Converting a walk-in to a sale through a proper welcome and query

Scenario:- A large department store of with rows and rows of ready to wear women apparel of jeans, kurtis etc..

Priya, a smartly dressed young women is walking into the area…

Lakshmi, a CCA at the department is folding and stocking the stocks, when she notices the customer walking in..

As per the training, she walks towards the customer and asks “Madam, how may I help you..”?

Priya has just walked in and she is still getting a feel of the place and says, “just looking”.

Then, Priya is left to shop for herself and Lakshmi will wait for to ask for any help.  Priya, then walks through and not having seen any thing in particular, go out of the department.

If only the training had been changed to the following :-

Lakshmi waits for Priya to start looking and then offers help, then she might have asked  a few questions and responded to them. The chances of a conversion would have been better.

What are your experiences in handling customers like Priya ? Share it with us at RetailGurukul@gmail.com

Read more »

Reliable Rapid Replenishment

Dear All, 

I would like to bring to your attention an upcoming workshop that Goldratt India is organizing in partnership with Time n Cash, on the following topic: 

Increasing Availability without increasing inventory: TOC Way

Date: November 28, 2012

Venue: Hotel ITC Windsor Manor, Bangalore

Who should attend: Supply Chain Heads, Materials Heads, Production Planning / Production Heads, MDs, CEOs, Decision-makers of organizations

Workshop Details:

One-day workshop on eliminating stock-outs without increasing inventories through the application of Theory of Constraints (TOC)

The workshop would address the following issues:
¦Perennial stock outs of fast moving SKUs
¦Inability to meet sales targets
¦High obsolescence or discount sales
¦High inventory
¦Low inventory turns
¦Crisis mode of operation on regular basis
¦Inadequate or no profits
¦Squeeze on cash

This workshop presents the fundamentals of Reliable Rapid Replenishment – the TOC solution for eliminating all the above pains without increasing inventories.

Please send nominations to ira@timencash.com or call on +91 96320 18261 in case of any clarifications.
or me shivaram 9036036524

Read more »

Up selling skills

As a sales person, the first responsibility is to make the first sale. Then, to make the second sale and so on.

The best example that I have come across on Upselling goes like this...( it is an extract from the book Entrepedia by Prof. Nandini Vaidyanathan, a Mentor and Coach to over 500 mentees, including this author).

Quote...

A week before Christmas, the Wal Mart store in Denver, USA was gearing up for the big Christmas sale. It had hired close to a hundred people in Sales and the HR Manager was exhausted. Just then a  young sardar boy walked in saying he was looking for a job. The HR Manager said that he had just finished hiring and there was no vacancy.

But the boy was persistent and would not take no for an answer. That's when Sam Walton walked in and the boy went up to him and said,"Sir, I have just come from India and I need a job. I will come at whatever time you ask me to come tomorrow and I will work till I'm required to. At the end of the day, if you are not happy with my performance, you don't have to pay me a cent. But please give me the one chance.".

Walton perhaps saw some spark in the boy, so he asked him to report at 8.15 the next morning and work till 8.15 at night.

The next night Walton went in search of the boy and found him wrapping the shift up. So he asked him: "Young man, how was your day ? How many sales did you make ? "The boy diffidently replied:" It was ok , I made one sale."

Walton said:" On an average, each of our sales people makes 30-45 sales per shift. Just before Christmas, it is as high as 65-70. If you have managed to make only one sale pre-Christmas, you are obviously not good enough. I'm sorry but I don't think we can hire you."

Walton was about to walk away when something made him pause and ask: "What was the value of the sale?".

The boy replied :" One hundred thousand dollars."

Now it was Walton's turn to do a double-take. He asked the boy: "One hundred thousand dollars ? What did you sell? ".

The boy said,"Oh ! A customer came in wanting to buy a small fishing hook, I sold him a set of large ones and some bait. Then I told him, 'Since you bought so much of fishing equipment, why don't you go upstream and catch some really big ones?'

The customer said that it was a very good idea but he didn't have a boat. So I told him, 'That is not a problem, we have a lovely boat,and we can sell it to you.Then I told him, Now that you have the boat, why don't you go to the woods that the river leads to and camp the night? We will even throw in some Budweiser Beer for you '.

The customer said,  he loved the idea, except that he did not have any camping equipment. So I told him not to worry, that we have some wonderful ones that we could sell him. He looked at all that he had shopped and said," I have done so much shopping, how will I carry all of this with me?' and I told him ' Don't you worry, we have an awesome 4X4 truck and we would be more than happy to sell it to you ".

Walton then asked him :" Are you seriously trying to tell me that a man came to buy fishing hook and you sold him a boat, camping equipment and a truck?"

The boy replied: No sirjee, the customer came in saying he had a headache and wanted a pill for it. I told him fishing was a good way to get rid of the headache.

What was it this boy saw that the other hundred people in the store did not ?

The boy saw opportunity.

Did he only see the opportunity ? No, he also cashed on it.

Did he only cash on it ? No, he even created it !

Unquote...

Do you have any such incident to share with us ?

Read more »

Why is after sales service so bad in India ?

3 problems in 3 weeks ! Our washing machine, the fridge and even the water filter and have had problems . In fact two of them are even under an annual maintenance plan costing us 1000's of rupees each year.

Yet, the service we have got from each of the companies, the first is a famous MNC, the second an equally famous Indian company, the third is known for its door to door sales people who pioneered water filters.

Yet, there are some TV manufacturers like Samsung who are offering 10 years warranty for the first time !

