Welcome!

Do you welcome your customers? Do they feel welcome in your store? Or are you one of those owners who sits behind the register and waits for somebody to buy something? 

The fact is, you need to greet your customers, or even your potential customers. Everyone needs to feel like you are happy that you are there, giving you a chance to sell them whatever it is that you sell.

You can even draw people into your store this way. I passed a shop in San Francisco that had a sign outside that said, "free chocolate come inside and watch it being made!"

Now how can you pass up that? Honestly, who would not want to go inside and at least see what it was that was being made? Then, when they get in the door, give them a sample (see LAW OF RECIPROCITY) and start asking questions.

You may have seen a sign in windows stating, "Browsers welcome, customers, more so." How about turning it around? "Customers welcome, browsers even more so?" Let them know you are willing to let them come in, look around, maybe even ask questions. After all, every customer you ever had probably started out as a looky-loo.

Create!

This is my way of creating. I want to be a writer, so I have to start writing. According to Bradley Charbonneau, author of Create: What to do When You Don't Know What to Do, we are here to create. When you don't know what to do, create. When you are sad or distraught (lot of that going on right now), create. This was like an epiphany to me, albeit a small one. But I am going to try to keep this up every day, and post it on the interwebs, and eventually hope to find my voice again.

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Robert B. Wallis is a writer who is focused on helping you live your best life.

Keep ‘em Coming Back!

Oftentimes, when I talk to business owners, I will ask them, “why do you think your loyal customers stay loyal to you?” The interesting thing is that their answers are usually way off the mark. They will say, “it’s because of our great service”, or “ we have the best prices in town.”

Actually customers go back to a store because they feel like they are wanted there. When you make a customer feel important to you, when you let them know that their coming and shopping at your business matters, then they will come back.

How many times have you heard the phrase, “your call is important to us”? Do you believe it? Of course not! Because after you hear that, you usually are connected to someone who acts like you are not just a nobody, but a nobody that they are incentivized to get off the phone as quickly as possible. How could my call be important? Especially if the person I’m assigned to is reading from a script and has no real idea of what it’s like to be on the other end of the phone.

When my wife and I were looking for a house, we realized that there would always be another house to look at. This drove Realtors crazy, simply because we refused to fall in love with something. Granted, we are a tough couple, but none of the Realtors we dealt with (and we spoke to over 20), ever made us feel like we were important enough to spend any time getting to know well enough to figure out what we really wanted.

But I digress. The facts are these, there will always be lower prices, there will always be better service out there. But if you can make your customers feel like family (well,  not my family), and always keep listening to what they want, and not what you want, you will keep ‘em coming back.

Rob Wallis is a speaker, author, and consultant who helps business owners increase their profitability by improving their visibility. Contact him at rbwallis63@gmail.com.

Experience vs. Cost

A colleague of mine who works in retail related the story of a new department manager who had management experience, but little retail experience. I have seen this happen in the past, and it always puzzles me, for a couple of reasons:

You have a leader who has no idea of how the business works. Just because someone knows how to hire and fire, it doesn't mean they know  anything about retail. I witnessed this in the restaurant business, where a manager was hired who knew nothing about restaurants (well, he probably was a waiter at one time, weren't we all?), and proceeded to anger the staff at busy times by walking into the back and asking "What can I do?"

My philosophy is, if you don't know what needs to be done, you have no business being a leader.

This can also affect the morale of staff. The thought goes something like: "why is this guy the boss? He doesn't even know what needs to be done"

And yes, I realize that you don't have to know everything about the operation to lead. But you do need to exude the confidence that you can lead, so that your staff does not feel like they are the ones running the show, and you are the one making all the money.

A Customer Service secret you can learn in the shower: http://bit.ly/CustServshower

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Robert B. Wallis is a speaker, author, and consultant who helps business owners increase their profitability by improving their visibility.

Is it Really What's Eating You?

They used to say, "It's not what you eat, it's what's eating you." That's only partially true. The fact is, in many cases, it is what you are eating, although you may not be aware of it.

There are so many hidden substances in your food that you may have no idea what you are actually ingesting. If you find you are trying to lose weight, but are getting no results, keep a record of what you eat, and read labels.

I can't emphasize enough that reading labels (on the back, not the front of the package) will tell you the real story.

More on this later...
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Robert B. Wallis is a speaker, author, and consultant who helps business owners increase their profitability by improving their visibility.

A Customer Service secret you can learn in the shower

A Customer Service secret you can learn in the shower: http://bit.ly/CustServshower

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Robert B. Wallis is a speaker, author, and consultant who helps business owners increase their profitability by improving their visibility.