Important customer-service practices assist shoppers with purchases that meet their felt and undiscovered needs

Customer service encompasses the entire shopping experience and can be done well by remembering and executing the “Three Cs”:

Convenience begins with being available to your customers when they want to shop. We generally recommend that retailers base their store hours on the normal hours of the center in which your store operates, the typical traffic patterns created by local employers and schools, and most importantly, by a review of your customer traffic and hourly sales for each day. 

If you do not yet have the technology to measure customer traffic in and out of your store by the hour, consider investing in such. Several low-cost options are available and the data can help you staff your store to maximize sales and minimize labor costs. Looking at sales for your early morning and late evening hours in a certain period will help you stretch the window of time your store is open to the maximum profitable time period.

Remember, too, that consumers expect your hours to flex seasonally to make it easier for them to shop during the holidays.

Comfort speaks to making sure your store is inviting and provides a pleasant shopping environment. Does your “Open” sign work? Are your sidewalks and windows clean? Do you have a place for customers to “land” when they enter the front door? Is your store layout and signage such that customers easily can see where they want to shop? What about your store’s lighting? Too little light and they cannot see products well or feel safe, but too much and customers will sense a lack of “coziness.” In some cases, they might even get migraines and avoid your store altogether! 

Think about sound as well. Do you have music playing, and is it innocuous enough? Is the volume set so that your customers will not consciously notice it, or is it so loud or genre-specific that some consumers will find it a distraction? 

Take time to experience the environment of your store again as if for the first time, or ask a friend to do it for you. Pay special attention to aisle width and lines of sight that help customers provide ample room for browsing and find the products they want. 

Also, don’t forget sparkling restrooms. You would not invite guests into your home to use a dirty bathroom, and some customers will judge your entire operation based on the cleanliness of your public restrooms. Finally, remember that customers follow their noses. Does your store smell fresh, or are dirty carpets and dusty fixtures making your store feel old and worn?

Courtesy starts with a warm, genuine greeting. A quick word that acknowledges the customer, and makes him or her feel welcome is the trick. Don’t pester them the minute the walk in the door, but do follow up to see if they need help or to make them aware of any store specials. 

Remember, too, that it is a proven fact that the most cost-effective advertising you can do is through the use of well-crafted feature displays and P.O.P. materials. Do it right and you will help customers find items that meet their needs and desires at a price they can’t resist. But, do it wrong and you will have cluttered up your store and blocked important sight lines. If you do not feel like you have the visual or design skills to pull this off, reach out to a friend or a professional to guide you. For a relatively small investment, you can reap big dividends!

Selling is an art that can be learned by just about anyone who cares about people. I say this because selling should always be done from the perspective of helping the customer. If you can do this with full integrity, selling can become serving!

So, the steps to an effective selling strategy that we recommend for retailers are:

Always approach the customer from the mind-set of serving them. This means helping them find the best product to meet their needs, just the right item for that “special gift” or letting them know about the new release from a favorite author or artist. It also can mean helping them discover ways to save money. It is not about what you want them to buy, but about meeting their needs and desires.

Help your staff expand their knowledge of key products. We recommend that you identify key products that meet local customers’ needs. When an employee can speak with confidence about a product, that will help a customer with a problem teenager, the death of a loved one, difficult financial times, feeling far from God or most importantly, a relationship with Jesus as their Savior. Your employee will be able to engage with confidence customers throughout the store, knowing they can best meet their specific needs. 

Based on your clientele, develop a list of such needs and products to meet them, and systematically walk your staff through it. Focus on how each key product meets a customer need. Consider labeling these items as “Staff Recommendations.” Be sure to include key product lines such as Bibles, Bible study tools, devotionals and books on prayer, parenting, grief and apologetics.

Train your staff to never ask questions that can be answered with a yes or no. Instead, try statements or questions that engage the customer from a helpful perspective. For example, try saying, “I see you’re looking at study Bibles. Are you looking for one for yourself or as gift for someone else?” Or perhaps, “I see you are looking at study Bibles. Which translation of the Bible do you prefer?” Once you have broken the ice, you will know more about their needs and be in a position to offer relevant suggestions.

Help customers make the most of their visit by listening and suggesting. Listen to their responses and suggest items to meet needs they have expressed and needs they may not even know they have yet. The expressed need from the customer might be: “I just starting going to Sunday school at First Christian Church and they are studying Experiencing God.” The unknown need may be that in addition to the workbook, they might find that they need the related trade book. 