On the other side of the sales cycle, I saw full page advertisements today with gifts and prizes worth Rs. 6 to 10 crores from retailers as part of the Diwali Scheme.

Does it make sense for an unhappy consumer point of view, to ask me to buy their products when they cannot even service existing products ?

Every one is in a hurry to sell more and more to achieve their targets. Yet, the after sales service is so bad. The entire arrangement is outsourced, the mechanics are hardly trained on courtesy, on the products or even on time management. After repeated appointments, they come shabbily dressed, cant trouble shoot nor have adequate spares to support .

With each of these products are first time savers, the companies have done nothing to offer temporary replacements even at a cost.

Will the companies first look within existing customers , solve their pain points and service those who are already customers rather than just chase new customers with bigger and bigger prizes ?

Shivaram

Friend, Philosopher and Guide to Retailers.



Whirlpool, Godrej and Acqaguard. pl contact us !

Read more »

Whose Diwali Greeting is this anyway ? No name, no identity

The Divine light of Diwali spread happiness n prosperity 2 U & ur family.

Did you recognise who sent this greeting ? Neither did I.

He would have thought it was a good thing to have wished me, but since I did not recognise his number, and it is not polite to ask him who is the sender, I just deleted the message !

About 10 % of the Diwali Greetings that I received this season had no name at all.  With increasing use of mobile numbers by every one, it is virtually impossible nor is it needed to store the mobile number of every person you meet.

And considering that I did not store his number in this case, and he paid about Rs. 1.50 on an average during this season to send out, I presume he must have lost about Rs. 45 if even 30 such messages were lost on its recipient.

Similarly, there is a saying in marketing, 50 % of all advertising is a waste of money, except that we don’t know which 50 %. But when you send an SMS, it is like direct marketing, and it is entirely possible to reach the target audience with the correct message and identity of the sender.

Those of us who will send out the next bulk SMS ( possibly during Christmas and New Year, might do well to remember to add the complete identity.

Having said that, belated Happy Diwali.

Shivaram/ Founder/ RetailGurukul.com

Read more »

Startup Leadership Program in Bangalore

Apart from writing about Retailing, I would like to add information about opportunities for startups, ( I am one of them )

Here is an opportunity for applying to a program, that is to quote the site " We do everything possible to support our Fellows, as long as they are supporting the community. We take two things very seriously, attendance and contribution to the SLP community".


The Startup Leadership Program (SLP) is a highly selective, world-class training program for outstanding founders, leaders and innovators who are or want to be startup CEOs, and be connected to a global network. SLP Fellows have founded over 300 breakthrough startups including Duron Energy, Gharpay, ixigo, Innoz, Momelan, Runkeeper, SideTour, Shareaholic, Solar Junction, Ubersense, Savored, Voicetap, and have won many awards. Startup Leadership’s programs are complementary to the many leading incubators you may belong to or consider joining - our Fellows have been accepted into Techstars, DreamIT and Excelerate amongst others. If you want to become part of a an incredibly accomplished, lifelong global network of peers and mentors who will answer your questions, provide you with access to investors, and help you along the way in every way possible, apply this summer to the class of 2013. The sixty hours you invest here will be transformational. Session begins on September 1 and lasts for six months.
http://www.startupleadership.com/main_nav/admissions/application-2013/apply-english/

I was attending a 4 Startups program at the NSRCEL  @ IIMB this saturday and a speaker said this..

I believe in Karma, if you send out positive karma, you will get positive karma in return.

I hope some of you who see this blog, and apply do get in...

The last date is this month end.. If you need any clarifications, please let me know or directly contact the coordinators.

Check out my website at http://www.RetailGurukul.com and please send atleast one brickbat or bouquet !. Thanks in advance..

Read more »

Control what you can - Inventory is a prime candidate ...

How to increase sales during tough times…

When the going gets tough, you begin to wonder, what is it that you can do, apart from hoping to get new customers.

Actually, there are quite a few things..

1. Inventory.. Reduce Fresh supply… Evaluate each and every purchase with an eagle eye. I am often surprised, to find owner/retailer hand over this critical responsibility to a few old and trusted employees. They are no doubt doing what they have been doing for many years now.

New Action:- Just ask a few questions when the next order is about to be released and you will surely find orders, which you could avoid placing.

2. Check Inventory.. Check out the age ( less than 30 days, 90 days etc) of the different SKUs that you have, not just on display but even those in your warehouses.

New Action :- Take a stock statement from your computer and go out and physically check, if what the computerised statement which is showing the stock, is actually available and is shown to you . You will be surprised with the answers.

3. Identify..Best sellers …If you can do an analysis of the best sellers in your store, then take out the top 20 % of the best selling SKUs or say the top100 SKUs.

New Action :- Find out if those SKUs are in your store..If you don’t have the knowledge to do that, ask us, we have a specialised service for such analysis and reporting..

Both of us will be surprised, to find , how many of such products which are your best sellers are in your store? Want to take a bet ?

4. Identify the non movers ! If the stock is in your system as part of the highest age stock, ensure that those products cannot be ordered at all ! ( See point 1 above).

New Action :- Brain storm, what all can be done to recover what ever value is left in that “dead stock”.

5.  What is your average inventory value for the past few months. ? What was it last year ? Do you think, you can maintain or improve the performance this year ?

New Action :- Take a training session for your employees on the concept of inventory, inventory holding cost, stock turn and ask for actions/ suggestions

Reward the best ideas and bigger rewards for implementing them. Most Retailers give rewards for sales performance, but rarely do employees get rewarded for inventory control.

