Retail Customer Service Tips

You should never underestimate the power of good customer service. What people think about you can make or break your business. Customers consider customer service the most important part of their shopping experience, and so should you. Concentrating on servicing your customers will help you to make your business better, improve the image of your store, and lead to more sales and more customers. Use these tips to make sure that you and your staff are on the right path to providing excellent customer service.

1) Learn who your regular customers are and identify them. Simply learning your customers’ names can go a long way. A personal greeting is remembered and makes the customer feel valued and special. Let your employees know that you want them to try to do this. If it’s a customer’s first time purchasing something, take a look at their check or card and thank them using their name. This will help you remember who they are if they come in again. If someone signs up for your e-mail list to receive your newsletter or special offers, then include a personal thank you in the first e-mail you send. Say something specific, like “I hope you’re enjoying your new shirt and pants!” or “Have fun at your daughter’s wedding!” so that they know you remembered them.

2) Keep in touch with your customers whenever possible. An e-mail list is a great way to keep your customers informed of sales and promotions. It’s a non-invasive way to keep in touch. Make sure that customers can easily unsubscribe without feeling embarrassed or they might be too embarrassed to come back to your store. An automatic unsubscribe is least threatening. Postcards, occasional mailings, and personal thank you notes put a special touch on your customer’s shopping experience.

3) Hire upbeat employees that are happy to work for you. The way that they treat your customers is the most important thing that you’re looking for. If someone hates being there and is simply putting on a show to get their job done, it will be obvious to your customers. If you’re having trouble finding people that go the extra mile with your customers, consider pay raises, incentives, bonuses, and extra training to get them on board. Your employees will only see customer service as importantly as you do. Model the behavior that you want to see and focus on team building and individual rewards to motivate your staff.

4) Make the shopping experience easy all around for your customers. Keeping your store displays nice and neat is the first step in creating a good customer experience. If your racks are messy or crowded, customers will be turned off and simply not want to shop there. An organized store says that you care and makes it easy for customers to navigate your merchandise. If your floor space is limited, consider installing slatwall panels to take advantage of some vertical space in your stores. Slatwall is perfect for displaying all sorts of merchandise. It’s easy to rearrange and easy to keep looking nice and neat.

Use all of these tips and come up with some of your own to make the customer service that your store provides unique.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail displays, including mannequins, dress mannequin forms, female mannequins, slatwall and slatwall panels. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.

Defining Your Target Market

Retailers running their own business, like boutique owners, need to define their target markets in order to effectively and efficiently focus their advertising, merchandising, and promotion efforts. If you don’t you could waste a lot of time and money, and even hurt your business.

First you need to determine what makes you unique. Why did you decide to go into retail in the first place? What inspires you? What does the competition sell? Who still has a need that is not being fulfilled in the marketplace?

Next you should determine which market segment is most likely to want to buy your product. This group of people should have a need or a strong desire to buy your products. Once you have a general target group in mind, it is time to start fine-tuning who you really want to market to. For example, you may decide that you want to market to parents. Then you may narrow down the group by deciding to focus on parents of babies and toddlers.

Another thing to consider is socio-economic status. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you will target rich people or a certain class of people, but more specifically, are you targeting mothers who are looking to save money, or mothers who are looking for high-end specialty boutique merchandise? Mothers who like to shop downtown, or mothers who prefer to stay on the outskirts of the city?

Narrowing down your target market can have an impact on what products you decide to sell, the prices that you charge, and even the perceived environment in your store. Let’s say for example, that you research your competition and notice that there are plenty of consignment boutiques in town. There are also lots of second hand, thrift style stores. The only high-end boutiques that sell children’s clothes you can find are all targeted towards girls with lots of frilly accessories and monogramming. While it may be true that parents trend towards buying more boutique merchandise for little girls, you may notice that there is a need in the market for little boys’ boutique clothing, toys and accessories.

Once your target market is defined, you can stock your inventory. Don’t be afraid of stocking too many items as long as they go along with your theme. People like to have choices, so make sure that you don’t get so specified that you barely have anything to offer. If you are in a small space, you can make the most of it by displaying your merchandise on slatwall. Slatwall panels are an easy and versatile alternative to shelving and make the most of vertical space. When you have your target market pin pointed and the merchandise that they need, you’ll be on your way to success.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail displays, including mannequins, dress mannequin forms, female mannequins, slatwall and slatwall panels. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.

