This ain’t no Southern thing – why ‘training’ is wrong

‘Good morning’ came from about six of the nine people working in this small Southern diner. And then all nine stood there as I sat on a stool to order breakfast. The person whose job it was to take care of patrons at the bar was waiting on someone else.

The other eight, having no customers to wait on, simply stood there and watched. After all, they had said ‘Good morning’ as they were likely taught by the manager. (That’s the manager who was likely told by his district manager to have the employees say ‘Good morning’ to everyone entering the diner.)

This very situation happens in many businesses. It is an indication of ‘training’ a person to do something as compared to educating them.
Training consists of telling the person what to do. Educating is having the person understand what you desire as an end result.

Are you training or educating your employees?

Newspapers or Facebook – no contest in this community

This is a note I received this morning from Rob Edwards. Any questions?

If you are also reviewing your year-end expenses like me, I offer this lesson learned: I gambled and spent $20,000 LESS on print advertising in our regional newspapers to promote our special events AND saw attendance at these events increase of last year … thanks to Facebook and aggressive collection of emails and use of Constant Contact targeted emails. Patch.com has helped too. The only print ads we did were in micro-newsletters to targeted groups like elementary schools announcing our holiday events. For $250 we had access to the parents of 20,000 kids which yielded the highest ever attendance at our December tree-lighting ceremony. Thought I’d share that just in case your boards are still addicted to print ads in newspapers. But keep in mind we are in Silicon Valley.
Rob Edwards

Defining an Independent Retailer

Traveling between my two home towns, you pass through communities that can be defined as small, smaller, and very tiny. Within these communities you will see signs of those who believe in their community; not just by their words, but by their actions and their money.

Not unique to these small communities, these believers can be found in large cities and mid-size cities; these believers will step into action anywhere there is a number of people who are looking for something. In a community or neighborhood, you will find these individuals and the results of their efforts.

These are the people who have opened a small business. This person, who has chosen to open that small business, is saying to their community, “I see a need and am going to help. I will create that business, take the gamble, and help my community.”

The business may be a pharmacy, a hardware store, grocery store, auto parts store; one that sells clothes, shoes, toys, bicycles, lamps or any number of items that people use. The business could be a hairdresser or the person that cuts the grass or landscapes your lawn as the independent retailer takes on many shapes and sizes.

The business they chose to create will be unique as the products and services they offer are tailored to the wants and needs of those that live in the area. The owner of this business will ask the residents what they are looking for and how that business can make the lives of customers more enjoyable. The business is likely to change as the community changes as well as when the residents develop new wants and needs. The owner of the business is easily adaptive to the community because that business owner lives in the community.

The person owning that small business is also going to be active in their community by participating in the merchants association. This person will be among the first to join in any effort that makes the community better for those that chose to live there. It may be creating a park, supporting a youth sports team, doing something for the children attending the local schools, or helping a local house of worship; this person will be there to support and help their community. Their investment in the community goes far beyond the business they have opened.

The independent retailer is a cheerleader for the community. This person can find the good in everything; they are proud of, and a proud member of their community.

Another word for ‘belief’ is ‘gamble’, for opening this business is truly a gamble. There is never a guarantee that the new business in the community will succeed. The owner expresses their belief by taking their personal money and investing in the creation of the business. The money may come from what has been saved over the years; the money may come from mortgaging or selling their home to make this investment in the community. It is an investment that says, ‘I believe in this community’.

Unlike those that have jobs working for a business, these people have no guarantee; no promise of a paycheck at the end of the week. They are doing what they do because they want to help their community. They do it because they are very talented individuals that have a strong sense of being an entrepreneur to their endeavor. Owning the business is a challenge they thrive on. You can see the enjoyment of the challenge in the smile they greet their customers with as the customer comes into the business.  You can hear the excitement of their business in their voice as they visit with the customer.

Doing business with this independent retailer is sheer enjoyment because that retailer truly appreciates and enjoys their customers; their neighbors.

As consumers within a community, there is no responsibility to shop with a locally owned business. It is not ‘the duty’ of residents to support the business. Instead, the locally owned business works hard to invite individuals to visit the store; to be greeted and waited on by their fellow residents.

This shopping experience will be one that is unique to each locally owned business – you won’t find the same products, services, staff, or atmosphere in any other business. It will be like walking through a forest and listening to all the birds that live there. What a dull world it would be if all the birds sang the same song!

This is what the independent retailer brings to the community.

Tom Shay observes a sharp store manager

The July e-ret@iler conference call is going to discuss how some businesses pay attention to details of their customers to get them to come back. While this falls in a slightly different category, notice how this manager of a beverage store in Minnesota has done some many small and easy-to-do things to impress his customers; to help his customers; and garner additional sales.

Summer Tips

The heat is here and that means people get thirsty.

Here some tips I have learned over the years.

* Keep the facility and comfortable. You want to keep them in the store shopping as long as you can.  If it’s hot out and they walk into a place that’s an oven the customer may conceive the idea that the beer is also not that cold.