Finally :- Try it out ! Inventory management is still in your hands, Purchase is as always, mostly in your customer’s hands ! Selling skills count a lot, but that is for another learning blog in the future...

Oh, lest we forget, as this joke said, how about making a real effort in selling the inventory to the customers ? Really "Selling" the old fashion way face to face ? not displaying, not advertising,

Share your learnings on Inventory with us and win rewards ..

http://www.RetailGurukul.com

Join us on Twitter,Facebook, Linkedin

Call us and share your challenges in retail on - 0 90 360 365 24. We are eager to help !

Read more »

G.U.E.S.T - How to treat a Customer !

There are many descriptions for the various "steps" that are mentioned in the process of making a sale.

GUEST

G - Greet the customer, it can be just a nodding your head with pleasant smile,
U - Unfold the customers needs with a smooth conversation,
E - Explain the customer regarding the product with their unique qualities,
S - Selling the product to the customer, make sure selling the product should not be the end of the relationship with the customer, it is infact should be the begining of the relationship with the customer, 
T -Thanking the customer after selling, never forget to thank the customer after the transaction is completed). 

In an article by Vinod Kumar M, Branch Manager /Regional Manage of Kiah Life Style Pvt Ltd.


G.U.E.S.T - Isn't it what we want each of the walkins to our store, to feel ... Guest who felt "Wanted"

This is a good example, to remember how to treat a customer and complete the selling process. Whether the sale was completed or it may not , this time...

Why not try out this process at the next available opportunity, and see if you have been able to improve the sales performance, in terms of closure ?

Share with your sales / retail team about this word GUEST .

Best of luck and happy selling,

Shivaram
www.RetailGurukul.com
www.RetailGurukul.blogspot.com
Join us on Twitter, Linkedin,FB @ RetailGurukul
Call us at 0 90360 365 24.  

Read more »

How a new joinee can add value & seriously learn at the same time ..

A typical company / store/ office ...

A typical new joinee's day....

If you have seen how a new joinee is "inducted" into a organisation, it is typically, with introductions to the "internal team", meeting with a set of "busy senior people" who hopefully, will find the time to talk to the new joinee .
We are passionate about making
the web a better place.
No where do we find a "customer Contact "program for a new joinee. If anything, the new joinee is shielded from customers, lest he makes a mistake .

I came across this wonderfull way to inducting a new joinee by the company automattic/ Wordpress.
We are passionate about making the web a better place.
Coming on board · When you make it past the interview stage we’ll do a project together on contract, typically lasting between 3-8 weeks, to see how we work together. When you join full-time, regardless of your position, you’ll do customer support for WordPress.com for your first three weeks. We believe this early connection with the people who use our products is irreplaceable.
http://automattic.com/work-with-us/

Fantastic..

Typically, in those three weeks, any one would have gone through the full range of typical customer requirements, happy customers, unhappy customers, customers screaming at you or the company.

Even if one does not understand all the problems in detail, he might not have all the solutions on hand, it is still a great way to " swim in the waters" and understand the overall problems facing the customers.

Very rarely will customers just call back and say thank you ! Yes, there are a few, but they are really few and far between ( Bless them , they make many a day ) with their thankyous !

Learnings :-

What are the suggestions, that we can implement in a Retail Store ? for a new joinee ?

1. For the first few weeks, the Joinee notes down each and every customer feedback or complaint or compliment !
2 . Finds the answers with in the same time from the seniors, Sales person, even the owners
3. Works out a set of best answers, may be the old answers or new ones or improved ones for the old answers..
4. The team then sits down and finalises the best set of answers to take forward for the future.


Is all this very difficult to implement ? Surely, this is not rocket science . !

Best of luck and share your answers here !

Forward to friends and foes. Your friend will thank you for this and your foe may become your friend again !

Best of luck.

Shivaram
http://www.RetailGurukul.com
Join us on FB, Twitter,Linkedin@ RetailGurukul

PS : Did you contest the WagonRSmartIdeas.com Contest. Do it now Rs. 10 lakhs could be yours...
http://www.RetailGurukul.com

Read more »

Shopping is Fun, Paying is not...

For each of us, Shopping is fun, we spend hours and hours going from one shop to another, and in a mall, from one side of the huge floor to another, un and down the esclators, even spending hours at the food court or the new restaurants that are starting up all the time ..

Yet, after all the hours of shopping, trying on, deciding etc etc, we then head to the check out counter and guess what we see ! A long line of shoppers just like you and with loads and loads of shopping !

This is when, you have to decide whether you will wait in the queue for the next 5 or 10 minutes and just leave all the shopping in the bag and just make a quick exit ....

Most prefer to wait ( after all you have taken so much time deciding ) and watch what all the others have shopped !

Increasingly, some shoppers seem to decide that the wait is not worth it and abandon the shopping trolley and go out..

What are the learnings for retailers?
If the queues are moving, then the shopper is more likely to stay and get the billing done...

But

If the transactions are not crisp, if they cannot see an organized checkout, they are very likely to not end up buying. Some people just turn around and leave as soon as they see a busy checkout.

It is the responsibility of the store staff, to check if the queue is getting to be too long and arrange to get new billing counters opened .. A sign that we are opening new counters or moving customers to counters in another area / floor where the queues are less can help break the queues..

Have you seen any such pro active stores  ? Share them with us ...

