challenging competitive environment, you will pay a heavy price!

Benefit Your Retail Business As Well As Your Favorite Store

by Rich Gordon

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with working with a charity to help make your business a good community citizen.  In fact, virtually everything is right about it.  If an important part of marketing is managing the image you have from your store appearance, to your employee’s appearance as well as the advertising you do, then being a good community citizen should be considered part of your marketing efforts. By involving your business with a non-profit doing important work, you get the notice and respect of thousands of people who otherwise might not know about you. Think about the number of major newspapers and television stations that help promote charities through the year. The fact is their audiences and advertisers appreciate when the media works to help charities, and your business would be no different in terms of helping its own image.  It would be great to believe that all businesses give from the heart, but businesses should be first and foremost about generating profits, otherwise they don’t exist.  And when they no longer exist, they can do nothing for charity.

One great way of having and improving your community image is by aligning your store with one or two noncontroversial, nonpolitical, and well respected charitable causes. People love to associate themselves with businesses and brands that support charitable causes. And here comes the marketing and selfish side of things. . . You don’t need to be a big business to get serious recognition from your charitable efforts. Depending on your efforts and what you do to get behind the causes, your store can get literally thousands and thousands of dollars worth of free advertising on radio and television. Even if the publicity is minimal you’re at least being a good community citizen.

Now I’m not suggesting that your only interest should be your business.  In fact, you should seriously consider the type of giving that you’d like to be involved with, and why you want to support a particular cause.  If you’re doing it only as an obligation or for strictly promotional reasons, your efforts will be seen as insincere. If you don’t already have a favorite charity, pick one that relates to your business in some way.  They all need help, and why shouldn’t your store help?

Pick YOUR Time For Your Charitable Event

While there are lots of worthy charities in your area that could really use a helping hand, most of them seem to benefit from giving through the Christmas season.  Like most retailers, this is NOT the time of year when you may want to deal with an event like this, even though the publicity may be a big asset. The public and the charities as well, wish quite often that fundraisers would be held at other times of year. This is your queue, as well as the time of year when you may want additional attention from the public.  It becomes a win/win situation for both your store and the charity.

One positive side of this besides your helping out a deserving charity, is that you don’t need to contribute money only. While all organizations want and need money, they also have a great need for donated goods and services.

There are many ways that a retailer can contribute to its chosen cause. Here are just a few ideas:

1.  Dedicate a small percentage of your sales to the charity.

2.  Host A Blood Drive. Publicize your blood drive by contacting radio, newspapers, TV news stations, etc. This can be great for retailers or businesses where customers must come to your place to do business. Use a banner with your phone number and website info on it.

3.  Your business may sell a product or service that the charity needs. You may be able to donate the product or service entirely, or possibly offer at a discounted rate. If you sell children’s clothing, working with a charity that helps underprivileged kids could be a good match.

4.  Take your slowest night of the week or a night you’re not normally open and offer a specially selected charity 10–25% of your total sales for the evening. You or one of your people can man the checkout; however, any other sales help could be volunteers from the charity.

5.  You store may be able to help a cause by selling a selection of their branded merchandise within your store.

6. Find out how to help by organizing, hosting and sponsoring a fundraising event. Contact the charity to work out a way you can help them through an event at your store.  Your first priority when calling is what they’d like to see, not what benefits you most. They should be able to determine how you can best help them.  If this doesn’t work for your business, you can always say ”no”.

7. Consider a special charitable run or walking event.  Depending on your location , the event may start or end at your store. (Just remember an event with several thousand runners or walkers is a whole different animal than an event with a couple of hundred.  Also remember, the more participants, the more spectators come to watch.)  Set a registration fee. For a short race like a 5K, charging runners and walkers a fee is probably better than having participants line up sponsors who pay by the mile.

Consider the following points:

Just as in advertising for your business, it takes lots of awareness and repetition to have an impact. Be sure to have a well-written press release to get the word out. Non-profits will be ready and willing to include your name in their advertising and marketing campaigns. They may even have someone who can help with the press release. Regardless, be ready to have a logo’d handout, some short ad copy, or banner for charities to use if they need them. You may need some digital media for a website as well.  Also consider making yourself available to join charity representatives on radio/ tv talk shows.

Radio, TV, and newspapers will often give you free time and space if you have a cause or event their audiences will be interested in. Ask other businesses who have newsletters to donate some space in promoting the event to their customers.

If your store has a good following on your website, twitter, or facebook you can spread the word to your followers regarding your charitable event.

To help your exposure, try planning your event during a designated charity’s special event day or month.

Consider using a local celebrity to help you promote your event.  They love to help charities and the association certainly doesn’t hurt your store, especially if you, the celebrity and the charity work together on an ongoing basis.  (The relationship may even evolve into the celebrity helping you promote strictly your own business.)

A reciprocal and strategic partnership built over the long term is more powerful than a one-time event. The benefit here is that with continued involvement of your charity and your store, both organizations are exposed to the each other’s network of contacts providing a greater pool of potential customers for you and donators for the charity. Those who don’t notice you this year will be twice as aware the second time you participate. Many of the most successful business-charity associations have been going on for decades, because you both build more awareness for each other than could ever be without the alliance.

Keep in mind that some charities are better equipped to work with sponsors and the media. Others are new and have inexperienced staff.  As a result, they may appreciate your business experience in showing them how to organize people and resources.

In Conclusion:

It’s easy to get carried away trying to promote your store’s interests in a charity effort.  If it appears that your store is being promoted more than the work of the charity, the whole thing can backfire. Sponsors who do not seem to be boldly promoting themselves receive more benefit in the end.

What is the most interesting event you’ve seen in conjunction with a retailer?

Whether you’ve had a good or bad experience with a charity event, I’d like to hear about it.

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