* Plan ahead with your beer cooler so you are not hauling warm beer into the cooler and sending it directly down the rail.

* Ask your vendors for the waterproof bins that go by the front counter to hold iced down single serve refreshing summer cocktails. Your ice vendor will usually cover the cost of the ice.

* Have signs offering ice with the purchase and have your cashiers get into the habit of offering the ice with every sale.

* Plan sampling around busy summer times. The heat make people thirsty and they will be more willing to try something. If they taste a sample the chances they will buy it go way up.

*Offer carry outs for people whenever you can. Customers will appreciate they extra effort when the weather is sultry.

* Offer a selection of wines already chilled that go well in summer, like sauvignon blancs and pinot grigios.

* Also consider premixed drinks in the cooler like mudslide, long island teas and strawberry margaritas.

* During humid times, cooler doors like to fog up and drip. Check with a cooler vendor they can offer solutions to avoid this issue.

* Try to arrange an area in your parking lot for campers and boats trailers to have easy entrance and exit.

* Offer items on your sale flyer that work well in the heat.  You may not want to offer brandy, big cabernets and Russian imperial stouts this time of year.

I hope these ideas help with the busy selling season.

Stay cool and refreshed!!

Tom Agnes, MMBA President

Done right by Tom Shay

Readers of this blog know I experience plenty of businesses with bad service. I like to tell of the good; it just doesn’t happen that often. Today it did.

I called Burns Florist in my hometown of Fort Smith Arkansas. I was ordering flowers for the funeral of my great uncle, Van Brown who was the oldest living letterman for the Arkansas Razorbacks.

The staff asked questions about him and our family. As I explained of Uncle Van, this fellow Razorback said she would be honored to take care of my requests. Her closing words were, “We will take care of him as if he were one of our own”.

Wow! Just remembering our conversation brings the tears back to my eyes. Some people just sell products and services; the good ones affect our lives.

What do you do?

It is only a t-shirt saying but the t-shirt fits from Tom Shay

One of our twin sons wants to purchase a t-shirt with this expression on the front, “I see stupid people”. I tell him he is not big enough to defend the shirt at school. But we do seem to experience it too often. Yesterday’s experience was at one of my favorite diners. Having a late lunch I sat on a stool at the counter near the front door and exchanged greetings with the staff. You know you eat there a lot when you are asked if you want your usual.

Someone came in and sat to my left. Two of the wait staff walked past him and said nothing. As it is a short order grill, at one point a cook did turn and acknowledge the new customer. Finally someone came to take the order. The customer said they wanted their order to go, at which point the wait person told the customer a ‘to go’ order had to be placed at the checkout which was all of 10 feet away.

In disgust the customer said they had already waited to long and left. And then (this is where stupid comes in), the cook and wait staff begin to discuss ‘that stupid customer’, having their discussion within hearing range of all the other customers.

Of course you begin to wonder what they are saying about you as a customer when you are not there, but simply having the conversation was stupid on their part. Telling the customer to get up and place their order at the checkout was stupid. Not waiting on the customer initially was stupid.

Am I to think business is that good that you can tell the customer what to do? Why would any business give a customer a set of rules for behavior when they could have easily given the customer what they wanted?

Excuse me while I go order the shirt because, “I see stupid people”.

Confirmation of doing it right by Tom Shay

Everyone needs to have a confirmation that you have done things correctly; this morning I received a confirmation.

Visiting with a doctor in the hall of his office, a lady walked by and said hello to the doctor. The lady and the doctor were friends who lived near each other. Sensing she did not recognize me, I said hello. I turned to the doctor and stated my observation. The doctor joined the conversation and asked if she recognized me. She did not, which was understandable as we had not seen each other in over a decade.

The doctor told her where she would know me from; one of the locations being the business I previously owned. She said hello and gave a hug. Then came her comment. “I really miss your store”, she said.

I said thank you and that I missed many of my customers like her. Now, my store is still in business. Apparently, she sees a difference in ‘the store’ she shops in now and ‘my store’.

All of us have an opportunity to make our business be a ‘my’ in the mind of a customer. We have ‘my doctor’, ‘my mechanic’ and other people and businesses and people that we qualify as a ‘my’.

To this lady, my business was a ‘my’ in her life. Now the business is just another business. I appreciate your confirmation that I was doing it right. How is your business doing? Are you a ‘my’?

A business death is not pretty by Tom Shay

The last 24 hours have me seeing two business deaths. I also saw another close last month. Of the tw in the past 24 hours, one was a chain, and as I did not do business there I saw it as just another empty storefront in an area that has its share of problems. They simply closed Friday night and told their staff it was over. Of course I hate seeing people in the business lose their jobs.

During the good times of a couple of years ago, the area was doing OK in spite of all the mistakes they were making. This is why our country had too many businesses – there was plenty of money to support every business. As the money dried up, businesses went away.

