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Category: Word of Mouth

The Next Transaction

Do you know the real goal of each transaction? To earn the Next Transaction.

Unless you’re closing the store and selling off your inventory, you’re going to need that next transaction, and the one after that, and the one after that, and so on.

You always need one eye on the horizon, one eye fixed on how to earn that Next Transaction.

Last Saturday we had a huge event. LEGO Contest, Yo-Yo Competition, Toy Demos, Crafts, Scavenger Hunt, Cookies, Prizes, the whole works! We advertised heavily. We staffed heavily. We spent a lot of money to draw traffic and put on a lot of events to keep that traffic happy.

Did it translate into extra sales? A little. We had a slightly better than usual Saturday. Not enough to cover the extra expenses, but that wasn’t the point. The entire goal of the day was Wish Lists – pieces of paper that the kids took around the store and filled out with what they wanted Santa to bring them.

Since our competitors in town don’t stock the same items we stock, we wanted those kids to make out their lists with our toys. Every kid who went on a scavenger hunt to earn a cookie got a wish list. Every parent with one or more kids in tow got a wish list.

Our goal for the day was simple – focus on the Next Transaction.

  1. Give everyone something fun to do.
  2. Give everyone a Wish List to fill out.
  3. Treat them so well they can’t wait to come back.

It is a formula that serves us well.

There are a lot of businesses that put too much effort on maximizing this transaction – as if it will be their last. Make this one special for the customer. Delight her. Earn the chance to get another transaction.

If that isn’t enough to convince you, try this… Ask yourself these two questions:

  1. What percentage of my business is Repeat Business? (write that number down)
  2. What percentage of my business is Referral Business? (write that number down)

The remaining percentage is your advertising driven business – usually the smallest of the three numbers.

Put your energy into getting repeats and referrals and you’ll have all the Next Transactions you need.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS There are a lot of ways to earn the next transaction. Sometimes adding on and maximizing the current sale is how you earn another – especially if the add-ons are what is needed to “complete” the sale. Don’t ever let a customer walk out without everything they need. Sometimes you earn the next transaction because you didn’t get overly pushy. Sometimes you earn the next transaction because you planned it that way (like the wish lists). The best leaders are always looking beyond this transaction to the next one.

PPS Here is an email one mom sent me from our event that drives home the point…
“…and great event Saturday!   While I know you’re open minded and see the big picture, I wanted to let you know that your sales on days like that may not be all the sales you gain from the event.  I could barely manage the two kids let alone purchase anything, but I’ll be back this week to get everything.”

Do Something Over-the-Top

You still have time to pull this off. Christmas is still 48 days away. Do something Over-the-Top for your customers this season.

Is parking a problem for your store? Offer Free Valet Parking. Get some young motivated drivers to move the cars to the distant lot (hire the local cross-country team – they don’t mind running in the cold and their season just ended).

Offer a seating area with comfortable recliners. Coffee and doughnuts in the morning. Water and fresh fruit in the afternoon.

Do a coat-check.

Have servers walking the store with samples of local treats. Bonus – have them dressed in formal black tie outfits.

Forget the piped in music – have live performers from the local symphony. Get a trio or quartet every Saturday – pay them well (some of them will work for gift cards).

Give them labels to go with their giftwrapped packages.

Give out helium balloons free to every child. (As Winnie the Pooh said, “Nobody can be uncheered with a balloon.”)

Do a Santa Wish List – even for the adults – and keep it on file for spouses, parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles.

Offer a free sample, free inspection, free add-on, free trial, free upgrade, free whatever. Don’t advertise it. (Please don’t advertise it.) Just do it. Freely and with sincerity. Let your customers advertise it for you.

Have a couple doormen carry their packages to their cars – no matter where they parked!

Think about what your customers expect from you, then do something way unexpected and over-the-top. They will talk about you. A lot. To everyone they know.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Every fine restaurant in New York has a coat check, usually tucked away in the corner past the crowded bar. When I went to a Danny Meyer restaurant in NY fabled for amazing customer service the greeter took our coats without us having to shuffle through the crowd to the hidden coat check. Better yet, when our party got up to go, the greeter was already waiting with our coats and knew exactly who got which coat. That was unexpectedly cool. And I’m talking about it.

Buying Word of Mouth Part 2

I bought people talking about my store for only $418.

This next project cost about the same – and I didn’t have to pay for it!!

Candy Chang started a project down in New Orleans by turning sheets of plywood into interactive works of art by asking people to finish this sentence – Before I die, I want to…

The interactive chalkboards have become a worldwide phenomenon.

I first learned about the project back in the spring and was kicking around the idea when a local artist approached me, wanting to use the side of our building for this project. She applied for a local grant of $500 and the board you see pictured is the result.

