My girlfriend and I have moved to a new apartment. We needed a mattress, so we went for shopping to a big furniture dealer called Jysk. Our strange marketing experience started here.
Store #1 - we don't have anything discounted
The very first thing the sales person said was "Sorry, but we do not have anything in sale." This was strange because we didn't choose anything yet and the salesman did not know how much we were willing to pay. We firstly needed some help to understand different types of mattresses.
Another crazy thing he said was "I don't know what suits you, it depends on what you need". Well, most of us don't buy a new mattress on a regular basis, so we usually don't know what we want or need, and we can definitely use some help.
Avoid these marketing mistakes
We left this store without buying anything. Let's have a look at horrible marketing experience we had in this first store.
- The sales person apologized for not having discounts before he knew anything about our needs or decision process. We were willing to buy a more expensive product.
- The shop assistant sounded like "we have everything super over-priced, it only makes sense to buy discounted stuff.
- The shop assistant didn't spend much time with us finding out what we needed, and what kind of price we were willing to pay.
These big stores spend plenty of money on advertising. Then, when they already have a potential customer willing to pay reasonable money for a product in the store, they completely screw it up.
Tips for in-store marketing
Marketing is not about throwing ads at your potential market. The core of marketing happens in your store! Keep in mind these basic steps of in-store marketing:
- Greet your clients first and smile. Make them feel welcomed.
- Let them have a few minutes to check your store, then approach them with an offer to help.
- Ask them what they need, do not try to sell anything. Get information from them.
- Provide information to your prospects - product comparisons, price ranges, features, options, etc.
- Choose two/three similar products that will suit them and compare them. People are not ale to evaluate price/quality/options absolutely. We need comparison relatively to something else.
- If you do not have a product they need, offer them additional information or different options
Store #2 - no one cares
Our experience continues in the 2nd store …
So, we didn't buy a mattress at Jysk. Our shopping way continued to a different furniture store named Asko. I hear their ads on radio all the time.
The staff at this store was apparently very annoyed. There were quite a lot of shop assistants, maybe 8 or 10. All of them leaning against furniture or sitting at their desks waiting for the work day end. Horrible experience for me. I felt like we are just bothering them. I didn't want to buy anything in this store at all.
Train your staff!
Marketing advice for store owners If your staff does not like their job, get rid of them. They are ruining your business. Train your staff and keep them motivated. Do mystery shopping on a regular basis. Do you know how your staff behaves when you are not there?
Store #3 - come another day. Big discount coming up
And finally 3rd and 4th store …
We went to a different Jysk store. I chose the mattress type based on the information they have available. The staff was not helpful again. Unfortunately, they did not have any of those in stock. They advised us to visit another Jysk store.
So, here we are at a 3rd Jysk store and asked for the mattress we liked. The shop assistant told us, there will be a new sale starting the next Thursday. The discount will be around 40% on already discounted products. We would have bought the mattresses if we hadn't known about the coming sale. Obviously, the store staff knows how over-priced the products are. They probably feel obligated to share the information about upcoming sales. If I were the owner of this business, I would be shocked.
After spending half of the day searching for a mattress, driving around Prague, all of the shop assistants managed to discourage us from buying. Interesting, isn't it?
Conclusions
Before you start advertising, the market on social media or print flyers, train your staff! If you don't have a process for converting prospect, all the advertisement is a total waste of money.
Contact me, if you want to offer a great customer experience. We will work together on the true genuine marketing worth every cent. Don't waste money on ads and marketing promises that your staff is not able to fulfill.