My wife and I recently spent a week taking a 1300 mile odyssey touring on vacation. Driving this amount of distance we passed a great number of flooring stores. Several days into our trip, I asked over lunch what stores she had seen that impressed her. The sad reality is that she could only remember two or three in any detail. After a while, I asked her what her general impression was in one word. That word was: BORING!
In my travels in our flooring business I am constantly amazed at how many stores scream BLAH! Far too many are selling the same goods shown on the same vendor displays in the same non-descript strip malls. They seem to have weak signage, an abundance of posters in the window and a generally cluttered appearance. We are in the fashion business but you’d sure never know it from the curb.
All too often I see my favorite pet peeve – the back side of displays facing the front glass. Very classy! With this logic, Macy’s would have all of the mannequins in their famous NYC display windows facing the back wall! How enticing would that be for the customer to come inside to see more? How in the world do we expect potential customers to notice, and more importantly, remember us when this is the first impression that she sees?
Is it any wonder that it always seems to come down to price? Being ordinary limits the success of most retailers. To achieve all that is possible you will need to do something really differently than your competitors. Ask yourself: “What are we doing to make our customers say WOW?”
Tom Jennings
