By
Bob Phibbs
My buddy Steve had neck pain and had been researching a pain-relieving pillow for weeks.
Finally, he found the perfect one online and purchased it.
He immediately started getting emails from the manufacturer begging him to review the pillow. They wanted his recommendation to show on their product description.
Here’s the thing…
Steve knows nothing about the company that made the pillow or their website.
And when people ask him where he purchased it, he says:
I got it on Amazon
Many brands push customers away with relentless and ill-conceived efforts to engage online. Few, other than Amazon, meet with success. That’s why so many online stores are opening their own brick-and-mortar shops.
Оnline retailers know the shopping experience in a store has the ability to stick and be memorable, whereas the online experience does not.
Brick-and-mortar retailing, at its best, offers the stickiness that shoppers remember so they return again and again. It's one of the best ways to attract customers to a retail business.
To accomplish that, you have to be thinking like a customer.
Here are seven tips for becoming memorable to your customers
Go out of your way just because
Greeting a customer in the parking lot with an umbrella when it is raining can go a long way to being memorable. Picking up a large purchase and carrying it out without asking stands out.
How can you show customers they come first in your store?
Greet everyone and remind them where they are shopping
It’s easy to get overwhelmed with tasks and lose focus on who pays the bills: your customers. Greeting within 15 seconds – much longer than it sounds – with "Welcome to (name of your store)" helps solidify where the shopper is.
Your greeting sets the standard that shopping with you is different and better than all the rest.
Have accurate inventory
Research by Accenture recently found that almost 50% of shoppers want to check stock availability before visiting a store. Google found that 25% of shoppers say they’ll steer clear of a nearby store to avoid the risk of unavailable items.
Ideally, your entire inventory should use RFID tags or other current technology to provide real-time transparency of your stock. Then you focus on buying fewer SKUs but go deeper to prevent out-of-stock situations.
You never want to be the store that "never has what I want."
Train employees to make the complex simple
Sure, a camera salesperson can spout numbers of pixels and resolutions. Still, a well-trained employee can talk about the number of photos that fit on different sizes of memory cards.
An excellent associate helps facilitate and makes buying an easy decision.
You never want to trip a shopper’s idiot switch.
Train employees on the difference between upselling and adding on
Advanced selling skills like what I teach in SalesRX.com teach your associates that you upsell someone from a cheaper item to a more expensive one because it does more with less work.
You add on to a sale after the customer has decided to buy the main item by showing them one additional item that makes the original purchase do more.
Exposing someone to training doesn’t necessarily make them a salesperson.
You have to have a long view of what it actually takes to build confident, avid salespeople, and only providing initial training means you’re just getting started.
Tell customers where they are again
It’s easy to say, "Thanks" or "Come again," but when you hand over the bag to the customer, it is your last shot to stand out.
Add your business name to the message. For example: "Thanks for shopping at (name of your store.)"
Remind customers of where they were
It is reported the average American received 88 pieces of email a day back in 2016 – and about 33 text messages a day as well.
Shoppers are constantly being marketed to, so the chance of being forgotten grows every day you don’t communicate with them. That’s why you should send out a bi-weekly newsletter – even better a weekly one - so they don’t forget you.
Technology has enabled shoppers to exist in a perennial buy state.
The only way brick-and-mortar retailers can survive is by seizing each moment of influence. This means providing memorable customer service and consistent marketing.
Your goal is to become your customer's go-to store whenever and wherever.
Don't be the unknown pillow manufacturer
We are being told all shoppers want to do is get in, get what they want, and leave quickly.
Unless you are memorable, you’re like that pillow manufacturer – providing what is needed but not standing out.
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