This picture was taken the day after the board was installed. You can see that it was already two-thirds full. The success of that board has prompted us to put up two more – My Favorite Toy… and the original Before I Die…

Now we have people talking and writing (and showing up)!

After the boards are up, we’ll install the webcam (for both novelty and security).

You can get word-of-mouth when you do over-the-top things in and around your store. Heck, you can duplicate this one quite easily.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS We used 1/4″ sanded plywood primed and painted with chalkboard paint. You could also use black flat paint if you’re on a tight budget. Doesn’t erase as well, but it still works. The borders are made with 1″x2″ poplar boards – the hardwood will last a little longer and hold up a little better. But just a simple piece of painted plywood will do the trick, too (but use a thicker plywood). The words are painted on (you can use a stencil or freehand it or even leave the board blank except for the header).The sidewalk chalk is in a 6″ cube acrylic box with a hinged lid.

The two other boards also have received funding through generous grants. See if there is money for art in your community.

Prepping the boards for mounting.

You can see the border – simple carpentry.

The chalk box.

Maggie, the artist behind the project and Dave, the carpenter.

Buying Word-of-Mouth

I bought Word-of-Mouth advertising.

Paid just over $400 for it.

There are four different ways you can consistently get people to talk about you.

  • Over-the-Top Design
  • Over-the-Top Service
  • Over-the-Top Generosity
  • Sharing Secrets

Roy H. Williams taught me the first three. The fourth I figured out on my own.

Yesterday during our Fourth Friday Game Night we decided to play Charades. It was an easy decision. We needed a game to christen our brand new stage.

Why would we take valuable retail space and build a stage?

  • Puppet Shows
  • Story Times
  • Guest Performers
  • Charades
  • Dress-up Clothes
  • Staged Productions
  • General Play (who doesn’t love getting up on a stage just for fun?)
  • Word-of-Mouth
  • Because it is consistent with our Core Value of Having Fun

I spent $75 on the wood for the platforms, another $128 for the carpet, $25 for the poles, and $190 for the curtains. Total cost = $418.

People will talk.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS We still have a few details to finish such as a header above the curtain and the backdrop. Every time someone takes a photo of their precious one “performing”, the Toy House name and logo will be visible.

We used 2″ x 8″ boards and 3/4″ plywood to build the platform in 3 sections.

The carpet is simply stapled down using a carpet stapling gun generously loaned to us by Christoff’s Carpet & Floor Covering.
The curtains are held up with 1″ PVC pipe anchored to 2 walls. The section to the right is a “backstage” area designed for when we do performances.

More Than a Fair Exchange of Value

You all know I follow a bunch of blogs. You’ve probably read a blog or two on my blog roll. I read them because they challenge me. They challenge my thoughts on retail. They challenge what I think I know. A few minutes ago, I read this on a blog about Customer Loyalty.

5) Deliver a “fair exchange of value”. Too often retailers want to create “delighted” customers. Many retailers spend far too large a percentage of their revenue trying to create “delighted” customers. The reality is that customers want a fair exchange of value and rarely expect a retailer to delight them. Give them a good value, provide a comfortable and efficient shopping experience, work with them through any issues, solve their problems, and they’ll become not just loyal, but committed.

Can I agree to disagree?

Yes, customers expect a fair exchange of value. I grant that. But a fair exchange of value is the minimum. It is the bar. You have to do that just to keep them from flaming you on Facebook or Yelp. Do anything less than a fair exchange of value and you’re screwed. It is the lowest level of entry into the game.

Customers expect a fair exchange of value from frickin’ Wal-Mart!

If all you give them is a fair exchange of value, then you’re no better than Wal-Mart. And in today’s retail environment, that is not good enough. It might get you a thanks, but it won’t win you loyalty.

After you give them a fair exchange of value, you have to delight them. You have to make them say WOW! You have to make them think of you not as a store, but as their new bestie. You have to delight them to the point they cannot wait to tell their friends, tell their co-workers, tell their family.

Loyalty doesn’t come from a discount or cash back. You aren’t loyal to your friends or family because of the financial kickbacks. You’re loyal because of your shared values. You’re loyal because your friends and family have your back. You’re loyal because at the end of the day, you know those people care.

If you want loyalty from your customers, you better first give them a fair exchange of value. Then you better have their backs, you better share their values, and you better care.

My own personal belief is that too often retailers don’t do anywhere near enough to delight their customers. Yet that is where the loyalty is hiding.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS This doesn’t mean I’ll stop reading that blog. There is always something to learn. The true key phrase in that passage above is, “Customers… rarely expect a retailer to delight them.” Just think how much you will stand out in the crowd when you’re the exception to that rule.