Last, but not least, remember that it is harder to sell what you don’t have, so be sure to customize your assortment and stock your shelves with the solutions to your customers’ needs.  My motto in this regard is: “Always be in-stock with what the customer expects to find.” Being able to place the product that your customer is looking for into his or her hands and saving your customer a return trip to your store is one of the best ways to secure a sale and provide great service. The best way to achieve this is to identify these products and include them in the core assortment that you regularly replenish.

By creating a welcoming and comfortable environment for your customers and then suggesting items to them that meet their needs, your store will earn a reputation for providing a great shopping experience and thereby increase your sales. Imagine the benefit of adding just $1 to every transaction by helping customers select the items that will best help them.

Drive traffic to your store with a clear-cut pricing strategy

Getting feet across the threshold is the first step to making the sale. Accomplishing that in a business where we do not sell commodities (things people need like bread or toothpaste) can be a challenge, especially when the economy is shrinking disposable income. 

Last month, we reminded you of the importance of keeping your occupancy costs below 10% of your sales so that you have the funds you need to market to your customer and drive traffic. This month we’ll focus on creating a value proposition that will create demand in the heart of your customers and form the basis for why they will want to visit your store. 

Investopedia defines value proposition as “a business or marketing statement that summarizes why a consumer should buy a product or use a service.” Your value proposition is in large part what you are known for and, therefore, is an integral part of your brand. 

Most value propositions consist of some combination of selection, service and price. Often businesses select one or two of these as pillars. Walmart has chosen price first, selection second and, for the most part, ignores service. Conversely, Starbucks has chosen to focus on service first, then selection and, for the most part, ignores price.

Allow me to suggest a model that will work for most Christian retailers. Assuming you have the omnichannel presence up and running, selection is the least important of the three attributes since everything is available to your customers. That leaves service and price. The reality is that price will drive traffic, but service will keep customers coming back to your store.

There are three main types of pricing strategies:

1. High. Think Tiffany’s. Not much is ever on sale. Perceived premium products are sold at a premium price.
2. High/Low. This is where most of the chains in the Christian market live. They aggressively sale-price a limited number of items each month and have the majority of items on sale at full MSRP.
3. Low. Think Walmart with its everyday-low-price mentality. Few independents can afford to live here.

A High/Low pricing strategy is best for our industry. To be successful here, the retailer must focus on a blended margin and have a strategy in place. Blended margin is the sum of the margin dollars and the margin percentage you make on the customer’s entire transaction. It is easier to sell an item at 50% off when your customer is also buying two or three other items in the same transaction on which you make much richer margins. To accomplish this, use the following:

• ?Cross-merchandising. This is the discipline of visually displaying items the customer can be enticed to buy when they come in for a sale-priced item. One example is sale-pricing the first title in a series and displaying later books alongside.
• ?Up-selling. This is the practice of interacting with your customer on the sales floor and suggesting other items that can complement their purchase, perhaps a daily devotional to a customer who is buying a Bible.
• ?Plus-selling. This is the art of adding on one final item at the point of sale. The easiest example is a gift bag. More aggressive retailers see strong success when they offer the customer a tremendous deal at or below $5.

Some creative ways to shout value to your customers and complement a High/Low pricing strategy are:

• Gift cards/bonus bucks.Gift cards or the use of “bonus bucks” (i.e., a coupon that looks like cash but has no cash value) are used by many successful retailers. The most common application is rewarding customers when they spend more. Take this example: Earn $10 back for every $50 you spend. To the customer, this feels like a 20% bonus. However, since your only expense here is the cost of goods, your “cost” is closer to 10%-12% or less since many of the coupons given out are never redeemed (commonly referred to as slippage). This is best used when you place an expiration date on the “bonus buck” that requires the customer to return to the store by a certain date. This helps drive traffic for the first visit and encourages a second visit.
• Rebates.This is a very effective way to give a discount since rebates have a high slippage rate (percent of rebates never applied for). However, rebates come with process costs whether you do this in-house or hire a processor.
• Loyalty programs. Most loyalty programs provide the customer with a financial reward, generally some percentage or dollar amount off of the customer’s next purchase after achieving a pre-determined plateau such as 10 visits or some dollar level of spending. Giving the customer bonus day or bonus item opportunities to accelerate the reward for buying certain items or shopping on certain days can help stimulate a purchase and reinforce your loyalty program.

In summary, developing your value proposition—and brand—with a strong pricing strategy can help you stand out among the competition and create in the heart of your customer the desire to visit your store. Before you say, “I don’t know how to afford to offer price incentives,” consider tapping into the skills of one of your staff or peers or even an outside company that can help you develop the right strategy and help you better negotiate with vendors to be able to afford it. 