Write to us at RetailGurukul@gmail.com
join us on FB, Twitter or Linked in...
Vote for us at WagonRsmartideas.com

Read more »

What should we learn from SRK's and his KKR team?

After his team won the IPL -5 version in Chennai , SRK  praised each and every player. "I am proud of Gautam and the boys. We made a video of families of all our players and saw Manvinder Bisla's parents speaking about their son. They must be very proud and so am I. I want to tell the people of the Bengal, that now this team belongs to you."
He added, “This is something the youngsters should believe in – resilience, patience, perseverance – if you believe, you can win.”

What are the lessons for us from this :-

1.A simple effort... Like he said, "we made a video of all our families and we saw.......

Can you do that for your team ? With mobile phones having cameras, it is so easy to record and play with the rest of the team !! Try it, it will help in motivating your team..

2. Some thing the youngsters should believe , or every one should  believe in... Resilience, Patience, Perserverance ... if you believe,, you can win...


Share some of your own experiences, when because you came back from the lows, you were patient or you persevered, you were able to succeed finally.

Your story might inspire countless others just like SRK must have inspired his team for over 5 years, to win the tournament this time...

Shivaram
www.RetailGurukul.com
Join us on FB, Twitter, Linked in..

PS: SRK, the way you were standing on the first floor is a safety hazard. Something you and we can do without !Imagine, what would have happened, if you had fallen and your team had lost the match !     Pl forward this to SRK, if you know his email id .....:)

Read more »

Why can't Cricket Commentators be Salesmen too ?

Commentators cannot stop being salesmen

As the ball soars high into the night sky, they cry out: “That one's out of here.” Oddly, seconds later the ball is caught or only just clears the boundary, tickling a fielder's fingers on the way. Of course we all get carried away, we're not all perfect at judging trajectory (heck even fielders aren't), but these occurrences aren't rare. Overstatement, especially when twigged to be deliberate, grates. Hyperbole and exaggeration have for long been on page one of the IPL commentator's manual; with a couple of honourable exceptions, it seems that hasn't gone away. Nor has the unabashed plugging of products when play is in progress. “Beautiful car,” they remark as the camera zooms in on the vehicle, mounted for display just beyond the boundary. “Wish it was mine.” What we would all wish is for commentators to simply call the game; the hawking can be left to the commercial breaks.

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/cricket/article3459006.ece

Technically, Sidhu is not a commentator, but he probably is the most "colorfull" of the lot, both in his appearance and his choice of words. Probably, the best Salesman, the Commentators fraternity ever had. I sometimes enjoy his words more than even the cricket. His analysis of the situation is very good too... Like the colourfull dresses the teams wear, his colorfull personality works too...

So, why is the author of this article so peeved about ? What is wrong with the commentators being Salesmen as well, for the products that they either officially or unofficially sell.

Each of us are Salesmen through out the day, whether we are getting our kids to eat their breakfast before they go to school, or at the office or shop or back at home, after a hard day's work...

Selling is part of the way of life, and the better we are able to learn the different ways of selling, so much the better our own lives will be.

So, if some one is practising his selling skills, let us evaluate it whether we need that "product" or not.. . If we dont like it, we dont buy it ! that all...

Let us remember, that IPL-5 is as much sports as much as entertainment and a major Sales Program for the sponsorers.

Incidentally, the industry has even special words for it... Above the line or Below the line.....

What do you think ?

Reach out with your opinions to us

http://www.retailgurukul.com
Join us on facebook, twitter, and linkedin @ RetailGurukul

Read more »

Business is down across India.Retailers - What can you do ?

What did you say today ?

Across the Indian Retail Market, Industries, Brands, Un Brands, have all started feeling the pinch of the drop in walkins to the stores, in a significant manner. Whether they are consumer durable brands, investment categories like the gold jewellers or the stock markets, every thing is down and going down signficantly.

Retailers had seen the bad patch in March, did some recovery in April due to festivals like Akshaya Tritiya. The market seems to be so down, that even my neighbour who is a Doctor is coming home early ! as he sees less patients these days ! And more and more hoardings are blank.

That for me a good thumb rule of businesses being down these days...

We have been discussing many things retailers can do( for the past 50 blogs) , on how Retailers can improve their business at this blog http://www.RetailGurukul.blogspot.com.

Generating walkin through new advertising, new discount schemes dont seem to be working as well as before.

Therefore, we need to " maximise" every walkin to the store. The very definition of walkin to a store is many a times difficult to be agreed upon in national chain stores today, but that is a topic for another day !

Current Situation :-

The Standard method of Greeting is a "smile" and may be a mumbled "How may I help you ", if at all. But in these days of multiple floors of stores , multiple types of "staff" - company, brand, contract, security etc , it is increasing difficult to "standardise" even the greeting at the stores, even in shopping malls like LifeStyle or Central or Shoppers etc leave alone speciality stores of apparel, consumer electronics etc. In fact, until one goes to a particular "shop in shop", the rest of the staff can just walk by, without even bothering to look at you ! You could possibly enter and leave a store, without any one making a direct contact with you !

In such a situation, an article by Jeff Mowatt “The Art of Client Service: Influence with Ease”, Jeffmowatt.com  caught my attention. One of the 5 tips he says is a new method of greeting . And I quote him for his simple easy to understand explanation...                      

by Jeff Mowatt

Greeting Walk-In Customers: Can I help you? That's the typical greeting offered to customers. And the typical response is No thanks, just looking. These tips can ensure that your greeting makes customers want to buy and keep coming back.

