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Interview with Kevin Natapow: Cultivating Strong Customer Relationships
Kevin Natapow is a retail consultant specializing in inventory management, business development, POS systems, HR, customer service and marketing. His company, Creative Retail Solutions, serves to lend retail/inventory expertise to Fair Trade and other retail shops around the nation. Before starting Creative Retail Solutions, Kevin co-founded Momentum, a Fair Trade store in Boulder, CO. He helped grown Momentum in to a successful Fair Trade business and now lends his expertise to other retailers.
Strong customer relationships are the foundation of a successful retail business. Ganesh Himal Trading had the chance to sit down with Kevin and ask him what he thinks helps cultivate stronger relationships.
KN: After choosing the best possible location for your shop one of the next best things you can do is build strong customer relations and have a strong customer service ethos for your shop. It can be hard at times for smaller brick and mortar retailers to compete on price with other larger and online retailers, but the one place we can really shine is the customer service experience. Basically, you want as many customers who walk through your doors to leave feeling like they just had the most amazing retail experience ever. The easiest way to do this is to have some very robust and clear customer service expectations of your employees/volunteers. You will need to lay out how you envision the customer service experience and then create comprehensive protocols for training your employees/volunteers around those expectations. Anyone you put out on the floor to interact with customers is now the face of your organization so having them well trained and clear on expectations is critical as well as holding them to those expectations.
KN: A great strategy for creating long term, repeat customers is again, making their retail experience the best it can be with customer service but rewarding them for their loyalty can go a long way. Many POS systems these days have built in customer loyalty/rewards programs that make it easy to implement and track. Brand your loyalty program somehow with your store’s brand so that it is easy to pitch and can have its own identity and buzz around it. Make the rewards something substantial and memorable. For example, my shop had a program that rewarded customers with a $50 reward for every $500 they spent. It never expired and the POS system tracked everything for them and showed on the receipt how they were progressing in the reward. When they reached that mark it popped up in the system and could automatically apply the $50 reward to their purchase. As part of the enrollment process we gathered their birthday month and address and mailed them a $15 gift certificate on their birthday. The whole program was free and within 3 years of implementation our email and member list grew from around 1,500 subscribers to over 11,000. Customers love feeling special and being known by the shops they support so rewarding them for their loyalty will keep them coming back and spending more. Plus, the word of mouth advertising they will do is priceless.
KN: Partnering with other local NPO’s and community-focused organizations and businesses is a great way to attract new customers and reach possible demographics that may not hear about you or naturally come across your shop. Host events in your shop that help raise money for local NPO’s or host events where you are helping to raise awareness around certain local and/or global issues. When you host these events the organization you are working with will cross-market with their supporters and get them to show up for the fundraiser and now you have a whole new group of potential customers that at least know about you and the work you are doing, but also know that you are supporting something they believe in. You can also hold book readings by local authors, participate in art walks, food events with local restaurants, etc. If there is something going on in your downtown area, participate in it and attract customers by showing up and being present and engaged.
KN: This plays into the strategies above but as a business owner or manager it is very important to network within the larger community. Seek opportunities to speak to different groups about Fair Trade and artisan support. You can talk to business organizations, schools, etc. Look for ways to connect through your chamber of commerce or a local downtown business organization. It is also a great way to seek mentorship from other successful business people who can offer advice or expertise.
KN: This is a tricky one as we don’t want to come across as over “preachy” about Fair Trade but it is great when customers know more about the impact they are making by supporting fair trade and local businesses. I don’t feel floor staff should lead with fair trade and focusing on the values and mission of the shop. Lead instead of cultivating that amazing customer service experience and making a personal connection with your customer. Once that relationship is established and you are engaged with them, you can talk about the products, the artisans and 9-10 times the conversation will evolve into something powerful and meaningful around fair trade and the work your shop is doing to create positive change. It can be hard to accept sometimes but we are just retailers trying to sell products to consumers. Yes, we are fair trade and more than just that but to most of the first time customers coming into our shops, they don’t know that. Win them over first, gain their trust and confidence and build the relationship, then use that as your opportunity to grow their knowledge about the impact they are making by shopping in your store. |