NEXT ISSUE: Learn more about customer service and selling strategies to round out your value proposition.

Bill Nielsen is a 25-year Christian retail veteran having served in C-level positions with Family Christian Stores, LifeWay Christian Stores and Berean Christian Stores. Nielsen is now president of The Equation Team, a consulting firm that specializes in retail and publishing.

Consider what makes a prime location for your retail operation

Today’s omnichannel environment means your store may already have a prime spot no matter its physical setting

Location! Location! Location? 

Location is vital, but in this new era of omnichannel, location is a bit less important than it was a decade ago. If you are implementing a robust omnichannel brand, you already have some of the best locations, namely your customer’s desktop and cell phone. Since having these channels without a strong physical storefront limits your business and ministry, especially in select categories, this issue will focus on the brick-and-mortar location of your store. I apologize up front to the pure “e-tailers” reading this, but know that many of the basics that strong retailers need to master also can be translated to your online strategy.

Based on my 25 years of experience and hundreds of site selections and new store openings, here are the top criteria for successful physical store locations or relocations:

Target. I’m not referring to the “red” big-box retailer here; rather, I’m referring to the need to target the watering holes or neighborhoods where your customers cluster. 

The most successful retailers do extensive heat mapping (similar to a weather radar map) that shows by color where the majority of their targeted customers live. In the case of CBA-member retailers, tracking where evangelicals live is best. Layering on top of the evangelical presence the average household incomes give you a solid starting point for the location of your new or soon-to-be relocated store.

Convenience.Like it or not, the overwhelming majority of what we sell today is not a required commodity, but rather a luxury for our customers. This means that our customers are less likely to driver farther to shop with us. Gathering data on daily traffic count on the street in front of your new location can really help identify sites that are “along the way.” 

Ingress and egress is as important since if they cannot get into your center and get back on the road without fighting traffic, it is a less than optimal shopping
experience. 

Another element of convenience is parking and sidewalks. The general rule of thumb is that you need three parking spaces in front of your store for every 1,000 square feet of space you occupy. Likewise, especially with the aging of America, it is recommended that you avoid sites that have steps or a lack of ramps.

Adjacencies.Simply put, this means that once you have the two above criteria nailed, it’s time to look for a center that has other tenants that you know will help attract your targeted customer. Target, Walmart, Best Buy, PetSmart and a host of others fill this bill.

Visibility.Even the best center has a bad space in it. It is usually the one that is hidden in the corner, behind trees and without a high-visibility location for your sign. If you’re in a not-so-ideal location, look for creative ways to increase your visibility. Depending on your lease, you might be able to add more exterior signage on the back or side of the building. Another way to become more visible is to drive a vehicle—the larger the better—wrapped with your store’s logo.

Facilities, size and cost. Avoid locations with multiple entrances and levels. Make sure you have a convenient freight-delivery door. Remember that your occupancy costs will generally be your biggest investment behind cost of goods and labor. As such, you must be willing to maximize your sales per square foot and minimize your total cost of occupancy. This cannot be emphasized enough. If you are paying more than 10% of sales for fully loaded rent, you will not have the funds you need to promote your store to drive traffic and then staff it to provide great customer service once the consumer gets there. Be aware of all the add-ons like common area maintenance (CAM), insurance and taxes that rental agents will try to load onto your plate. Retail is detail, and leases are chock-full of details you cannot afford to overlook.

Finding the perfect site that meets all of the above criteria can be an exhausting process and may take several months or longer in some markets. Many business owners benefit from the help of a firm that has expertise in this area. Unless you have successfully negotiated several leases in the past, you would be advised to hire a leasing expert to assist you. Generally they save you far more than they cost. Those that are skilled in the above areas are still wise to involve a real estate attorney to review all leases before they sign. 

Do your due diligence, be picky and negotiate wisely, and you’ll have a site that will serve your ministry and business well for many years. 

NEXT ISSUE: Learn some of the best ways to drive traffic to your brick-and-mortar store.

Bill Nielsen is a 25-year Christian retail veteran having served in C-level positions with Family Christian Stores, LifeWay Christian Stores and Berean Christian Stores. Nielsen is now president of The Equation Team, a consulting firm that specializes in retail and publishing.

Omnichannel caters to today’s digital-friendly consumer

Learn how to increase your customers’ satisfaction by providing a seamless experience through all channels

The landscape before retailers today is more brutal and unforgiving that any we’ve seen. The shrinking disposable dollar in consumers’ wallets, the impact of healthcare reform and the changing face of social media and online purchasing behavior require all of us to redefine ourselves or risk being left in the wake of those who do! While I am intentionally addressing retailers in this new Retail Successentials column, it will also serve as a great resource for others who want to better understand the retail consumer and learn how to better serve the retail industry.