Quick, what’s the typical greeting used most often by 60% of retail stores? You’re right if you guessed, “Can I help you?” The visitor’s usual response, “No thanks, just looking.” The problem is the walk-in customer is never “just looking.” They came into the premises because at some level they perceived a need. This greeting only reminds visitors that they’re not here to buy. Lousy selling strategy.

The way you and your front line employees greet walk-in customers has a huge impact on your bottom line. Here are some tips to ensure that you and your employees greet customers in a way that makes them want to buy and keep coming back.

1. For another day !

2 . Ask if they’ve been in beforeOne of the best money making greetings is, “Hi, have you been here before?” Michael Gerber, author of the best seller, The E-myth, says that his clients who have switch from, “Can I help you?” to this greeting have seen sales increase by 16%. While Gerber claims to have no idea why this works so well, I think it’s because this greeting reminds the customer that they’ve been at your business before, so it’s a familiar place. Familiar means safe. Safe means trust. And trust means buy.

“If saying, ‘Hi, have you been here before?’ can increase sales by 16%, then it’s certainly worth a test.”

With this greeting the employee can also add, “Welcome back, we appreciate your coming to see us again.” That provides that all-important recognition. They can ask the customer about what they bought on their last visit and how they like it. That provides the opportunity to provide positive reinforcement and/or clear up any concerns.

If this is the visitor’s first visit, then the employee has a great excuse to show them around, identify needs and point out specials. At any rate, if saying, “Hi, have you been here before?” can increase sales by 16%, then it’s certainly worth a test.

Unquote...

I thought this is a very simple idea, that can be implemented inmediately, without having to change any thing significant.  He quotes another author,  of a 16 % increase in conversions..

While we can argue that, the data is for America and we are in India, this is probably one of the ideas, that actually require "zero money" to try out. And the results are visible at the end of every transaction itself.

Retailers and Sales staff - Change you "Welcome" today..

Are  you ready to try it out with the next customer and let me know what was the result ?

Best of luck...

Shivaram

http://www.RetailGurukul.blogspot.com

http://www.RetailGurukul.com

Join us on Twitter,FB, Linkedin @ RetailGurukul

Vote for us at http://www.WagonRSmartideas.com  under Retail/Bangalore/Shivaram

Read more »

Customer or Company Policy .Who is right ?

What do you think ? Who is right and who was wrong. What would you have done as a customer or as a Brand manager in such a situation. ?

Is the brand image spoilt because of a 23,000 Rs. one jean with all these articles ?

Or Is the brand correct in not refunding ? just because the customer came back after 30 days instead of 10 days as per company policy ?


I had a colleaque, Snigdha, who would always ask, when ever a decision was being made in the Corporate office, Was it policy or Purpose behind the decision that we were taking. We always thought the decision , we made "the purpose"  more important, though, she would not always agree !!!!

Quote....


Wrong size jeans: Armani to pay Rs 23K
by Dev Borah

New Delhi:The Indian arm of leading global fashion house, Giorgio Armani, has been asked by a consumer forum here to refund the cost of a pair of jeans to a customer and pay Rs 10,000 as compensation for harassment for selling him the wrong size and then refusing to exchange the garment.
Giorgio Armani India Pvt Ltd, the joint venture of Italy based fashion label Giorgio Armani and DLF Retail Brands, was held guilty of unfair trade practice by the South West Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum for not showing the correct size of the jeans on its label.
"It stands proved that the tag attached to the jeans mentioned the size at the waist as 33 inches and as deposed by the complainant actually it was 37 inches and hence it could not fit his size. Counsel for the OP (Giorgio Armani) failed to satisfy us that the measurements as shown on the label tally with the size of the jeans.
"Thus it is proved that the measurements mentioned on the label of the jeans are falsely stated which is tantamount to unfair trade practice," it said.
The bench presided by Narendra Kumar directed the fashion house to also pay Rs 10,000 as compensation for harassment and Rs 3,000 as cost of litigation.
The order of the forum came on the plea of East Azad Nagar resident Manjeet Singh who had alleged that he had bought a pair of jeans from a showroom of Giorgio Armani here, which turned out to be of a bigger size than what was mentioned on
the label, but the fashion house had refused to exchange it.
Giorgio Armani in its defence had contended that the jeans was brought for exchange more than a month after its purchase and they only replace garments within 10 days of sale.
It had also said Singh had stretched the jeans after wearing it for more than a month.
The forum rejected the contentions saying the fashion house cannot escape from its liability for "not representing their goods truly".

Dev Borah | May 23, 2012 at 4:59 pm | Tags: Business News, Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, consumer forum, DLF Retail Brands, Giorgio Armani India Pvt Ltd, Indian Retail, Indian Retail News, Retail News & Analysis | Categories: Retail News & Analysis | URL: http://wp.me/p2hw2z-sz

Read more »

Customer or Khast se mar ! ? What is your experience

While there are many definitions of Consumer/ Customer , I will share what I found, easy to under stand and remember.

Consumer:- A person who "buys / consumes " something . Ex. I could be a consumer of a " dinner" at a particular point of time, say 9 pm, and I might even go to a restaurant along the way, just because it was in the vicinity.

Customer :- A custom is something, that we do again and again. Like praying everyday. Similarly, a customer is one, who comes back to the store, after her first visit. While every  one who makes even the first purchase can be called a customer, I prefer those who have decided to come back, because of some "custom" that they found likeable or useful. Ex. They might have liked our service and decided to make their second purchase again at our store.

