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Author: Phil Wrzesinski

Convenience Versus Experience

A Convenience Store is always located on the easiest side of the road to pull in or pull out, no-hassle driving.

An Experience Store has you drooling with anticipation as you wait at the light to pull in.

A Convenience Store carries all the same merchandise you would expect to find anywhere, the most popular items, the most requested items.

An Experience Store is full of unique and wonderful treasures, amazing merchandise you haven’t seen.

A Convenience Store is open early and late, enough hours to be there exactly when you need it.

An Experience Store is open long enough for you to be able to take the time to explore all those treasures leisurely and when it fits in your schedule.

A Convenience Store has a staff that knows where everything is, and can get you through checkout in a hurry.

An Experience Store has a staff that also knows what everything is and how each product fits or doesn’t fit in your lifestyle, an can also get you through checkout in a hurry (because when the shopping is done, there’s no time to waste).

A Convenience Store wants your trips to be quick, painless, anonymous.

An Experience Store wants your trips to be comfortable, engaging, and relational.

A Convenience Store treats the customers as transactions, maximizing speed in the process.

An Experience Store treats the customers as people, maximizing comfort in the process.

A Convenience Store is measured by how little time you want to spend there.

An Experience Store is measured by how much time you want to spend there.

A Convenience Store is on the way to or from a Destination Store.

An Experience Store is a Destination Store.

Whichever you choose, now you know what is expected and what you need to do.

-Phil

Don’t Bring Me Down

At the trailer on the Manistee River where my family spent many a summer vacation there was a printed piece of fabric full of cliches. I loved reading those phrases and spent many a night asking my dad to explain what they meant.

One of my favorites was “Before you run in double harness, look well to the other horse.”

There is a reason we haven’t done a lot of collaboration marketing and promotions. Quite often the other horse wasn’t up to our speed. We weren’t willing to use (lose) our reputation because of an inferior partner.

We are All in Double Harness
The Shop Local movement has challenged all that. To get the benefits of a Shop Local campaign we have to allow ourselves to be defined under the umbrella of all local businesses. We have to allow ourselves to be defined by the local florist, the local shoe store, the local tailor, and many other businesses over which we have no influence or control.

That’s scary.

Especially when I read stories about local retailers failing their customers like this one by Rick Segal, this one by Cinda Baxter or this one by Bob Phibbs.

I’m not sure I want to run in harness with all those other businesses.

At the same time, however, I really don’t have a choice. The Shop Local movement is here to stay, whether it gains a lot of momentum in our area or not. We also face the issue of being defined as a downtown business, so I’m lumped in with all other downtown businesses and the perceptions they are giving customers (good or bad). And I’m a specialty toy retailer and specialty baby product retailer.

That’s a lot of horses tied together. And if we all run well, we can travel far. But if we don’t…

I’m Counting on You, You’re Counting on Me
We are in double harness whether we like it or not. And it raises the stakes for all of us. Not only do we have to do right by the customer for our own sake, we have to do it for every other retail channel we represent.

Makes you realize that more customer service training isn’t such a bad idea after all.

-Phil

The Emperor Has No Clothes

That’s where Roy H. Williams found himself in today’s Monday Morning Memo talking about Facebook & Twitter – as the boy in Hans Christian Andersen’s tale telling the truth nobody wanted to hear.

Facebook and Twitter are not the be-all-end-all fix to your marketing & advertising woes.

They are just the latest dazzling jewels being passed on as our next marketing saviours. But like many jewels that have blinded us before, Facebook and Twitter will not be your knight in shining armor. They will not lead you out of the dark. They will not transform your business into greatness.

Oh they might help a little bit. But alone they are as naked as Andersen’s Emperor. They need to be clothed with the right message.

Remember the message? Your message? The one relevant, salient, memorable point that speaks to the heart of your customer? The message that makes them feel not only a connection with you but a partnership? A loyalty?

If your business isn’t growing there are only two things to blame.

  1. Your market is shrinking. If you sell typewriters, sorry, dude, but the game is up.

  2. Your message isn’t connecting.

And not just the message you give through your advertising, but the message you give through the experience in your store. Do you echo your marketing in your services? In your attitude? Do you show the same heartfelt caring towards your customers in person as you do online (and vice versa?)

Figure out your message. Put all your time and energies into coming up with that one relevant, salient, memorable, heartfelt message. And once you have your message, make it sparkle in every single element of your business from the bathroom floor to the phone message to the way your employee says Hello.

Then it doesn’t matter which jewel you use. With the right message they all shine. Even Facebook & Twitter.

-Phil

Yeah, I like to call this “Branding”. And when you understand your brand, you have all the jewels you need.

Staying the Course

Another lesson from surgery…

In prepping for the surgery I had this past Wednesday, I read a 56 page thread on people recovering from this procedure.

Time and again the pattern of recovery emerged the same. The first five days get gradually worse before it starts to turn around.

Doing that research and having a realistic expectation of what will happen has made the last couple days much more tolerable. Today is day 4. If I hadn’t read that entire thread, I might be wondering why I’m not getting demonstrably better yet. I might be sweating things out and worrying too much (which wouldn’t help the healing).

