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Are You REALLY Retail?
by: Rick Yanac
As I travel the country in one dealership or another, I always try to look at the service and parts facilities from a customer’s point of view. I often talk to service managers and hear them refer to themselves as “working in retail”, but I often think, “Are their facilities really retail?” Over the years I’ve tried to fill my toolbox with some best practices from all of the “retail” establishments that I’ve been in, but until now, I never took the time to put them all in one document. So, since I’m in a “retail” kind of mood, let’s reach into the bag and see what we can find...
The main tip I can offer to anyone reading this article would be to take a minute or two out of your weekend and visit some of your favorite retailers. Don’t spend time in other dealerships. Get out to the Targets, Best Buys and Wal Marts of the world...the real retail giants to get a look at how they merchandise their stores and how their staff is positioned.
So once you’ve found your retail location, get inside the front door and start making a mental (or if you’re feeling brave) a written list of what you see. Take notes of things like: lighting, cleanliness, full shelves, end-caps (and what’s on them), cashiers’ areas, floor sales staff, etc. Once you’ve done this, the first thing you need to ask yourself is, “How does this relate to my service drive? How well merchandised am I?”
Think about these top areas, then when you get back to your store on Monday morning, you can begin working your way in to the real world of retail merchandising:
- Attractive Displays
A creative display can do wonders for the retail appearance of your service drive. It can draw a customer’s attention, announce a sale, promote a seasonal product, and even draw attention to a slow-moving product. For example, we all sell tires, but every one of the points made in that last sentence can apply to tires... A creative tire display can draw a customer’s attention by having tires displayed where customers can see, touch, and feel them. Of course, you’ll want ANYTHING that is on display priced, so why not use your display to announce a sale? If you’re not selling as many tires as you should (making them a slow-moving item), attractive displays can help get them moving faster. In areas that see a harsh winter (like here in Pennsylvania), a snow tire display could promote that seasonal product. And finally, a little out-of-the-box here, but why not use them to promote a holiday...maybe a display of tires in the shape of a heart for Valentine’s day or tires sitting in wicker baskets instead of display stands for Easter, under a tree at Christmas time, etc. Starting to get the picture? Now, couldn’t you do similar displays for wipers, batteries, brakes, and filters too?
- The Transition Zone
The design of a retail store also adds a huge contribution to its success. Believe it or not, there is actually a real science to the way retail stores display their merchandise.
In fact, most of them actually direct you, as a consumer, around the store and toward specific merchandise without you even realizing that it’s happening. It all starts when you enter a store in what is referred to as the transition zone or the dwell zone. Retailers try to fill your senses in this area using display and color to fill your sight, smells (typically in a grocery type store), and your hearing with music that suits the personality of the store’s particular environment. Now in the automobile industry, smell and sound are often handled for us by the repair shop, but can we do better in this area? Maybe some popcorn, fresh brewing coffee or fresh baked cookies, so that the scent hits the service-drive. Maybe even some music playing in the service drive that creates a light, upbeat atmosphere. Think about want your drive looks like and what you can do to make your transition zone friendly, accommodating, and one that fills all of the senses.
- The Layout
I’m sure most of you are already aware that most people will always head to the right after first entering a store. This is very simply because most people are right-handed and it is an unconscious action that is often referred to as the “invariant right”. Of course, because of this, most smart retailers will place their best bargains here.(Hmm... could this be a good place to put a display of oil filters and quarts of oil along with a big sign that highlights your good, better, best oil changes?) In addition, cross-merchandising is a “works-every-time” strategy that retailers have used over and over. This is very simply a sales technique that matches products with other products that complement each other...kind of like an alignment special posted by your tire display.
- The Staff
This is easily the biggest make-it-or-break-it portion of your entire retail strategy. Spend some time speaking with true retail professionals and ask yourself, “Did I feel like they were trying to sell me something?” The ultimate sale is when we are sold something without feeling that we were sold something. In order to really get a true retail feeling in your service drive, have your sales staff focus less on selling the products and more on “Selling the Creative Effort” ™. By “Selling the Creative Effort” ™, your staff would be selling things like attempt, empathy, concern, and complexity rather than 30K’s and wallet flushes. This creates an environment in which customers are comfortable and are far more likely to purchase, but most importantly, an environment where customers are far more likely to return to you as their service provider. This is true customer retention and that is the biggest factor of any successful retailer.
If you’d like more information on how to become more retail or on training your staff to “Sell the Creative Effort”™, please feel free to contact any of us at M5™ Management Services, Inc.
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