What if... you could seize every opportunity to welcome every person who walked through your gates or through your doors? (I'm not talking about a used-car salesman approach here, but a welcome to our house type greeting.)
What if... we were coming to your home for a special meal or function? The idea of welcoming everyone would certainly be what you would do and what we would expect, right?
Where does the idea... that really changes things begin? We could say it begins with a spark. A single thought. It might be called "the lightbulb moment". A quick search at Merriam-Webster defines spark as...
Spark - as a noun
Part 1 - Introduction: Setting the Table for Success
As Danny mentioned a few weeks back, the Starbucks story was built upon a hyper-focus on the customer experience. The idea of dusting off this video series from Member Clicks and reintroducing it (or introducing it to new folks) would be a great chance to “sharpen the saw” for your training and development goals during the summer.
If you have been with us in The Group for some time I'm sure you think I am heading into either The Nature Fix or Emotional Marketing areas, shared in recent years.
The idea actually came from a totally outside source, but our two major programs have left their marks on my thinking. I guess you could call this a hybrid message. Or simply... an outside message with internal influence or flavor!
These are your customers or guests in the coming weeks.
How will you know... what they are thinking?
We all have recently participated in Creating the Guest Experience as we have either hosted or been the guest of family and friends during the holidays. Crafting the Guest Experience is at the heart of planning for these gatherings.
What about your Garden Center's Guest Experience?
Is it a Time for Change at your Center? Spring 2023 has come and gone and now is the time to be thinking about how you can make your Center more efficient for the coming seasons. It's not always about increasing Sales to improve the bottom line.
We hear Tim Quebedeaux talking about streamlining your plant and product selections to turn more, have less shrink, and improve GMROII – by category.
In my first career life I was in some form of department store management. Everything from managing particular departments, operations manager, store manager and regional manager of stores. I’ve spent countless hours helping my associates deal with every customer type known to mankind. At one point in my career journey, as a store manager, I asked my associates to never tell a customer no. If a customer asked for something the sales associate knew they couldn’t grant, they were to apologize and say “I’m sorry, I can’t authorize that but I’ll call a manager”.
It's amazing how customers change their confrontational tone, most of the time, when a manager is involved. It’s even more amazing to witness other customers becoming involved, in a non-confrontational way to bring a positive lite to a situation.
Here's an important question... Are you Designing Your Customer's Experience?
Part 1 of a Series with the Theme “A Better _______ = Better Marketing”
[Go to Part 2 "A Better Merchandise Selection = Better Marketing - HERE]
A Better Facility = Better Marketing - Architectural Word of Mouth
Sir Winston Churchill once said, "We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give."
This simply yet powerful statement emphasizes the importance of serving. Whether serving our family, our faith, our community, our country, or each and every person we see each day, the act of serving has great value. This also relates to every Guest that enters your Center. On May 2 of this year you may remember a message I shared titled "At Your Service". In that message, I said there is one thing you and your Team can do to begin... (Ok, actually 3 things)
At first glance, you might think I am referring to Spring 2022 performance numbers and this title very well could be used to describe the late spring arrival and the numbers we are seeing in the Weekly Department Review (WDR). But I want to first ask the question... Have you ever heard of a Report Card Grade of "Not Yet"? I hadn't until a few weeks ago when I found a quote by Dr. Carol Dweck to use in the April 25th edition of GROUPtalk for the Quote of the Week. The quote is:
“The hallmark of successful people is that they are always stretching themselves to learn new things." ~ Dr. Carol S. Dweck
Dr. Dweck is a renowned psychologist who introduced the world to the term “growth mindset”. She is the author of Mindset, a book that introduced the differences between a Fixed Mindset and a Growth Mindset. As I read more and even watched several presentations of Dr. Dweck's work and her research on having a growth mindset, I realized this is not just for children and their development. It applies to all of us.
In sending all Group Centers Owners a reminder for the 2022 Group Mystery Shopper Program this past week, I started thinking about the typical Mystery Shopper and all of your customers.
When something is very special, you would often describe it as "one of a kind". That is certainly the case with our most special relationships. Our spouse, family and closest friends could easily be in this group. Most of us have very special things our family has passed down through generations that we hold so dear and treasure greatly.
So what about plants, or our garden? You might have a family heirloom plant that has been passed down to you from a parent or grandparent and that plant is so very special to you. Most likely you have favorite plants in your garden. Their blooms or fragrance or just stature earns them a place of high esteem in your garden. They make you feel good.
New customers have been a boon of 2020 in 2021. There are clear signs that the gain is slipping, and we need to take fast action to secure the customer. The first rule to building our business is to keep your customers (including the new ones) or it will take even more new ones to make up for those we don’t keep. By my definition, a new customer isn’t yet a real customer until they come back. They are a distinct possibility of becoming one if we handle their experience well.
Let’s pause a moment and ask ourselves, “Where have these new customers been?” That’s an important question, but one for another day. They’re here, and now we get to welcome them, integrate them, and keep their interest. Exactly how are we going to do those things? What is the plan?
[If you missed Part 1 of this series you can read it HERE.]
Part 2 – Get By or Get Away
RE-setting Your Value Proposition Post COVID-19
With 79 years to go this may be the biggest consumer con-job of the century, and you are involved.
It’s not a joke that COVID-19 became a convenient excuse, a crisis not going to waste, a cop-out, as well as a likely inconvenient trap for companies to find themselves in. Time will tell, and time is growing short as people are adjusting to the NOT return to normal.
That was on everyone's mind last week as we converged upon Columbus, OH for Cultivate'21... the very first industry trade show since early last year. And it was GREAT in many ways!
That's what I see ahead for Garden Retailing and the Horticulture Industry as a whole. We have several both direct and indirect evidence to support this vision for what's beyond the horizon. First, let's consider what almost every Garden Center has experienced the past 15+ months. Reports of seeing 20-25% new customers and a high percentage of them were young. And by the questions they asked, they are new to gardening. We have wondered if they would return this spring and most indicators point to YES, they have. These new plant and gardening enthusiasts are finding their own joy and passion in their garden activities. If we can continue to help them be successful and build upon this new-found relationship with plants and their garden, this may very well be the much needed bridge of transition between boomers and the next generation. These new young customers are one of the best pieces of evidence to support the vision of "A Bright Future."
Additional evidence to support a vision for "A Bright Future" can be seen in this year's nominees for Green Profit Magazine Young Retailer of the Year Award. In the December 14th edition of GROUPtalk, we announced a new Group effort to co-sponsor and promote Green Profit Magazine Young Retailer of the Year Award for 2021. The Garden Center Group, with support from our Partners for Success, are official sponsors of the 16th annual award, along with AmericanHort.
This past week, Green Profit announced the three finalists for this year's awards. They are:
As we continue the theme of Alignment in 2021, here are a few more thoughts I would like to add to the discussion in the month of May.
Let’s consider the big three pillars of any retail shop—average transaction, number of transactions, and customer experience rating. Studies show that there is a direct correlation (read alignment) from the customer satisfaction metrics and the average transaction metrics.