Now for the "unhappy" Customer or Khast Se Mar !

How many of us have had bad experiences when something we bought did not work out and we went back to the store, only to find indifferent service or people or careless staff/ owner etc, who seem to have an attitude which says, "good once purchased cannot be returned or exchanged "philosophy. While the number of such retailers who even used to display a placard has really come down, we still do experience such "careless attitude" in the stores even today.

Even after complaining, there is no action forthcoming.  In fact, http://www.mouthshut.com is a site dedicated for such complaints, and it is good to know, some of the companies are taking care to respond to such complaints.

Learnings :- 

It often takes quite a bit of money to get a consumer into the store. (A Rs. 1000 per every walkin is not a unusual figure for big Brands ), the responsibility of the staff, to engage the consumer in such a way, that she becomes a "Customer" and not a "khast se mar "after her shopping, is the responsibility of every staff in the store....

Have you had experiences when a store treated you like a valued "customer" or examples of when you were treated with the "khast se mar" attitude. Share it with us.....

http://www.RetailGurukul.blogspot.com

http://www.RetailGurukul.com

Join us on Twitter, Facebook, Linked in @ RetailGurukul

Talk to us at 0 90 360 365 24.

vote for us at WagonRSmartIdeas.com /Bangalore /Retail...

Read more »

Do you have the time to sharpen your saw ?

Who has the time ? – Every body’s confession ?

The popular story, as given in the picture is very descriptive of the life of many of  us and certainly of many owner - retailers.

We believe that we have so many things to do at the store, that we have no time, to go out and learn new things. Additionally, most of these seminars are full day or even 2 or 3 day events in Mumbai or Bangalore, it takes away another full day for travelling to and fro.

Besides, what is it there to learn, when we have been doing this business for 10,, 20 or even 30 years?

Learnings :-

Recently, I did attended a seminar . It really opened my eyes to the many things are being introduced in the industry for problems that are plaguing us for many years now.

Problem : One of the biggest problems that retailers are facing is the understanding of what sells and what does not sell and why ? Answer :- There are Business Analytics solutions

Problem :- What is the future likely to hold ? Solution :- No need to do detailed regressive analysis of BIG DATA. Predictive analysis takes small amounts of data and converts into potential trends.

Problem :- .Customer’s today know more about the product , than the Retail Staff, simply because , for the Retail Staff it is a job, while the customer is spending his hard earned money. Solution:- New solutions to keep the RSA updated on the “fly” with new content being downloaded from the net and a hand held to show to the customer.

Problem :- . Don’t know how to sell things on the net, except that you have products ? There is a company, which will do all the “dirty work’ about photography, content writing, putting up the product on websites and all you do is down load orders and replenish the stocks.

But the biggest revelation, ( even though we might know earlier) is the customer is checking out on physical stores and actually shopping  on the net . And how physical retailers have begun to fight back at this “showrooming” phenomenon.

Check out more on such ideas on New Age Retailing at this daily blog :-

www.RetailGurukul.com

Join us on Twitter, FB, Linkedin @RetailGurukul

Vote for us on http://www.WagonRSmartIdeas.com contest.

Call us on 0 90360 36524 and win prizes for accepted solutions!

Read more »

Pay more – expect more – get more.

An increasing number of customers are searching for a Rs. 200- Rs.500  difference on a Rs. 20,000 mobile phone and for that they are willing to move from one shop to another, one internet site to another for that " BARGAIN DEAL".

Same is the case with many electronics products, where the retailers seems to offer little or no differentiation and price seems to win at the cheapest  internet site .

Let us look at this from anothe angle. Some one willing to spend Rs. 20,000 on a phone, would be reasonable to be earning about Rs. 50,000 a month ? . ( Yes, there are exceptions of workers earning 20,000 a month and buying a phone for that price )

At 20 Days a month, it averages to Rs. 2,500 per day of say 10 hours . A hourly wage of Rs. 250 per hour. Now, if you have spent an average of 4 hours from the time you went searching for that phone, to actually buying it ( touch time as it is called in manufacturing ) , excluding the cost of petrol, additional expenses on "eating out" etc, then you have actually spent Rs. 1000 of your own money . Money that probably had better uses.

Now that great  "saving" that you seem to be making of Rs. 500 is actually a loss of Rs. 500 .

Next time, you are tempted to go in search of the bargain deal, look for something where even if you paid a Rs. 500 "more " ie say the MRP of the product, you will also get some service( should there be a problem ), ask him to explain the features of the product ( instead of wasting your Rs. 250 / hour) on that . Begin to think of it , as your own "outsourcing" and work on making better returns of your own time. Can you make Rs. 500 per hour using your "core competency" of say developing software or even an app for the same phone you bought ? May be you can be an app millionaire ? Who knows.

Learnings :-

Pay more, expect more and get more , rather than penny pinch ....

The problem really comes out, when you want the product serviced or you have something else  you are a customer or a retailer, there seems to be too much emphasis on the price at the cost of every thing else.

Read more »

Restaurants - Wake up to a new opportunity for week end profits

Today happened to be my daughter's 18th birthday and we all had decided to go out dinner. Since, it was her responsibility to fix the restaurant, she had not "thought through " , (her first responsibility of becoming an adult) , and when we landed up at the restaurant, it was full, and we ended up waiting for more than one hour waiting for the table.