Three More Ways to Freshen Up Your Store

I gave you four inexpensive ways to make your store look fresh.

Here are three more things you can do that might cost a little more, but will definitely freshen up the place.

  • Do a Wholesale Change of Fixtures. Move them around. Change the directions. Change the locations. Keep in mind things like sight lines, traffic patterns, and where you want to lead your customers, but nothing does more to freshen up the joint than to do a wholesale change of the merchandise.
  • Put Posters on the wall. Hang them from the ceiling, too. Put up fun posters with cute pictures of your products in use. Put up adorable pictures with interesting quotes. Put up informational posters that talk about your philosophies, how to shop your products, or how to make smarter choices. Guys like to read posters (better than having to talk to an actual person). Introverts like to read posters, too. New signage always brightens up the place.
  • Add a new Design Element that gets people talking. Add in something fun and unexpected. Put in a stage for performers. Build a tree right in the middle of your store – complete with bark and branches (and decorate it for Christmas when the time comes). Build a mountain out of plaster and paper mache and use it as the focal point of a display. Put in a fountain. Add a disco ball to the bathroom. Put a picnic area, table and all, right outside the front door. Put up a directional mileposts pole (North Pole 3,303 miles). Not only will your store be fresh and hip and cool. People will be talking about you.

Later this week we will have these Before I Die… chalkboards up on the side of our building.

Yeah, people will be talking about us. That’s the first half of the battle. You know what the second half is.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Along with the Before I Die project, we’re doing three of those other things listed above. My resident artist is working on our directional milepost pole with 46 real and fictional locales (“Where the Wild Things Are” is my favorite!). More posters are going up on the wall soon. And I am heading to the lumber yard tomorrow to buy the wood for our stage. What are you doing to make your store fresh and exciting?

Four (Cheap) Ways to Make Your Store Look Fresh

When was the last time you changed things up? Is everything where it was last year? Even if the products have changed, if you haven’t moved the categories around since last year, your store looks soooo 2012.

Yet, in a store like mine, where we have huge sections and categories, just changing the merchandising around can seem a daunting task.

Here are four simple and inexpensive things you can do that will make your store look fresh, new and exciting.

  1. Paint a Wall. Not the whole store, just one wall. Paint it a wild and fun color. Something that ties into the merchandising of that area. A gallon or two of paint and a Sunday afternoon is all it takes to brighten up the place.
  2. Put a Planter with fresh flowers out front. Fresh flowers equals fresh store. You can even talk to a local florist or nursery about having them supply the planter and flowers in exchange for putting “Flowers by _______” on the planter.
  3. Put a Table Cloth on your main display. Not only does it change the look and feel, while also covering up the cracks and scratches, it highlights the product on that display and raises their Perceived Worth.
  4. Refresh the Signage. Take down every paper sign in your store and reprint them from your computer. (The investment in a good color printer pays for itself on this one). 

People want to shop where the buzz is. People want to shop where it feels like things are happening. If your store looks like last year, you won’t get that buzz. You’re already buying new products. Might as well send a few more signals out that your store is fresh and exciting. You’ll probably get some Word-of-Mouth, too, so consider anything you spend as an advertising expense.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS I have some other ideas I will share later, but they cost just a bit more.

Marketing is Sharing

My wife likes sharing. Put her in a room full of other women and it isn’t a gabfest. It’s a sharefest. Right now, with two teenage boys, it is all about college and college prep. Every uncovered secret gets spread. At last Friday’s football game, while she and the ladies around us shared, I would nudge her when it was time to cheer the kids on the field.

She’s the word-of-mouth marketing machine businesses dream of.

Last Saturday I attended a workshop on The Business of Creativity hosted by Jane Robinson. Jane is an artist. Not the starving kind. Jane is that class of people now called “artepreneurs” or “createpreneurs”. She is taking what she has learned and helping create a new breed of entrepreneurs in Jackson.

She said to a room full of artists, “Marketing isn’t scary, folks. Marketing is simply sharing.”

Marketing is sharing.

Marketing is telling people the secrets you know.
Marketing is getting together with your network and sharing what you’ve learned.
Marketing is taking news from others and spreading it as far as you can.
Marketing is giving people around you ideas and thoughts and information.
Marketing is giving people something to talk about.
Marketing is telling your friends and fans and asking them to tell their friends and fans.

The cool thing about thinking this way is that people want to share. Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram are not big because of how easy it is to post something, but because of how easy it is to share what has been posted with others. Most of my Twitter feed is re-tweets.

Your marketing job is simply to give people something Shareworthy.