Display and Promotion Ideas for Boutiques

Boutiques are in an exclusive position to really get creative with their displays and promotions. What might seem out of place or over the top in a traditional retail store can make a boutique interesting and unique. Use this fact to your advantage when you are creating your displays. You might just find that certain merchandising tools, such as mannequins, can help you to brand your image, sell your clothing and accessories, and help you to make a lasting impression on your customers. Actually, an interesting window display can bring in a lot of new customers on its own.

To create an exceptional display utilizing mannequins, you need to first consider your store image. If you want your boutique to be recognized for its individual style and unique décor or standards, then you need to make sure that your displays communicate this message. Having an ordinary display can make your boutique appear dull and boring. This is the last thing that you want when you own a boutique.

Shoppers are interested in boutiques for many different reasons. They love the charm, the interesting decorations, the personal service, and the unique products and brands that boutiques usually offer. You can use your window display to quickly communicate to passer bys that you, in fact, offer just the things they’re looking for.

For example, you can display signs or window clings provided by the companies whose brands you carry. This tiny form of advertisement will attract people looking for those hard to find brands that you carry. You can then attract people looking for personal service by advertising your services. A small sign should be sufficient. Have it communicate the unique services that you offer, such as free alterations, personal styling, custom fittings, whatever the service may be.

Nothing in your window display is as important as the mannequin display. Mannequins communicate to customers the atmosphere and attitude of your boutique. People connect with mannequins on different levels as soon as they lay eyes on one. This marketing phenomenon has mad mannequins the number one selling tool in retail for decades.

Customers rely on their first impressions to determine if they trust the business. They need to trust you in order to decide to buy. They need to see what you’re offering, imagine themselves owning, using and wearing your products, and be able to determine how that would make them feel. If a customer does not go through this process within the first few seconds of looking at your display, then they are not likely to enter the store or buy anything.

Use this knowledge to your advantage. Set ups female mannequin displays to attract women. Use mannequins that are specifically designed for your products, for example, use a dress mannequin for dresses. Be sure to select clothing and accessories that communicate the style of boutique that you run. If you use mannequin displays and window displays to accomplish that positive first impression, your sales could really increase and your customers will stay interested and loyal.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail displays, including mannequins, dress mannequin forms, female mannequins, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.

Retail Storage Solutions

If you own or manage a small retail store or boutique, you have probably struggled with not having enough storage space for your inventory and merchandising tools. This is so common, especially during the holiday season. You want to have enough inventory so that your supply keeps up with the demand, but you have probably had problems finding the space to run the business like you want to. Use these storage and display ideas to get the most out of the space that you have and create space where you didn’t know that you had it before.

Come up with a system for keeping the store room organized. Have garment racks handy for steaming clothing that is coming out of the box. Try installing a ceiling rack for boxes and other lightweight items that you need to keep out of your way. Roll out wrinkle free clothing on your garment racks as soon as possible to keep the store room from getting too cluttered.

You can make extra room on the sales floor so that you don’t have to store so much. Too many garment racks can clutter up the space that you have. Additionally, cramming your inventory onto the racks can turn customers away. No one wants to dig through packed racks back to back with other customers. Installing gridwall or slatwall could be the answer.

Gridwall and slatwall systems help you to utilize vertical space. You can display your clothing and other items facing forward so that customers have an easy time seeing what you have to offer. You can help to eliminate the need for extra storage by hanging your inventory on the gridwall or slatwall bars. When you need to put out more inventory than normal, like when you’re having a sale or promotion, simply swap out your normal bars for longer ones.

Grid wall panels and slat wall panels can hold a lot of weight, so you can really use them to display and store at the same time. They are extremely versatile and easy to rearrange. As certain items run out, you can simply move the bars around to fill in the space.

You can maximize the impact of your gridwall and slatwall displays by using mannequin forms. Hanging mannequin forms are lightweight and easy to use. Simply hang them on the ends of your display bars and customers can see what the items look like when they’re being worn. This eliminates the need for many customers to try on clothing. Your store stays nice and neat, and customers aren’t constantly rearranging or digging through your displays. Employees can concentrate on helping customers and take down the sizes that they need only when they need them.

When you stock your store with gridwall or slatwall, you open up your business to many new opportunities. You’ll even attract new customers as they pass your store and easily see what you have to offer.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail displays, including mannequins, dress mannequin forms, female mannequins, slatwall and gridwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.

