Running with scissors – businesses doing dumb things

February 2, 2010

We have all seen the t-shirt with the expression, runs with scissors, on it. It is meant to refer to someone doing something they know they shouldn’t. We need to have a t-shirt we can give to business owners to point out the same thing to them – they are doing things they shouldn’t be doing – or aren’t doing what they should be doing.

Here are examples from my personal experiences in the past week. I was interested in purchasing a watch I had seen in a store in a different part of the country. As I googled to find their contact information I decided to use their online contact form instead of calling.

I have filled it out twice. They have never contacted me. They have my email and my phone; I am not hard to find. Either their business is so good they can’t deal with inquiries or they are doing their own version of ‘running with scissors’. It is called ignoring the customer. It doesn’t inspire me to visit their store the next time I am in the area, either.

The second example is sent to me by a friend, telling of their attempts to help a business. My thought is that this business does not need help; it needs to close down and the owner needs to get a job. Here is this example:

We have a new businesses that opened here a while ago.  They are a small business, a café.  They have great food and the place looks amazing.  Their problem is they spent a large chunk of their capital on remodeling even though the place looked fine before.

Now, 2 months into it, they do not have the capital to keep open, and the banks will not loan to them because they are brand new.  I am doing what I can to promote their business.  I have told them how important it is to market their products, and I suggested they do a daily special and fax it to all of the city departments and businesses located nearby.  After seeing nothing, I asked them about it again, and I was told they do not have a fax machine, and I recommended they invest in one.

A week or so later, they still did not have  a fax machine and are in doubt on how they can stay open.  I asked them to email to me a daily special that I would print and fax for them, hoping that upon seeing the success, they would go out immediately and buy one.

I received the email, and it was not a daily special, but just 6 items off the menu with nothing special about it – no deal and no call of action to the customer.  I then formatted something for them and advised them if they are promoting a daily special, and people come in to buy it and the item is the same price as on the menu, it is not a special.

After a while I created the format for them on a daily special and last week on Thursday after having not received anything I called them and worked out a trial run which I faxed to my list of contacts at 10.30 am.  When I talked to them at 1.30, they told me they had sold out of everything.

Staff here told me the food was great, people friendly, service slow.  I touched bases with them to tell them the input and asked them to send me an email Sunday night with Monday’s specials and I would send it out again a few more times, and at that time, they would need to invest in a fax.

Well, it is Monday morning at 8.45 am, and still no email.  If you have any words of advice for me the share with them, I would appreciate it.

I think my initial advice still stands. These two examples of businesses give any other small business a bad name. What possesses people to even open a business if they aren’t going to take care of customers?

Runs with scissors may be a great t-shirt saying. Maybe we need one that is ‘doesn’t get the concept of being in business’.

Just my thoughts. Tom Shay


Tom Shay interview with Joe Collins

January 26, 2010

Tom Shay in Franklin, NC interviewing the mayor, Joe Collins on the importance of a Main Street program. This interview was a part of an educational session in which we were demonstrating how to use hipcast and wordpress.


How pathetic says Tom Shay

January 24, 2010

Sitting this morning in the Asheville airport I am watching the most pathetic of small businesses. The snack bar attendee has been on the phone with someone for 20 minutes.

She stops to wait on anyone, but her voice is so loud that everyone knows of and hears her side of the conversation. She is so worked up that she is loud, crying and pacing as she tells someone of her extreme displeasure of working the weekend shift.

My friends, there are too many people out there looking for work. Get rid of these people and hire someone that appreciates a job, and their customers, no matter what day of the week it is.

As your customer, I deserve better treatment than this. If you don’t give me better service, I can find somewhere else to shop. Then you won’t have this problem employee as you won’t have the need for any employees as your business drops.

OMG! She is starting another call to someone to complain to. My flight cannot leave soon enough.


Tom Shay notes what happens when you just pay people to work

January 4, 2010

There is a problem in business when you pay someone an hourly wage and expect that to take care of your giving great customer service. Let me share this morning’s example.

I walked into the nearby Ace Hardware store with a list of items I needed to make some home repairs. The first two employees I passed were busy having a personal conversation with each other. The third employee was busy texting someone. As I found the aisle I needed, there was an employee there who was busy with merchandise. That person did walk by me and said, ‘excuse me’. (Note: no ‘hello’ or offer to assist).

In selecting items I walked through more than half of the approximately 6,000 square foot store. On the way to the register with my six items, I passed another employee who smiled. I walked to the counter and waited for someone to show up to take my money.

In giving the change to me, the cashier did not count it back to me or say anything. I was the only customer in the store.

The lesson? If the neighborhood store is going to give service like this, why shouldn’t the customer go to the box store which has a much larger selection? For some customers the box store is even closer.

