KIZER and BENDER's Retail Adventures in the REAL World™ BLOG

Great post - love the illustration you used! Very...

2009-12-10T23:04:55.279-06:00

Great post - love the illustration you used! Very true - customers are judging businesses by very different standards than they used to use.

If I followed all of these tips Thanksgiving would...

2009-11-24T14:26:54.923-06:00

If I followed all of these tips Thanksgiving would be worry free.Living in Canada the holiday has come and gone but there is always Christmas. alışveriş

I'm curious if you ever address those of us who ar...

2009-11-17T20:12:37.154-06:00

I'm curious if you ever address those of us who are online retailers?

You've been Culverized! Culver's. a Wisconsin bas...

2009-11-10T17:58:52.900-06:00

You've been Culverized! Culver's. a Wisconsin based chain has been recognized as the number one hamburger chain, and for good reason. I REALLY want to buy Culver's stock, but it is still privately owned. They do special orders with ease, always helpful and we love them. Also their green bean side is really good, as is the fishfry (cod).

Kim

OK-much sadness here! I was so excited to think th...

2009-11-10T17:58:04.154-06:00

OK-much sadness here! I was so excited to think that the burger people would be happy to see me that I went to their website at Culver's and found-alas! No Culver's in all the southeast (or California cuz I would try them when I go to CHA!) Their website just made my mouth water and how much fun would it be to have the "flavor of the day" widget appear on my google page each morning? Oh, well-guess when I want to be appreciated I will have to visit the cows at Chick-Fil-A because their customer service is always outstanding, too!

Just wanted you to know that word of mouth is STILL the best advertising-even from the mid-west to the state of Florida! :)

Janet Wells

Yes. This is the reason that I lost my everlovin...

2009-11-06T18:20:16.641-06:00

Yes.

This is the reason that I lost my everloving mind with the Apple store. I needed a car charger, since mine had been snagged. I went in, grabbed what I needed, and then started looking for the cash register. Not one. Everyone who was allowed to ring me out was in the process of helping others - generally with big purchases that were time consuming. NO ONE WOULD TAKE MY MONEY.

Up at the front, there was a woman taking appointments for the genius desk. I asked her if I could make an appointment to buy something. She didn't like my attitude AT ALL. Guess what? I DID NOT CARE.

And while I was asking for help (seriously, it had been more than 15 minutes at this point) one of the holster guys finished his transaction. I was walking to him when a woman walked into the store and he started helping her instead. OMG I nearly lost my mind.

I set my stuff down and left. Won't darken the door again. Even if I do pink puffy heart love my iPhone.

Julia

Great tips! Thanks. It is important to really kno...

2009-11-06T13:26:36.373-06:00

Great tips! Thanks.

It is important to really know your customers, what they like and dislike about the store, what they are looking for from a scrapbook store, and what they would like to see done differently in the store. A customer suggestion box, a customer satisfaction survey in store and online or, better yet, email a survey to the customer after their visit. Customers may be more willing to fill out a survey once they are out of the store.

Another suggestion may be a referral program. Refer a friend and get a coupon or free product from a basket.

Susan

That was such a visual! I laughed through the who...

2009-11-06T13:24:15.145-06:00

That was such a visual! I laughed through the whole story. Please know that we have turned off the robots in our store (smile).

Hi Kirsten, You already know the answer to your q...

2009-10-30T18:54:54.401-05:00

Hi Kirsten,

You already know the answer to your question, you said it in your last two sentences!

You have to be professional. Your gift certificates are a paper representation of your store. They build a perception of what the customer can expect to find when she comes in to redeem her gift.

Get rid of the gift certificates with the old address and invest in new ones! You can either print them on your computer or order new ones from a local printer.

Imagine someone getting a gift certificate from your store on Christmas Day. How is it packaged? Envelop your gift certificates in a wonderful handmade box or greeting card made from materials in your store. You're creative, you know exactly what to do!

Georganne & Rich

This is going to sound dumb, but who do you recomm...

2009-10-30T08:26:47.220-05:00

This is going to sound dumb, but who do you recommend for Gift Cards? I have paper gift certificates for my scrapbook store. They are carbonless copies & you hand write on them. And this is awful...I moved in December last year & they still have my old address because I have SO many of them (we change the address). Totally unprofessional, I know. So I'm in the market to do it the right way. What do you suggest?