Make Room in a Small Boutique

If you run a boutique, chances are space is an issue. Many boutiques are run by individual owners who simply cannot invest a lot of money on store space. Therefore, it becomes important to make the most of the space that you have available. Whether you’ve expanded your inventory, or you’ve always needed more room, you can use these tips to help you make room by following these steps.

First, you need to get rid of merchandise that just isn’t moving. Have a sidewalk sale or set up a clearance area and sell off what you can to make some room. Floor space and garment racks should not be crowded, so do what you can to consolidate, but don’t pack things together so tightly that no one is interested in digging through them. Move some things to storage if you have to.

Make use of the vertical space in your store. A popular option for retail merchandising is to have gridwall or slatwall installed. It is fairly inexpensive and can save you loads of space. Plus, there are other benefits to using it.

With a few simple accessories like hanging bars, shelves and hooks, you can turn your grid wall or slat wall into a merchandising and promotion dream. Using gridwall and slatwall systems puts your merchandise up where people can actually see what you have at a glance. Since customers often use their first impressions to determine whether or not they will buy anything, letting them know what you have when they walk in is a great idea.

When the floor is more spacious and open, you are less likely to lose merchandise to shoplifters. Gridwall and slatwall are loved by retailers everywhere because of this feature. Your employees can see shoppers from all around when there is no place to hide. Having crowded clothing racks just a few feet apart gives thieves the sense of security that they need to shoplift.

Clearing out floor space by using gridwall and slatwall makes your store look more inviting. It makes it more user-friendly, clean and organized. It also creates open spaces that you can use for more interesting displays, like mannequin displays. You can even hang mannequin torso forms on the ends of your hanging racks that protrude from your gridwall or slatwall. This is an effective way of letting your customers know what your clothing looks like when it is worn and drawing attention to your items.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail displays, including mannequins, dress mannequin forms, female mannequins, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.

A Professional’s Guide to Consumer Behavior

Understanding consumer behavior is essential when you are preparing your store for the new year. Marketing and merchandising are centered around how you will make consumers feel, think, and act. The main goal of marketing is to influence the way that consumers think. Motivating them to decide to buy what you want them to buy is what must be accomplished to ensure a profitable selling season.

Customers are as influenced by experience as they are by product positioning and presentation. Training your employees to offer customer service above and beyond what the customer expected can go a long way in influencing consumer behavior. When an escalated situation is handled professionally, nicely, and effectively, an aggravated customer is likely to make a purchase and return in the future. One reason is that they now have a connection with your store and your staff.

In real life, going through an ordeal that ends with a favorable outcome draws people closer together and strengthens their relationship. The same applies for customers who have a problem. Try not to dread dealing with irate customers. Look at difficult situations as ways to bond and turn problems into favorable relationships than you could not have originally obtained.

Make sure that customers feel as if you understand and acknowledge their problem. Listen more than you speak. Solve their problem in a way that exceeds their expectation and you’ve struck gold. Not only does the customer have a stronger bond with you, but they have an incident to talk about with their friends. If they walk away feeling like you handled the situation in a professional and personal manner, then they are going to spread the word.

Product positioning is also important when your intention is to influence consumer behavior. First you must understand what type of customer you are trying to influence. Are your customers looking for deals? Are they looking for quality? Are they shopping for others? Determine which sets of customers you would like each display to appeal to and go from there. For example, a table set up with sweaters that would make great gifts may be tied with ribbon to resemble a present. You could place a sign here that informs customers about your free gift wrap services.

Position your displays in areas where customers are likely to decide to make purchases. Your big attractors should be in the front of the store to draw customers in. However, you do not want all of your best finds to be right in the door, or customers will get more disappointed as they move through and leave with a bad impression. Use mannequins and signage to draw customers back further and further into the store. Impulse buys along the aisles that receive the most traffic will help to lure the customers in. Using a mannequin, like a female mannequin or male mannequin, can help you to position your product where it can be easily seen. For example, someone standing twenty feet away may notice your dress mannequin wearing a coat that they really like and move back to that area. If the coat was simply hanging, the customer would have never gone back there.

Use mannequins, spread out your merchandise, and always treat your customers with respect. You will keep the sales going through busy and slow seasons year round.

About the Author: Ron Maier is the Vice President of S & L Store Fixtures, a leading online resource for retail displays, including mannequins, dress mannequin forms, female mannequins, gridwall and slatwall store fixtures. For more information, please visit http://www.slstoredisplays.com.