This staff does not care about customer service because they are not paid to care about customer service; they are simply paid to be there. How are things done in your business? Does it make a difference to the salesperson if the customer has a great experience? Does it make a difference to the salesperson if the customer buys something?

If not, I see your problem. Do you see it?


Everything is new – 2010

December 31, 2009

The last afternoon of the year in the office; the decade of the ’00’s’ – how will I look at thee, let me count the ways.

I first think of family – I lost two very important people in my life – my grandmother and my father. After being hospitalized once in the 1970’s for an elective surgery, I would have to stop to count how many health challenges and hospitalizations I had in the last decade.

I think of business – It is much further along and more profitable than it was a decade ago. There were plenty of ups and downs, but I did get through it in a better position than I started.

I think of friends – There are so many more that I have met in the last decade that mean so much to me. I also think of those that have had a very rough decade – both personally and business wise.

I think of knowledge – There are so many more ways I can help others from what I have learned through experience, friendship and books.

Even with the good that is happened, I am glad this decade is over and look forward to the decade of the ‘teens’. There will be many challenges – business and personal wise. Simply because of age, I know there are several family members that are very close to me that I anticipate I will lose in the coming decade. I will enjoy all the time I can have with them.

Business will have challenges. With the gained knowledge, and experience, I am better prepared to face them. I hope you are too.

Thank you family, friends, clients, and those I have met at trade shows, conferences and continuing education events. You have blessed my life and I  hope I have given something to yours.

Let’s go forward and make it a great decade.


Experiencing a disappointment with a retailer

December 20, 2009

This past week there was an article in USA Today about the store called ‘Honey Baked Ham’. While knowing of the store, I can’t remember if I have ever shopped in their store. As the twins at our house are home for the holidays, I decided to make a visit to the nearby Honey Baked Ham shop to make a purchase so they would have plenty to eat over the next couple of weeks.

There were two other customers in the store when we entered and three people working behind the counter. They also had a tv on, watching an afternoon football game.

To say the experience was forgettable is an understatement. They didn’t welcome us. They didn’t ask if we had ever been in before or knew of how their products were sold. They didn’t explain what the samples were that were on the counter, but there was a sign inviting customers to try some.

The staff at Honey Baked ham could have made it a fun experience to shop in their store; after all, they do sell unique products. Instead, the experience was similar to that of the deli counter at any grocery store.

The article in USA Today talked about the challenges of Honey Baked Ham in dealing with a changing customer base.  I wonder if it is changing because of a lack of a shopping experience. I wonder how many customers are going to buy next time at the grocery store or Wal-Mart because they are basing their decision on price and don’t see anything unique about this specialty store.


Twitter feeds now coming to e-retailer conversations

October 7, 2009

Our electronic guru, Bruce Geroux is working to have all of our blogs post to our twitter feed. Stay tuned!


What is wrong with planograms by Tom Shay

October 3, 2009

Went to a friends store this week. There was a beautiful display of merchandise. It was easy to see that it was a planogram as all of the merchandise came from one manufacturer. The kicker was that there was a tip for a walking cane designed to be used when walking on ice.

Might be good in some places, but here in our part of Florida, I don’t think there is a lot of need for it. Of course, someone could buy it and take it up north with them. Then again, why don’t all stores in the south carry items that are suitable for usage in northern climates?

I think it is because the inventory does not turn. What’s wrong with planograms?

People don’t shop for merchandise according to brands; they don’t come in wanting an outfit of clothing that is all one brand. No one wants a sweater, pants, top, socks, and tie by Hilfiger. They come into the store looking for an outfit.

You don’t merchandise by brand; you merchandise a display according to how the customer shops.

You can’t build planograms such that one design works for every store across the continent. They have to be localized. This is what separates the independents from the chain stores – it is that local personalization that counts.

Worst yet, my friend never knew that the ice tip was even a part of the selection. Shame on her for not paying attention and shame on the vendor for putting things that don’t turn enough to earn their keep.


Tom Shay responds to why surveys stink

August 6, 2009

Actually,  I think customers satisfaction surveys don’t work because people don’t want to hear what the customer is really saying. The questions are designed to only give data that appears in a chart instead of listening to each customer on an individual basis.

Want to know what your customers think? Ask one question: ‘What could we do to make it easier for you to do business with us?’

Then read their answers, take action and respond to your customers. Here is a report on why the surveys don’t work.

Retail Customer Experience: Why customer satisfaction surveys don’t work

Commentary by William Cusick CEO and founder, VoxThrough a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from Retail Customer Experience, a daily news portal devoted to helping retailers differentiate the shopping experience.

Recent evidence suggests fully 95 percent of our cognitive processing is subconscious. That leaves all of five percent of the rational mind to do what it does best: rationalize (some might say “guess about”) our decisions and actions to ourselves.