Once seated, we saw week end specials were being advertised, we ended  up ordering a number of those items. As can only be expected, the delivery was slow( obviously, the restaurant is not geared for such rush week end business) and we ended up spending more time waiting for food to arrive than in eating it, all the while other customers were waiting to be seated. Even the waiters were not trianed to make an estimate of the total food required for a table of 8 and we also contributed to the problem by ordering piece meal.

Learnings :-

For us :-

1. Don't go out on Sundays without a reservation
2. Keep plenty of time on your side, including time to park and walk. From the entry into the mall gates till the time we got out of the car, took more than 20 minutes.

Profitable learnings for the restaurant :-

1. Focus on "items that can be made fast", not on "weekend specials", which by nature will take more time to make..
2. Train your steward, to estimate the total food required, with a caveat that one dish may become extra, but ordering later on will take a lot of time, due to the busy time. Most diners will go with the suggestion.
3. Evaluate, if you can have two menus , one for week days, when people are conscious of money spent while at work, and another a smaller/ different menu but priced slightly higher . After all many hotels have started having two prices for their buffets. One cheaper with lesser number of itemes for the week days and another one only for week ends, with larger number of items for a higher price. Finally, what people will eat in terms of quantity will any way be the same.  But , they sure make a little more money this way.
4. Finally, learn to make a proper estimate of the waiting time. Nothing is more frustrating for diners to be told the waiting time is 15 minutes, but made to wait for more than 30 minutes.
5. If you have to turn away customers, remember to give them your visiting card with phone no, facebook and twitter names, etc asking them to save your number on their cell phones, and call up next time before they come in. This way, you will get free recall with  your regular set of customers.
 

 
 
Check us out for more such Retailing and Consumer Insights every day !
Right here @http://www.RetailGurukul.blogspot.com
http://www.RetailGurukul.com
Join us on Twitter,Facebook, Linked in @ RetailGurukul
vote for us at http://www.WagonRsmartideas.com contest and search under Retail/Bangalore/Shivaram
Submit your ideas at Wagonrsmartideas.com contest and win Rs. 10 lakhs.
 
Wishing you a great week ahead !
 
 

  

Read more »

Train the "last man standing"

Mrs. Kumar had seen a special offer in the morning newspaper for a buy 2 Get 1 free from the large departmental store, where she always wanted to buy from. A Sale was on and she wanted to get the best items before the were all "sold" out.

So, she was at the store as soon as the store opened for business. But to her surprise, after she had selected the 2plus 1 offer, when she went to the Retail Sales Associate for a clarification, she found out that the RSA had not even heard about the offer !

We have all experienced service of this kind before, but it has become more and more often these days, especially in large branded stores, often run by employees only...


Why is Customer Experience in retail stores so poor ? 

As more International brands find the "last big market" is really India, they are coming in and opening new stores in every city possible. Indian Brands are also trying to get the wallet share of the same consumer and are also expanding existing stores, adding new stores at feverish pace to be ready for the real onslaught once the FDI in multi brand retail opens up in the next couple of years.

While Product, Price, Promotion, Place are all possible to be controlled by the Corporate or the Regional office teams, the one challenge that all brands are facing is the acute shortage of "Retail Staff" to man the counters at these stores.

Consumers are experiencing poor service levels, inadequate knowledge of the product, price, latest schemes etc. The problem gets even more complicated with the store staff not necessarily fluent in Hindi or English or even the local language, the brands want them to speak the "brand language" which is typically English and the consumer speaking in his own language, which could be English,, Hindi or even the local language.

With salaries and incentives generally being low, week ends being the busiest days of the week, more and more staff are migrating to Call Centre duties, even if it means night shifts. Atleast the money in call centers are double the typical salary levels in retail stores in India.

What is the solution :-

In fact, I hear, apparel brands had stopped training 3 years ago, all because of the 100% attrition rate ! Ie, in one year, the whole store staff have changed .

Like the way online retailers are getting the better of physical retailers on price, the only solution for physical retailers is to offer such an "extra ordinary service", the customer is willing to shop at physical stores !

But for such service to be offered, the staff has to be trained. However,  a recent example I am aware of shows, that retail sales managers dont have the "inclination" for training.

But, one brand which had stopped training has now begun to train its staff, not only in the store operations, but also exclusive English speaking classes.

The commitment of the staff if training is made available can be seen from the fact, that after working for 6 days at the store, they are going to class on their weekly off day ( 7th day ) for 4 hours to just learn English !

Wish more and  more brands wake up to this reality of the poor service levels at the stores and their impact on the Brand, on which crores of rupees are often spent on Brand Ambassadors, Merchandise etc.

Afterall the Brand Ambassadors can bring the customer to the store, but for making the sales,  a Retail Sales Associate is required.

Share your experiences in retail shopping with us :-

http://www.retailgurukul.com
http://www.retailgurukul.blogspot.com
Share with us on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin.
Call us on 0 90360 365 24.

Read more »

Online vs Offline ! What physical retailers can learn from online stores…

Physical stores don’t seem to have picked up one of the fundamental best practices of the online trade. Tracking their walkins . Websites do it all the time ex. click through on their pages, their links and an entire industry has even been built on the pay per click model !

Tracking Walkins in a store.
As we have been observing, the number of stores managed only by employees of the Brand  is ever increasing. As customers becoming increasingly more and more knowledgeable than the staff at the store, as investments increase, the challenges of taking on competition increases, the need to improve the returns of these investments is again increasing every time.