Instead, I’m hunkered down doing what I’m supposed to do – take my meds, drink lots of water, get nutrients, and plenty of rest.

Do your research, be realistic, and stay the course (and take your meds, drink lots of water, get nutrients, and plenty of rest.)

Life lessons, business lessons.

Bigger Rewards Require Bigger Risks

Tomorrow I am taking a huge risk. I am undergoing surgery to correct two physical abnormalities, an elongated soft palate and uvula, and a tongue that is positioned farther back in the throat than normal.

I suffer from sleep apnea. And in the long run, if I don’t treat it, it will kill me.

I tried the easy routes…

Tried all the over-the-counter fixes, Breathe Right Strips, Anti-snore sprays, etc. Not worth the money or aggravation.

Wore a CPAP mask for three years religiously. But the mask came off 15 times a night no matter what mask I tried or how tight I cinched it.

Wore two different oral appliances. One didn’t work worth a darn (don’t buy them over the Internet), the second almost worked but just couldn’t overcome the odd physical circumstances of my throat.

So tomorrow I will have my tonsils removed, my soft palate trimmed, and my tongue pulled forward. The surgery is long, painful, and the recovery brutal. And there are risks, too. Any surgery involving the throat runs serious risks for breathing. Although the surgery itself will have no negative effect on my voice, the anesthetist will have to run a tube down my throat past the vocal chords. For a guy who makes his living with his voice (speaking, teaching, singing), those are some serious risks.

But those are the risks I need to take to set myself up for long-term health.

There’s a business lesson in here, too. Your business has some long-term health issues. Are you addressing them? Are you willing to take some serious risks to set your business up for long-term health?

Have you extended your hours to meet the demands of convenience-driven customers?

Have you tightened your pricing to stay competitive in your field?

Have you raised the Experience level in your store to the point people are bragging about their trips to see you?

Have you made the necessary investments in technology to keep you current with best practices, and help you manage your inventory and cash flow better?

Have you made the necessary upgrades to make your store look fresh, new and exciting?

Sure, there are some risks spending the money necessary to make those kinds of changes. And there is no guarantee you will succeed. Even my surgery only has an 80-90% chance of success.

But without those changes, your business will die a slow (?) death.

Take the risks necessary to ensure you are set up for long-term health. That’s what I’m doing both personally and at Toy House.

When I recover from surgery I’ll let you know what we have in the works for Toy House. It’s every bit as exciting and scary as tomorrow.

-Phil

Seth is Wrong, Brand Exceptionalism is Easy to Innovate

I have to take exception with Seth Godin’s post today. (Go ahead and read it. I’ll wait.)

For those of you who don’t want to read it, his basic message is that once your brand becomes exceptional (whether in your own eyes or in the eyes of the public), you lose ground because you won’t change. Why would you change “perfect”?

He says… “The problem with brand exceptionalism is that once you believe it, it’s almost impossible to innovate.”

Unless your brand is set up on Values.

The truly exceptional brands are those based on a set of core values, not on a particular product or service. Values are timeless. Values remain the same through the ages. How you show those values, however, changes from time to time.

For instance, our core values are Fun, Education, Helpfulness, Nostalgia. The products we sell are constantly changing and improving. The services we offer have to adapt and innovate with the new needs of customers. The way we market our store, the way we merchandise our products, even the way we ring you up at the checkout goes through countless innovations. We are constantly looking for innovations in how you Experience our store.

But Fun, Education, Helpfulness, and Nostalgia will never go out of style. And as long as we stay true to our values while staying current with ways to implement those values, we can have Brand Exceptionalism and Innovation.

They are not mutually exclusive when you set your Brand up on Values.

Wanna learn how?

-Phil

Just For Baby Stores (and Anyone Interested in Marketing)

Last week I gave a couple presentations at the All Baby & Child (ABC) Spring Educational Conference in Fort Worth, TX.

Once again, Pricing for Profit was one of the biggest hits of the show. Many vendors were asking, “Who’s Phil?” as retailer after retailer showed them better ways to price their goods for more profit because,“Phil said…” (Love that people talk about it that way! That never grows old for me:-)

The other presentation was Baby Store Marketing on a Shoestring Budget. Unlike most retailers who rely on repeat customers, there aren’t a lot of repeat visits in the baby world. Stores that sell cribs and dressers have to constantly seek out new clientele.

Similar to Main Street Marketing on a Shoestring Budget, the Baby Store presentation covers eight affordable ways specific to baby stores that they can market themselves without spending a ton or giving away the profits.

And the Stork has arrived!

Everything in the presentation is now available in a newly published eBook. Download it for free. Share it with your friends. More importantly, use it as a guide to get more traffic in your store. (The smart ones among you will easily adapt it to your specific product mix.)

-Phil

Turning Nouns into Verbs

My friend, Rick Wilson DMD, is writing a novel.

The story features a wonderful brewery in England called Gack & Bacon Brewery, established in the 16th century, now fighting off its conglomerate rival, Slore’s. (Their motto? “It’s beer.”)

