Tag Archives: gift

Loving Customers in Retail

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I run several busy retail news agencies in Australia. These stores sell magazines (more than 1,000 titles in stock), newspapers, greeting cards, stationery, books, social stationery and lottery products.

We see, on average, 1,000 customers each day. These are a high volume low transaction value businesses.

There are around 4,500 news agencies around Australia.

A customer asked for help in choosing a car magazine as a gift in my newsXpress Forest Hill store last week. She didn’t know much about cars and wanted to make sure she purchased a gift which would be liked.

Another customer offered to help as he was a car magazine enthusiast.

The two customers talked for ten minutes about cars and the car magazines we had on offer. They worked together to make the selection for the Christmas gift. They were a delight to watch.

We were most appreciative of the knowledgeable assistance given by the customer who stepped into help. He was glad to have the opportunity.

This true story is not unique. I bet it happens many times each day across the news agency channel in Australia and other retail businesses around the world.

People come to news agencies for magazines because we are the specialists – like the lady looking for a gift. People with special interests come to news agencies because of our range, our browser friendly attitude and because the environment is personal.

This difference – range, customer comfort and personal service – is vital to our entire channel. We owe it to each other to do our best in these areas as they reflect our point of difference.

We rely on the two customers in my story – the lady looking for a magazine as a gift and the guy who shops in news agencies because of the range and the browser friendliness. We need to do more to attract and keep them.

The Christmas spirit has been on show in retail businesses around the world with customers helping each other like in my story.

Independent and small retail businesses are wonderful places where humanity and compassion are on show every day. This is a point of difference in small business compared to large business. It is a point of difference we need to somehow embrace and promote.

  • I have seen stores promote on their window slogans like:
  • Where the community comes together.
  • Where the community meets.
  • Connecting the community.
  • Local people serving local people.
  • Shopping with friends.
  • Come and meet your neighbours.
  • More than shopping, a place to enjoy.
  • Helping each other.
  • Welcome home.
  • We know your name, not your number.

While some of these sayings sound cheesy, they do reflect the personal and local nature of the type of business I have described in my story. Locally owned businessesare more personal and connected then their big business competitors.

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Customer Loyalty Programs

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Everyone uses a loyalty program. You choose a certain credit card so that you can rack up airline miles. You pull out a plastic card for the cashier to swipe at the grocery store that gives you access to certain discounts. I carry a plastic tag on my key ring for Starbucks that gives me a free drink on my birthday and free soy milk in my drinks. There are plastic cards for the loyalty programs at office supply stores, pet stores and so many more.

The definition of a loyalty program is to provide discounts, prizes, or other incentives to encourage continued patronage of a business, according to Wikipedia. Generally, loyalty programs are considered less expensive to maintain than allowing customer defection or “churn.”

Jarrett Paschel, Ph.D. is the vice president of strategy and innovation for research consultancy The Hartman Group and he wrote about the results of research done on retail loyalty programs. “We’ve been listening to frustrated consumers complain about retail loyalty programs for years, so we were not surprised that our recent research confirmed this position. Looking at the chart we find that 74 percent of consumers somewhat or strongly agree that ‘retailers need new and better ways of rewarding loyal customers’.”

We love loyal customers. It is in rewarding those customers that we have the opportunity to turn them into raving fans. We must not lose that opportunity.

Loyalty programs are a “selfless acknowledgment of your store’s appreciation for your customer’s continued patronage and support with a gift or service of substantive or meaningful value,” says Paschel. That chosen gift should not have any strings attached to it – otherwise it isn’t freely given. It also should be able to be used immediately – which differentiates it from a bounce back coupon. (A bounce back coupon is a coupon given to a customer offering a discount on a purchase to be made within certain future time constraints.)

Our goal is to reward our customers for making the right decision and choosing to shop with us. Look at your own behavior. Are you motivated simply by discounts, miles or points? No. Those don’t necessarily cause you to change your behavior and drive out of your way to go to a store.

Loyalty is inspired by making an important difference in your customer’s life. It will necessarily include a shock, surprise and awe component.

It isn’t hard. You only need to know one thing. What matters to your best customers? Go to your computer and pull up the list of your customers sorted by sales volume. Look at them. Picture them. What is important to them? What type of lifestyle do they lead? What do they buy from you? Start a list.

Force yourself to write down at least 25 entries. You will see commonalities. What could you gift them with that would make a meaningful impact?

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