Charming your customers
By Lina Perez and Victoria Vasile, Chocolate Milk, Miami -- Kids Today, 4/1/2007
The definition of charmed is to affect as if by magic; to please soothe or delight; to enchant, fascinate or be-witch.
Everyday, as new and old customers make their way in to see us, charming is the word they use to describe our store. So this month we chose to write about what it is we do to keep our store charming so we can continue to charm our customers.
The time couldn't be more perfect to breathe new life into our stores and or companies because it's spring. A big part of our charming little store is the cleanliness and a healthy dose of some good old-fashioned customer service.
It's a great time to look around, re-evaluate, re-examine and try to re-vamp this so called charm. It was time we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. We started in the stock room, and worked our way through every nook and cranny, every drawer of every display piece, dusted and wiped every shelf and were able to conquer every little spider. We have made sure all the merchandise can be seen amid the clutter of its competing items, all the bumpers in the cribs are fluffed and all the sale items are pulled and displayed.
We want the feeling in the store to convey the freshness of crisp cotton sheets hanging on a clothes line on a bright sunny day or sniffing the distinct smell of clean ocean air — although it is really the new home fragrance we're selling in the store. Ahhhh...what a treat, especially if the weather in your part of the country is cold and gloomy.
That's why, all the way from your irresistible front window with its fresh, newly merchandised display to the clean, inviting cash wrap at the back of the store, there's this "ahhh" feeling you want your customers to feel throughout their entire shopping experience everyday.
Something we really like to do here at Chocolate Milk is to blur the line a little between our customers and friends. We have found that if you treat your customers as if they were all, in some way, an old friend, they usually stay for awhile and they make sure to come back to see you soon, after all isn't this what friends do?
As our customers come in we like to offer them something to drink while we commence the short but strategic walk around the store, gently pointing out all the new, fun and latest must haves. After a few minutes, we excuse ourselves, allowing them to mingle on their own among the newly merchandised items but we always make sure to check back on them a little later.
We love to watch as they pick up all the older merchandise as if it were the very first time they have seen it.
Your charming store can't help but charm your customer into grabbing one item from one display and two from another and loving every minute of it.
When their shopping is complete, we wrap up our friends' purchases with plenty of fluffed tissue in each bag and escort them to their car with their goodies. Ahhh...you hear them say as they settle into their seats.
We smile to our selves knowing our job is done as we turn around with a wave and a wink goodbye, knowing we'll see them again soon.
Until next month,