First and foremost, we must always focus on the main thing—that is, how best to meet the known and even the unknown needs of retail consumers. Clearly, the bottom line is: Meet the consumer’s needs better than the guy down the street and you will succeed. Each of us as a consumer has a good idea of what our needs are, but we all need a bit of help with our unknown needs—the needs we can’t yet see, but are assuredly on the horizon. 

Most of us have gone into a home improvement store looking for an item to fix something at home. We thought we needed a washer or a float value, but because of some friendly help who had already experienced what we were about to go through, we learned we also needed some Teflon tape or some other items that we could not foresee based on our limited experience. The same is true for first-time parents, first-time Sunday school teachers, new believers, and the list goes on. The key is to present such knowledge to customers with solid, unwavering integrity, as consumers can see a sales pitch from a mile away. They don’t want to be sold, they want to be served.

In order to serve the consumer and create profitable business growth, there are several “retail successentials” we must master. At first some may ask, “I know what needs to be done, so what’s new?” The fact remains that even the teams that win the Super Bowl start every new season going back to basics, and so must we. The key is not in the basics themselves, but in our ability and willingness to master them that will put a Super Bowl ring on our finger. Those players who look to a coach to help them master the basics generally do far better than those who rely on skill and athletics alone.

The first and most important of the retail successentials is developing an omnichannel presence. But, omnichannel is not your mama’s multichannel strategy.

Multichannel is just that; it is about doing business across multiple channels. Most multichannel retailers struggle to present the same assortment, pricing and service to their customers. As a result, the customer is often left confused and frustrated at what is available where and at what price. Heaven help them if they want to return an item purchased from one channel to another. Time and convenience are new commodities that we must be sensitive to lest we find our customers choosing to shop elsewhere. 

Omnichannel goes beyond multichannel, but is not as formidable as it sounds. Omnichannel is simply a matter of presenting one seamless view of your business to the consumer so that they can shop for what they want, when they want, where they want, how they want and not have to jump through hoops and restrictive policies to do so.

So let’s break down omnichannel into five practical segments that any retailer can implement:

1. Brand. The number of channels you do business in is entirely up to you. The easier you make it on your customer, the more customers you will have. Your brand should always be the same to each customer no matter which channel they select. It’s OK to not sell via an iOS or Android phone app, but it is not OK to sell with this app and have it not represent your brand by allowing the customer to see the same assortment, pricing and policies. Think of each channel as another window to your business. No matter which window they look in, they should see and experience the same thing—your brand.

2. Assortment. It is true that some items do not sell well online or via a phone app. It is also true that some items do not ship well. Examples might be church baptisteries and steeples. This should not stop you, however, from making sure the customer can see such items, review product details, read customer reviews and more. Keep in mind that they may visit your store and buy from you online or do some research online before visiting your store.  Shrinking store space and higher rents may require you to have an interactive screen in your store since it is not possible to stock every item in every store. No matter how you do it, the goal is for customers to see everything you offer from any channel. Such is the mark of a good brand.

3. Price. Gone are the days of customers accepting different prices in your store and online. I know, I know, the e-commerce retailers are already saying they need to be more competitive so as to not lose business to Amazon. I agree. I just believe that the same rule applies to your in-store pricing. If you disagree, look into “showrooming” trends. Consumers are looking in-store, but using the Amazon or similar app to buy online at a better price. The net here is: Your price should be your price regardless of channel. We will cover pricing strategies in a separate issue.

4. Policies. Think returns, loyalty programs, gift cards and coupons. These are the most common areas where a customer can become frustrated. Don’t you want to shop where all of these policies are seamless and earn your points, redeem your coupons, buy and use gift cards and make returns without worry about the channel? So, give this to your customers—or your competition will.

5. Technology solutions. In order for your customer to have one seamless view of your brand, you must begin with one view of your customer within each of your channels. Fortunately, CRM solutions, web-development, phone apps and even kiosks have all come way down in price, making it affordable and easy to leverage technology to become omnichannel. Start by asking your current your current POS provider what other service applications they interface with. There should be a long list of low-cost options for you. If you hear, “Well, we can find a way to that,” it’s an early sign to hold onto your wallet and start looking for a modern up-to-date POS provider that has open-access application partners to meet your needs.

At the end of the day, your customer should be able to shop with you at any/all of your channels, see the same assortment, buy at the same prices, return goods to any channel and talk to someone anytime who views them as a name and not a number and is able to help them regardless of channel. 

