The aftershocks of the pandemic continue to haunt us in 2023, inflation truly impacting every facet of our economy and the world we know today. We experience and come face to face with the challenges on a daily basis. Through staffing shortages, lack luster attitudes, melancholy consumers, and concerned business owners.
So how do we survive 2023; how do we nurture humanity and rebuild our economy?
We must ethically sell and generate a profit, we must preserve the customers experience, loyalty, and consumer relationship, we must do so while making cut backs, watching the bottom line, and making proper item selections. The question is; how do we do that, and where do we begin to safeguard for the here an now, the future, and beyond. Well history has taught us many valuable lessons; we’ve been here before and will again in the future.
Hardships provide a natural silver lining that exposes true necessities vs. unnecessary wants. A time where we learn to appreciate the simple things, live life requiring less, and get an opportunity to bring back ”value” which was lost along the way. Certainly, something we are not seeing much of after the pandemic, but even something that had begun to fall to the wayside through the years.
There are so many stores we can shop at, not to mention online ordering, delivered to your door with no human contact what so ever. This “I want it, I got it” attitude is the opposite of what we need to get through the year ahead, and what could potentially separate one business from another.
Think about it how many stores have you personally gone in where you were greeted so warmly it brightened your day? In most cases you walk in have no greeting, collect what you need, check out with someone who barely acknowledged your existence. Billions of people doing that store after store, day after day, it is literally numbing our society.
Call it nostalgic or call it survival, either way to offer the customer a heartfelt welcome, a true “need to fill their needs” attitude, pays you and your staff dividends. The consumer loyalty is strengthened on the spot, a returned appreciation for your service to them, your welcoming hospitality, and a reminder that humanity and compassion still exists through the aftershocks. It leaves a lasting impression and something we humans want and need in our day to day. That store around the corner, bell on the door, wrapped goods, neighborhood grocery store kind of feel. Well, it’s something I myself as a consumer can’t pay for, nor have I seen, and would very much like to.
This is not only needed, but seemingly what you can offer with no additional fees. A smile on your employee’s face, while offering a service, can literally make a lasting impact which will leave a refreshing vibe with your customer. Something so little ~ something free ~ something cleansing to the soul that in a stressful world might just help spread hope, and ultimately get you and your community through the year ahead.
Hope, kindness, compassion, and happiness is contagious and something we can all benefit from spreading. Chameleons we continue to be, however those wise enough to recognize what is truly lacking in our world today and are swift, creative, resilient, and intuitive enough to make changes now, will surely come out ahead in the end. Sell an experience, that your customers will want to return for!
"Dr. Philip Kotlers 5 A’s" of sales and marketing is the customers path, and a framework that can be applied to what I wrote above, it literally maps a customer’s journey through the sales process. “Awareness ~ Appeal ~ Ask ~Act ~ Advocacy”
A basic Google search for top four ways to increase retail sales will display the following:
- Increase the number of customers.
- Increase the average transaction size.
- Increase the frequency of transactions per customer.
- Raise your prices ~ everyone seemingly has this part down.
“Happy” Selling!!!
By Deana Day