(Real estate professionals) Retailers Must Make Great First Impressions. What About Lasting Impressions?
No commentsBy Ron Pawlowski
Have you ever run into someone you haven’t seen in a few years? All of us have had this experience. Usually we are amazed how much they’ve changed or in some rare cases, how much they look the same. Some will look like they did on the last day you saw them, and others have gained weight, lost hair, gone grey or cultured a few more wrinkles.
Even though it’s been years since you’ve seen someone, you instantly make comparisons between what you remember about them and how they appear today. This is because you subconsciously register a “parting impression” of that individual. We automatically register parting impressions of people, experiences and places, including our shopping journeys through the retail universe.
As retailers we place a great deal of focus and emphasis on the approach phase of a sale. Indeed you only get one chance to make a first impression. However what training do you give your staff during the final phase of the sale? What parting impressions are delivered at the cash desk?
Often, it’s the last impression in the mind of a customer that overrides everything else during the buying experience. In most cases, parting impressions for the customer are nothing more than a thankless return of some change for their purchase and the receipt.
Most retailers and their employees fail to realize that all the effort in making a great first impression can be negated in the customer’s mind if they have a trivial experience at the cash desk. Many employees why may be enthusiastic and offer great service on the sales floor believe that the process is over once the customer says yes to the purchase. In their minds, they can relax and coast at the cash desk. However customers still have high expectations and if the final phase of the sale at the cash desk is mediocre, they’ll have second thoughts about returning to your store, or worse still, whether they made the right purchase. I costly refund may be looming!
Parting impressions should get as much training and attention as the approach. It’s a great opportunity to reinforce the sale and build long term relationships. The parting impression phase of every sale must include:
Thanking the customer for their business
Counting back their change and giving them their receipt
Reinforce the purchasing choices they have made
Inform the customer of upcoming events and stock arrivals
Invite them back to the store in the near future
TAKE ACTION TODAY
Review your current sales training at the cash desk
Make sure that staff learn and deliver a professional parting impression as outlined
Learn More About Retail Customer Service at retailinstitute.ca
Your Source To Becoming The Maven Of Sales
Social Networking Drives Traffic To Your Party Plan Business Website
By businessplan
Social Marketing For Home Base Business
When you run a home-based business, your website will serve as the hub for all your online business transactions. It is where your direct selling customers will go to learn about the products or services you offer, read the latest news and even place orders. Because of this you want to drive as much traffic to your site as possible. Social networking provides just the tools you’ll need to do this while helping you reach a higher volume of customers.
Home Base Business Networking
Social networking has become a common and very popular way for keeping in touch with others. This form of communication ranges widely from personal to business and is limitless in the capabilities it offers. All businesses including home base businesses have seen it as a way to advertise and promote products to a wider range of customers in a manner that is truly personable.
The idea is to add as many people as possible to your social network. In order to do this, you will need to target the most likely customers for your party plan business product. One way to do this is to advertise your social media pages on your official website. The information on these pages should be different from what customers will find on your site, otherwise this method would not be nearly as effective. You can also advertise your social networking pages through your home party plan business blog. You can also place a link to these pages on both your website and in each individual blog post.
Your social networking pages should be used for networking with your customers. You can do this by posting special offers that will take place in the coming month and adding a link to your website. You can also post blogs on your social networking sites pertaining to the particular industry in which you are involved. This lets readers know you are up on industry trends and news.
As stated above, social networking can be a very powerful tool. The key to making it work is consistency. You must set aside time every day to check your various sites for questions and comments. Be sure to answer questions your potential customers may have and take the comments into consideration in a constructive manner. Remember that if they are taking the time to leave you feedback they are reading.
Remain visible. This means logging onto each social networking page on a regular basis. Long absences will send the message to your readers that you aren’t interested in maintaining these pages, which will then translate into a disinterest in them. Also if your pages are not frequently updated, your readers will stop visiting because they will assume there’s nothing new to see. Even if this isn’t the case, you don’t want to give them this idea. Traffic depends heavily on visibility and here it means everything.
Continuously add friends. One thing people look at on social networking pages is the number of friends acquired. If this number remains the same for a long period of time, they might take this as a sign of complacency.
Finally, connect with your customers. Treat each communication on your social networking pages as if it is a personal meeting. Let them know you are interested in their business by showing an interest in them.
Your social network will really grow your sales in your business to people that are not currently in your network of customers. Finding new customers online will create a solid business that will continue to bring you consistent income. Learn more home-based business success