Gack & Bacon has an in-house pub called the Pig & Trebuchet. In a recent post (he’s sharing tidbits online with some of his friends), Rick shared with us a little of the magic of the Pig & Trebuchet – The Bad Table.

Every restaurant has one, that table by the kitchen or bathroom (or both) that has the built-in annoyances. No one wants to sit at the Bad Table. But the P&T leadership turned that negative into a positive by making the table special for all who sit there. Special menu, special visitors, special activities. Always some little surprise and delight.

And people come in asking to sit at the Bad Table. My favorite line from this part of the story reads…

…”I’ve been Bad Tabled,” was even local slang for being surprised by something excellent and unexpected…


How do you take a negative noun and turn it into a positive verb? The key is in the phrase surprised by something excellent and unexpected.

What are you doing to turn around a negative associated with your business with something excellent and unexpected?

  • If parking is an issue, do you offer a valet service?

  • If price is the driver of all purchases, do you have a lower priced item (from which you can upsell)?

  • If location is an issue do you have billboards or wall signs directing people where to go?

  • If convenience is an issue, do you go out of your way to make the experience memorable?

At this morning’s meeting my staff and I decided we are going to turn Toy House into a verb. To be Toy Housed is to be pleasantly surprised and delighted in such a way that you have to smile. We’ll accomplish that by first doing four things:

  1. Play More

  2. Listen More

  3. Ask More

  4. Know More

I’ll let you know when Merriam-Webster puts it in their dictionary.

-Phil

Built-in Advantages

Some businesses have built-in advantages.

The big box chain stores have the advantage of Price through buying power and a bully position to demand and extract better pricing out of their suppliers. Some have the advantage of Convenience, too. Great locations and one-stop shopping.

The Internet sites have the advantage of Convenience. Shopping in your pajamas from the comfort of your own home. Some have the advantage of Price through low overhead. Warehouse space is cheaper to build than retail space.

And those two channels are fighting big time for customers who value price and/or convenience.

Independent Retailers rarely have either of those advantages. We work on tighter margins to stay price competitive. We pay higher rents to try to be convenient. And although good to have those things, the one area where we do have the built-in advantage is Experience.

To be successful, we have to out-Experience the competition.

We can offer not just good customer service, but outstanding, bend-over-backwards customer service, the kind that gives people something to talk about.

  • Have a problem? We’ll fix it.

  • Have a special need? We’ll take care of it.

  • Have a desire? We’ll fill it.

We can know more about the products than even the most savvy Internet researcher. And it isn’t just important to have knowledge. We can know how to apply it.

  • Let me tell you why the folding mechanism on that stroller is better for you.

  • Did you know that this game teaches skills that will raise your child’s math scores?

  • The manufacturer recommends this age because younger children don’t have the hand-eye coordination to be successful.

We can WOW our customers every time they step through the door.

  • Yes, I’d be happy to carry that out for you.

  • I’d like to give you this free gift as a token for shopping with us today.

  • Of course we deliver.

If your store isn’t built around the concept of Experience, you’re missing out on the one built-in advantage you have that your big-box and Internet competitors don’t. And if you aren’t actively working every day to improve your Experience, you’re not only hurting yourself, but every other indie retailer in your town because you’re teaching customers that Experience isn’t that important.

It is. You can do it. So make it so.

-Phil

Are You Working ON Your Business or IN Your Business?

Morgan Freeman’s character “Red” said it in The Shawshank Redemption, “You either get busy living or get busy dying.” Never have more truer words been said about retail.

So what are you busy at right now?

Are you busy coming up with new ways to market your business?

Are you busy evaluating your inventory mix to make sure you have the right items, the right amount of items, the right prices?

Are you busy measuring your financials to make sure you have enough cash flow, are keeping expenses in line, and building profits for the future?

Are you busy training your staff, teaching them how to please your customers and make their experience both memorable and worthy of talking about?

If you want to get ahead, you have to spend just as much time working ON your business as you spend working IN your business. Maybe even more.

Here are some simple things you can do to find more time to work ON instead of IN.

  • Don’t waste your time stapling, folding, cutting or hole-punching. If you don’t have a staff person in need of a simple project, give it to your kids or grand kids. (And if that isn’t an option take it home with you and do it while you catch up on your favorite show).

  • Don’t micromanage. Train your staff how to do it. Then empower them to do it. Even encourage them to come up with their own ways to do it better.

  • Don’t ever say or think “it would be quicker for me to do it myself.” The first time, you’re right. But if you teach someone else how to do it, the first time will be your last time.

  • Hire somebody. Let them do all that day-to-day stuff that bogs you down. Not only does it free up your time, but it forces you to work ON your business just to find the money to pay them.

And if you aren’t sure where to begin working ON your business, think about it as a three-legged stool.

  • The seat of the stool is the products. Without the seat there is no need to prop it up.

  • The first leg, then, is the marketing. What are you doing to get people in to see your products?

  • The second leg is selling. How well trained is your staff? Do they know the benefits of the products?

  • The third leg is the financials. How is your cash flow? Profit? Inventory levels? Expenses?

Pick the wobbliest leg and get to work. (Let me know if I can help).

-Phil