Remember that many customers are allergic or sensi...

2009-10-29T20:47:19.561-05:00

Remember that many customers are allergic or sensitive to scents!

And, not surprisingly, Southwest has been the only...

2009-10-14T19:05:17.776-05:00

And, not surprisingly, Southwest has been the only profitable major airline for the last several years.

Bingo!! It's hard to sell something when you don'...

2009-10-07T17:59:37.939-05:00

Bingo!! It's hard to sell something when you don't know who you're selling too or how they want to be sold. Great stuff guys I'll share it with everyone at the beadniks group. You are the smartest guys in the room.

big love
craig

Great ideas - these ideas can be modified to work ...

2009-10-02T14:39:03.722-05:00

Great ideas - these ideas can be modified to work in an online selling venue, too - great for stores that have websites that they sell from.

Great ideas! Love the ugly dog one =p

2009-09-24T00:14:38.936-05:00

Great ideas! Love the ugly dog one =p

I'd like to add a clearance tip... Since my scrap...

2009-09-23T12:29:22.872-05:00

I'd like to add a clearance tip...

Since my scrapbook store is mobile, I don't have a clearance section.

I toss all the slow movers and odds & ends into a bin. The bin comes with me to scrapbooking events (average 2/month) and near the end of the day/weekend, I spread out the bin contents and announce that it's all 40% off, or if they buy 5 or more items everything is 50% off.

Some of the benefits:

Almost everyone buys 5 or more items.
I rarely have to mark down more than 50%.
I don't have a lingering, slow-to-turn, sad looking clearance bin.
By putting it out later, customers shop the full price products first.
I get to decide what goes on sale, rather than have blanket %off sales. The "limited time" offer creates urgency. (so does the fact that they might not see my store again for a few months)
I go to "the bin" whenever I'm looking for prizes and giveaways.

Amen!

2009-09-15T14:25:02.441-05:00

Amen!

Great post - I did not expect the stats to fall qu...

2009-09-15T14:23:40.150-05:00

Great post - I did not expect the stats to fall quite that way! Nice to know.

There's a great new report from The Wall Street Tr...

2009-08-17T15:58:55.808-05:00

There's a great new report from The Wall Street Transcript that has lots of details on the economics of funeral homes. You can get a free interview with this link:

http://www.twst.com/sample_funeral_report.html

One word: EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW...

2009-08-17T15:57:26.330-05:00

One word: EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

Georganne & Rich

That makes me itch. Somewhat similarly, I had a h...

2009-08-17T14:39:14.992-05:00

That makes me itch. Somewhat similarly, I had a hotel stay and woke up in the middle of the night to find my bed covered in bed bugs. Needless to say I was mortified. I called downstairs, and they sent someone right up to move me to a different room. Not that I could sleep, because there was no way I was sleeping after that. The next morning, when I approached the desk to check out (very early), there were some other folks there checking out. The woman asked me how she could help me, and I told her I needed to discuss my room. I was ushered away and into a private room so that we could speak without my interfering with other guests. My room was comped. It's been over a month, and I haven't stopped itching.

Beef jerky is gross and whoever gives me a busine...

2009-08-10T10:35:34.424-05:00

Beef jerky is gross and whoever gives me a business card made out of the sutff likey won't be getting my business. Margarita business cards? Now we're talking!

brilliant!!

2009-08-06T08:06:24.287-05:00

brilliant!!

We were just talking about this at ScrapBiz.com ye...

2009-08-04T09:43:30.157-05:00

We were just talking about this at ScrapBiz.com yesterday. Great minds think alike!

Perhaps you know about Scrapbook Royalty? From th...

2009-08-01T12:01:55.729-05:00

Perhaps you know about Scrapbook Royalty?

From their page http://www.scrapbookroyalty.com/index.html:

Charitable Crafters for Noble Causes

Scrapbook Royalty is a 100% volunteer run organization whose mission is to raise money and awareness for noble causes through unique scrapbooking and crafting events and to promote "creative" opportunities for crafters to give to others in need. 100% of the donations raised is given to the worthy causes we support.

and they are on twitter & FB as well:

http://twitter.com/ScrpbookRoyalty
http://www.facebook.com/scrapbook.royalty?ref=mf

there might be room for collaboration between you and them...

Just a thought,

Pam Hoffman
http://seminarlist.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/PamHoffman