NEXT ISSUE: Learn how to optimize your brick-and-mortar location as your most important retail channel.

Bill Nielsen is a 25-year Christian retail veteran who has served in C-level positions with Family Christian Stores, LifeWay Christian Stores and Berean Christian Stores. Nielsen currently serves as president of The Equation Team, a consulting firm that specializes in retail and publishing.

‘Flexibility’ was key as store underwent remodel as part of a church-wide revitalization plan

A recent remodel and renovation has given The Bookstore at Lake Pointe a face-lift. Improvements to the approximately 1,500-square-foot location in Rockwall, Texas, include greater visibility as well as new fixtures, displays and shelving, not to mention the ability to incorporate new features in areas like the children’s section.

“We added a treehouse, which is a lot of fun,” said Bookstore Manager Jill Sledge. “It’s a two-story clubhouse that’s made to look like a tree. Upstairs, we play a kid’s video and we have books available for them to read. We also have several beanbag chairs up there so they can go hang out, read or watch a movie while their parents shop.”

With the entire church undergoing a renovation, the bookstore was a part of the makeover. Located in the church’s south foyer, the family-friendly store was closed after Easter last year for the improvements. In the meantime, it operated out of a temporary space that was a fourth of the store’s original size. The modernized store marked its progress with a Dec. 1, 2012 opening.

Advising other stores that have a remodel on the horizon, Sledge pointed out that adaptability is key. 

“Everything is constantly changing,” she said. “The name of our game last year was flexibility and that has served us well.”

Last renovated in 1996, the store was in need of an update. 

“We were working with older fixtures that were outdated,” Sledge said. “Now, we have new fixtures. The store is nice to shop in and you can see all of the product.”

The improved, shopper-friendly atmosphere has been a good change for the store, which started as a book table and became a store in 1996. 

The primary change is that the store now opens to the main foyer of the church. Before the remodel, access was limited because of a wall that separated the store from the foyer. A staircase that blocked the store from the foyer was moved to the back of the store, providing an increased, expansive view.

“This has opened us up to the high-traffic areas of the church, so that the bookstore can be seen,” Sledge said. 

The store’s product mix includes books, Bibles, Bible covers, DVDs, church supplies and children’s items as well as resources by the church’s pastors, Steve Stroope and Todd Phillips; music by the Lake Pointe worship team; and gifts by Forgiven Ministry (largely jewelry and artwork made by local crafters). The store also offers gently used books. 

All proceeds from the store go back into the ministries and missions of the church. Monies are used is to fund camp scholarships for students, for example. 

“Nannette Preston started Forgiven Ministries about two years ago. The products are donated to the church, sold through the bookstore and 100% of the sales go toward to the missions of the church. The same is true with our used book program,” Sledge noted. “These programs have been well-received by our customers, and we have been able to give back thousands of dollars.”

The Bookstore at Lake Pointe serves a 10,000-member congregation.

Resource center builds on interest in Willow Creek’s visiting authors

Church bookstore founder George Lindholm had a passion to get Bibles, books and other resources into people’s hands to help them grow spiritually. Planting and nurturing new life in Christ was the idea behind the name of Seeds Resource Center, a ministry of the Chicago-area multi-campus Willow Creek Community Church.

Seeds is managed by Bookstore Director Jennifer Acanfora. A 5,000-square-foot location with an extension called The Branch that operates in the church’s main lobby Saturdays and Sundays, Seeds blossomed out of an increased need for Bibles and messages by Bill Hybels, founding and senior pastor.

Serving a congregation of more than 20,000, one of the store’s key ministries is to support guest authors who speak at the church. 

For instance, when the church focused on a series called “Celebration of Hope,” highlighting compassion and justice issues, North Park Theological Seminary professor and author Soong-Chan Rah spoke. 

“He had a brand-new book out, The Next Evangelicalism from InterVarsity Press,” said Receiving Manager Brad Lasater. “We were able to get that in, feature it and have it for sale. We try to feature what is both new and relevant.”

When an author visits, the store finds out what books have been released on the topic the author is addressing, including the speaker’s recent titles. 

When Gateway Church pastor and author Robert Morris came to speak, Seeds had a big promotion with several tables set up in the lobby. 

“Fortunately, his church was able to get us a large quantity of four of his titles,” Lasater said. “One of them focused on the message he was speaking about and he gave quite an inspirational message. We were able to offer the congregation a good price, at a discount, and we sold quite a few of them.”

Willow Creek is bringing in several guest speakers this summer, including Craig Groeschel, John Ortberg and Henry Cloud, so the store will be fully engaged in helping to sell their books.