What that means is we’re pretty poor at telling others what we like or don’t like, and why we feel that way. And the science suggests we’re even worse at predicting what we might like, or do, in the future. One might wonder then, if we’re so horrible at this, just why businesses continue to crank out standardized customer satisfaction surveys. How can you get closer to the truth, to determining real, actionable steps to drive customer behavior, when you don’t know what they’re thinking in the first place?

And there lies the real paradox: our actions are driven by emotion (in our irrational subconscious) much more than logic. Yet, to really understand your customers, you can’t look at those emotions. Instead you must take a step back, stop making assumptions and focus on their behavior. Behavior, it turns out, leads to the truth.

Paco Underhill, a self-described “retail anthropologist,” has understood this for a long time. In his book, Why We Buy, The Science of Shopping, he makes a compelling case for employing observation of customer behavior over other techniques like surveys. To help his clients get closer to the truth, he doesn’t ask customers; instead he sends his “trackers” out in the field to the actual retail environments, and observes customer behavior in real time.

It was through this power of observation that Mr. Underhill discovered what he referred to as the “butt brush factor.” He noticed that there were serious and unintended consequences when two product displays stood in close proximity to each other. If a customer wanted to bend down to take a closer look at a product on a lower shelf, it forced passersby to turn and shuffle by, resulting in said “butt brush.” This seemed particularly uncomfortable for women, and it meant very low sales on the products in those displays. The behavior, in other words, held the answer to an actionable improvement to the customer experience, and to desired customer behavior.

This same idea — that behavior is truth — holds in the online retail world as well. You can’t just ask customers if your website is “satisfactory,” or what improvements they’d like to see.

Can you see just what your customers are trying to do on your site? Where do they enter, and what path do they start down? Where are the road blocks? It’s been our experience that, once you look at the behavior, it’s not that hard to see where customers are abandoning the site, where they are stalling or backtracking, and more.

So remember, it’s not what they say, it’s what they do.


Tom Shay observes inventory control

July 2, 2009

You have probably read more than one article like this. The solution comes from first having reasonable expectations of sales. You should also know this is a great opportunity to get deals on merchandise from vendors.

Anticipate your inventory needs; underspend according to that anticipation and look for deals from vendors.

Summer spenders get cold feet

Weather, economic jitters strain retailers

BY ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, The Associated Press

NEW YORK – As consumers get ready to celebrate July Fourth, many merchants already have dismissed summer as a washout.

Macy’s flagship store has racks of summer tops, swimwear and dresses marked down as much as 50 percent, while luxury retailer Bergdorf Goodman is slashing prices on designer goods by as much as 70 percent. Meanwhile, piles of clothing as well as barbecue grills, tents and gardening tools are bypassing stores and heading straight to liquidators as merchants try to conserve their cash.

Such deep discounting so early in the season is great news for bargain hunters, but it’s a worrisome sign that shows a further weakening in retail sales since the end of May.

Consumers’ confidence in the economy, which had surged in April and May, is projected to be virtually unchanged for June when The Conference Board releases figures today.

Though unusually rainy weather across a broad swath of the country has slowed business, some analysts wonder whether shoppers are waking up to the harsh reality that the economy won’t be getting better anytime soon.

That doesn’t bode well for merchants, which need to get rid of summer inventory quickly to make room for fall goods that start to arrive next month.

BMO Capital Markets analyst John Morris estimated that the volume and size of discounts for mall-based apparel retailers he tracks is 10 percent higher than last June even though inventory is down 20 percent.

“It’s the economy, not the weather,” said Ahmed Youssef, a 28-year-old junior engineer from Jersey City, explaining why he has stuck to only necessities like groceries at Wal-Mart and computer accessories such as an $80 hard drive at Staples.

Pam MacWilliams, a tourist from Oshkosh, Wis., who on a recent Thursday was planning to scour for bargains at H&M’s midtown Manhattan location with her two girls, said she’s becoming less optimistic about a quick economic recovery.

“I thought that the economy would turn faster,” MacWilliams said. “I had high expectations. Now, I want to save more.”

Employers are still cutting jobs — although at a slower rate — and home prices are still falling, and now Americans are seeing a three-month stock market rally stall.

Consumers’ confidence in the economy has been rebounding since February, fueled in part by the stock market rise. But that improved mood hasn’t translated into much relief for merchants because confidence levels are still well below the measure that’s considered healthy.

Nor were Friday’s government economic reports comforting to merchants. They showed that households used most of their government stimulus payments to boost savings to the highest level in more than 15 years in May, instead of splurging at the mall.

“There was a lot of hope with the surge in confidence,” said Dennis Jacobe, Gallup’s chief economist. He added that consumers were convinced that the second half would be better but he noted, “you can live on that hope for only so long.”