Your hours and location just aren’t that shareworthy. Your stories and secrets are. Your length of time in business isn’t shareworthy. Your philosophies and reasons for being in business are. The way you change people’s lives is big time shareworthy.

You tell my wife something that will help get the boys into (and out of) college, I promise you, she will share it. You tell your customers how something you know/do will impact their lives, they will share it.

Marketing isn’t scary. Marketing is sharing.  Thanks, Jane!

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS For more on what is Shareworthy, download my FREE eBook Generating Word-of-Mouth. There is stuff in there that you can use to start getting WOM tomorrow.

Don’t Be the Little Piggy

We all know about the little piggy. He went wee, wee, wee all the way home.

As you craft your message for your potential customers this fall, don’t be the little piggy. Take all the “we” statements out of your marketing and change them to “you” statements.

We’ve been in business since 1949.
You want a company that will be there with you for the long run.

We have great customer service.
You will never wait more than 30 seconds on hold to talk to an agent.

We are licensed.
You want a provider who not only stays current with licensing, but takes extra classes to stay ahead of the changes in your system to make sure you are never down.

We offer the best products.
You will find award-winning products like the…

We have time-saving services.
You can get your products giftwrapped for free in less time than it takes to walk in from the parking lot.

We started our business because we…
You want a business that understands your needs, who thinks like you…

The most powerfully seductive word in the English language has only three letters and none of them are an x.

Y – O – U

Make your customer the star of your web copy. Make the customer the star of your print copy. Make the customer the star of your radio copy. Make the customer the the star of your social media, your email marketing, your in-store signage.

You’re already making the customer the star of your business. Now make her the star of your marketing.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS When you talk about your customers, remember to do these three things.

  1. Tell them specifics. Specifics are more believable and lend credibility.
  2. Tell them why. People like to know why you do what you do.
  3. Speak to the heart. Emotional connections are strong. The mind will use logic to justify what the heart has already decided.
Go back and read the You statements above to see what I mean.

Inspiration and Creativity

“Where do you get your inspiration for the ads you run on the radio?”
“Where do you get the creativity for the ads you run on the radio?”

I doubt a week goes by where I am not asked at least one of those questions.

My stock response is that’s the fun part of my job. Here is the real answer…


INSPIRATION

I love quotes. They inspire me. I type words into ThinkExist.com and just start reading. Sometimes a great quote is all I need to spark the engine.

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” -Pablo Picasso

I love to read. Fiction and non-fiction. Children’s books and adult books. I wrote an entire book on hiring because of this line in the children’s book Taran Wanderer (book #4 of The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander.)

“Before you learn the craft, you must first learn the clay.” -Annlaw Clay-Shaper

I listen. To music. To talk-radio. To interviews and podcasts. To comedians (I love comedians). I wrote a song after hearing a comedian’s routine about road signs when he said…

“I saw a sign along the highway that said ‘Gas Food’ and decided I was no longer hungry. Glad I didn’t stop. The next exit had a sign for a Gas Food Hospital.” (-unknown)


CREATIVITY

Is creativity something you’re born with, or something you learn? I think both. I think some people (like my sister) pop out of the womb with a talent that cannot be denied. I think the rest of us can learn creativity by learning to not be afraid of criticism and failure. I am bolstered by this quote…

“I haven’t failed. I’ve found 10,000 ways that don’t work.” -Thomas Edison

I am also bolstered in my ad writing by this little exercise Roy H. Williams, aka The Wizard of Ads made me do…

Quick, write down the percentage of your traffic that is repeat business. Customers who come in time and time again. Now write down how much of your traffic is referral business. Customers who are in because one of your repeat business customers told them to stop by. What is left?

When I did this, I wrote down 60% for the repeat, and 25% for the referral. That left only 15% of my traffic that is location/advertising driven. When your advertising only accounts for 15% of your traffic, you can take some more risks and be a little more crazy.

Creativity for most of us is like a muscle. The more you work it, the stronger it becomes. Writing this blog is like doing a dozen push-ups. Writing emails and Facebook posts is like taking a half-mile jog. Writing songs and books is like taking a spinning class or six. Writing a thirty-second ad that is interesting, tells a story, makes only one point, and connects emotionally is like doing 60-second planks ten times a day.

“I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.” -Blaise Pascal

And one last quote…

“Now you know the rest of the story.” -Paul Harvey

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS One of my goals is to write a short story all from famous quotes by other people. That would sure take some creativity.

PPS I don’t know if my percentages of repeat and referral business are accurate. They probably aren’t. That’s quite okay by me. I got what I needed out of the exercise – to take more risks with my advertising. Consider it just one of those 10,000 ideas Edison learned from.