The second business, while still open is displaying the sure signs of death that will occur in the next few weeks. I am glad as I walked by this morning, that they were not open today. I hate seeing people I know and having to watch them dance around questions and comments by other customers.

I knew this would be happening as the owner closed two of their four locations just before Christmas. Then, as their e-newsletter announced promotions, the sales included more items and much simpler pricing; like 50 percent off everything in this category and 40 percent off everything in another category.

Looking in the windows this morning, the stock is very depleted.

Unlike the card stop that closed last month, these people were doing all kinds of things right. There was a lot of C.V.S. marketing, a good location, and an attractive sales floor.

The card shop owner has another location in a mall. The location they closed looked like it last remodeled in the 70′s. They did nothing on their own; all of their marketing came as a result of the name brand cards they sold. You can easily see why the card shop closed. And they will likely close their mall location if the mall experiences problems because the store does nothing to help themselves.

But the one I saw this morning is the one that bothers me the most. They tried so hard and if someone deserved to make a go of it, of the two that have gone and the one soon to go, they deserved the most to win.

Response to Tom Shay comments about I’m sorry

Walt lives in a beautiful part of western North Carolina. As I have worked with communities in his area, I was pleased to have him attend a presentation. Walt has a really neat business called Smokey Mountain Dog Bakery. He has been written up in several magazines and has everything necessary to put a smile on your dog’s face. And as the saying go, ‘if doggie ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy. Just ask my dog, Rusty.

In response to comments I made in the February e-retailer newsletter, here is what Walt had to say:

Tom. When I lived in St Pete, I consulted for a large restaurant chain. When that chain allowed their front line staff, servers, bussers, hosts, etc. to handle guest complaints, the guest satisfaction reports increased, complaints to corporate dropped over 80% and the ‘be my guest’ give-aways dropped by 2/3rd .

Simply we taught and required every person to respond immediately to any complaint in this way.

1. Listen with eye contact

2. Respond; “I hate when that happens to me, what can I do to make it right?”

3. DO IT!

4. Then and only then tell the manager what happened so he can touch the table himself and apologize.

Thanks Walt. And your dog will appreciate your visiting Walt’s business – in person or by wan of the Internet

http://www.mtndogbakery.com

Running with scissors – businesses doing dumb things

We have all seen the t-shirt with the expression, runs with scissors, on it. It is meant to refer to someone doing something they know they shouldn’t. We need to have a t-shirt we can give to business owners to point out the same thing to them – they are doing things they shouldn’t be doing – or aren’t doing what they should be doing.

Here are examples from my personal experiences in the past week. I was interested in purchasing a watch I had seen in a store in a different part of the country. As I googled to find their contact information I decided to use their online contact form instead of calling.

I have filled it out twice. They have never contacted me. They have my email and my phone; I am not hard to find. Either their business is so good they can’t deal with inquiries or they are doing their own version of ‘running with scissors’. It is called ignoring the customer. It doesn’t inspire me to visit their store the next time I am in the area, either.

The second example is sent to me by a friend, telling of their attempts to help a business. My thought is that this business does not need help; it needs to close down and the owner needs to get a job. Here is this example:

We have a new businesses that opened here a while ago.  They are a small business, a café.  They have great food and the place looks amazing.  Their problem is they spent a large chunk of their capital on remodeling even though the place looked fine before.

Now, 2 months into it, they do not have the capital to keep open, and the banks will not loan to them because they are brand new.  I am doing what I can to promote their business.  I have told them how important it is to market their products, and I suggested they do a daily special and fax it to all of the city departments and businesses located nearby.  After seeing nothing, I asked them about it again, and I was told they do not have a fax machine, and I recommended they invest in one.

A week or so later, they still did not have  a fax machine and are in doubt on how they can stay open.  I asked them to email to me a daily special that I would print and fax for them, hoping that upon seeing the success, they would go out immediately and buy one.

I received the email, and it was not a daily special, but just 6 items off the menu with nothing special about it – no deal and no call of action to the customer.  I then formatted something for them and advised them if they are promoting a daily special, and people come in to buy it and the item is the same price as on the menu, it is not a special.

After a while I created the format for them on a daily special and last week on Thursday after having not received anything I called them and worked out a trial run which I faxed to my list of contacts at 10.30 am.  When I talked to them at 1.30, they told me they had sold out of everything.

Staff here told me the food was great, people friendly, service slow.  I touched bases with them to tell them the input and asked them to send me an email Sunday night with Monday’s specials and I would send it out again a few more times, and at that time, they would need to invest in a fax.

Well, it is Monday morning at 8.45 am, and still no email.  If you have any words of advice for me the share with them, I would appreciate it.

I think my initial advice still stands. These two examples of businesses give any other small business a bad name. What possesses people to even open a business if they aren’t going to take care of customers?

Runs with scissors may be a great t-shirt saying. Maybe we need one that is ‘doesn’t get the concept of being in business’.

Just my thoughts. Tom Shay