Retail Franchising, Increasing Your Chances of Success (Pt II)

Date AddedNovember 29, 2009 03:10:19 PM

Author

Continued from: Retail Franchising, Increasing Your Chances of Success (Pt I)

Remember that trust is a two-way street. As you share important information with your staff, you must establish with them that you expect 100% loyalty in return.

Naomi Milgrom, the entrepreneurial retailer who rescued and re-built her family's business Sussan, and then re-positioned both Suzanne Grae and Sportsgirl, says this: "Dishonesty is an uncrossable line. It is an abuse of trust, I not only expect the truth, I expect all of the truth".

Next, talk about what products or services you will feature that day. The goal is to grow your sales in units and in value, by seeking to sell your customers more than they intended to buy. But be careful; the objective must be to do that in a way that will cause your customers to thank you, to leave your franchise really glad that they did business with you.

HERE ARE A FEW IDEAS:

· Create a special 'today-only' offer:

"If you buy this today, we'll give you 25% off.........."

· Feature a new product:

"Have you seen our latest..........?"

· Create a '2 for......offer':

"Buy two today and get them for.........."

Make it a discipline (before you open for business each day) to talk about what it is that you and your staff will feature that day. Remember, the ultimate goal is to achieve more transactions, as well as higher transaction value.

Fourthly, talk about the importance of names. If you want to grow your franchise, you will need to develop loyal customers. You can't build a valuable relationship with anyone if they don't know your name and you don't know theirs.

Some business owners say this is an impossible task. It's not! To start with, you and your staff members must always wear a name badge - just your first name is enough, but with letters large enough to be recognised from a distance eg. across the cash desk, across a fixture. Then, when a credit card is used, teach your staff to respond to that customer by name; or if it is a cash transaction, to simply ask for a name ("I apologise; I don't remember your name").

Lastly, remind your staff of the rules: greet every customer within 30 seconds (no matter what) and smile, smile, smile!

To be continued: Retail Franchising, Increasing Your Chances of Success (Pt III)