Walkin tracking :-If the marketing budget of the company is divided by the estimated walkins into the store, we would get the “cost per walkin “ number. And this number is likely to surprise the Corporate Office staff as much as the store staff. A value of Rs. 1000 per such consumer for a consumer durable brand is a good indicator. This large Rs.1000 is the money that is being spent to get the “consumer” into the store, whether she ultimately does any shopping or not.

What are retailers doing about this ? The walkin tracking is hardly given the importance that it deserves. Speciality retailers claim a walkin conversion of over 80% and shop in shops or mall counters claim a “check in – conversion ratio of about 35 % to 40 %.

What are current practices and what new options are coming up ?
The current practices include a. an estimate by the store staff b. A “manual walk in counter” by the security which is clicked c. A “auto” clicker in some stores which uses a “beam” of light that counts the walkins. None of this is really accurate.

New options include infrared tracking devices.

Using infrared walk-in tracking technology, stores have found
a. Opportunities in improving the assortment mix ( a mobile store in an business district had a skewed mix towards trendy phones  vs business phones and obviously had poor conversions). By  tracking walk-ins into the both the sections they were able to convert the trendy areas into the business areas and improved the sales
b. A coffee shop in a mall , used to open at 11 am  But by tracking the walk-ins for a continuous 24 hours cycle, they found out that workers coming into work, at the mall would  be a good target and began opening the coffee shop at 8 am . This alone helped increased the business!
Learnings and Results :-Businesses should work to get accurate walk-in and conversion data and evaluate the impact of tracking monitors on their business. After having invested huge sums of money and time in building the store, it is surprising more technological inputs are not being used to track walkins ! which is the fundamental health indicator of any business.

A good analysis of time of walkins, number of walkins, day ( weekdays vs week ends ) all can help improve the business in multiple ways.

Check out more such business improvement ideas daily here on this blog
Visit us at http://www.retailgurukul.com
Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Linked in at RetailGurukul.
Vote for us at the WagonRSmartideas.com content under Retail/Bangalore/Shivaram
Forward this opportunity to your retailer friends…

 

Read more »

Customer is smarter than the Retailer

Time was when, during the Licence Raj era, the Retailer had all the aces up his sleeves. He knew the price. the supply sources, when there would a short supply, the customer knew very little, was happy with what he got etc etc.

How times have changed, the customer knows when the international product was released, what is the USD price, when is it likely to be officially released in India, how to even get it even before its official release here . Similarly, even for an Indian product, he will know, what is the price of it in a physical retail store, in an online store, in a "factory outlet " store, what discount he can get in a franchisee run store, what he cannot get in a company run store etc etc.

What it all means, is the CUSTOMER is now in Control. The "Control" has shifted from the Retailer to the Customer.

Learnings :-

Each Retailer has to work to get the "Control" back to him, and this is only possible through building "relationships" and giving a suitable "experience". Price is neither a "relationship" or an "experience" in itself as some of the "price warriors" will soon find out, that a low price is not a very sustainable offer for too long. The party will have to end some time.

One of the "relationship" the retailer of any kind can build with the customer is his "PEOPLE" at the front end customer facing side of the business. For too long, these "last mile connectivity" people have got the short end of the stick .

Training is a very good starting point and from the basics of selling to more detailed knowledge of products, to complex behaviour training, can help significantly. A small percentage improvement in the conversion of the walkins will more than compensate for the price paid for training, with a substantial ROI .

Checked us out on http://www.retailgurukul.com
vote for us on http://www.wagonrsmartideas.com

Enter the wagonr contest and you could win the Rs. 10 lakh award and the Wagon R car !

Best of luck.....

Read more »

Rules are for whose benefit anyway ! Retailer or Customer ?

I was in South Bombay, and was having lunch at a small restaurant Smoking Lee when I noticed this sign on the door.

On enquiring I was told, they were servicing a combo offer of a noodle/ rice dish and a side dish at a very competitive rate of Rs. 150 . It was so popular that on weekends, the store would be so packed with people, that  customers who wanted to order a la carte from the menu had some times no place to sit while it was occupied by the Combo customers ! A la carte menu is single dish, priced separately and hence much more profitable than combo offers.

Guess what the store did ! They put up a sign, that the combo offer is not longer available for in house dining and they can only do door delivery orders.

Now, at this restaurant on a working day, I was the only guest and one more guest , who was a regular came to ask for the combo offer, (he did not  even look  at the menu) . He was then told, that they have stopped offering the combo offer and it was only available on a door delivery!

Reluctantly, the customer ordered the combo offer and asked to be delivered at his home a few buildings away !

Surely, with a  little more thought, the “ combo offer” can be made available on all days, except perhaps week ends . The restaurant is otherwise empty most of the days and yet this simple thing does not seem to have occurred.

When I enquired, I was told only about the rush on week ends and no answer as to why this needs to be applied on working days as well !

Learnings :-

While we all have our challenges in operating a retail store, before new “rules” are applied, some thought should also be given to how the rule should be applied .Like I said in the past, the owners no longer sit in the business these days, especially in chain stores and once a rule is applied, it will take a applied in full and it will take a long time and customer understanding or complaints to change it again !

Have you come across any such customer un friendly rule in a retail environment . Do share . The best such example will get a prize !

Share it with us at :-
Retailgurukul@gmail.com
Check us out at http://www.retailgurukul.com
Followus on Twitter, Facebook, Linked
Call us on  90 360 365 24.
Vote us on Retail Gurukul idea on Www.wagonrsmartideas.com contest under retail/bangalore/shivaram

Read more »