Dear Uncle Marty,
I was in your marketing class at the Retail Shipping Expo a few weeks ago in Las Vegas and was interested when you were talking about music in the store. I never really thought about that as important. I usually just play the radio or talk radio. What else am I overlooking?
Listening,
Tuned In
Dear Tuned,
Basically, we want our customers to have a pleasant shopping experience. So think about all five senses: hearing, sight, touch, smell, and taste.
Let’s start with hearing. What are your customers hearing in your store? Does it encourage them to be relaxed, spend some time shopping, and leave in a good mood? Or does it agitate them?
We want to prevent customers from hearing too many commercials. After all, they’re in our stores and we want them thinking about us, not other businesses! So what stations or streaming sources can you tune in to that would be mostly commercial free? And would it be possible to record your own mini-commercials (like “Did you know that we duplicate keys!?”) to interject between tracks? With any music that you play in your store, be cautious of copyright infringement. Most of our stores are small enough for an exception, but please read this article for some guidelines: www.entrepreneur.com/article/226049
Sight is extremely important. What do your customers see when they’re in your store? Is it clean? Is it fun? Is it professional? Is it going to leave an impression, hopefully a good one?
I often mention in my classes to think about photos as a litmus test for what the customer sees. If a customer were to come to your store and start taking pictures from anywhere they can access—the front retail area, or the visible areas behind the counter—and post them online, which they can and will do, is there anything you’d rather they not show? Is there an area that you’d rather the customer not photograph? If so, fix it. Because, even if the customer’s not taking a picture, they’re still seeing troubled areas and impressions are being made.
Next is touch. I like to think of this as just making sure our surfaces are presentable. Have you wiped fingerprints from your glass door recently? Is there dust on the bottoms and very tip tops of your displays and equipment? Is there grime somewhere that’s just gross?
Smell is very important. I have a plug-in air freshener that I change with the seasons. At Christmas time, it’s a nice cinnamon scent. In the spring, it’s fresh flowers. In the summer, it might be linen or berry. In the fall, it’s pumpkins and spice. It may seem like a little thing—and it is—but it makes a big difference.
And last but not least, taste. I never thought about this one before, but I learned something from Sarah Rohde at Expo. No, I learned many, many things from Sarah at Expo. But one little thing in particular comes to mind right now. Sarah said that she used to keep candy (or mints) in that silly fifth change cubby in the cash drawer. Every customer then got a little sweet treat with their change and receipt. It literally lets each customer leave with a good taste in their mouth.
I sense you’ll do well,
Marty
#AskUncleMarty
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For more on Marty, please visit unclemartysoffice.com.
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The original version of this Ask Uncle Marty letter was published in MBC Today Volume 18, Issue 5 (September/October 2016).
Source: AMBC Blog