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Customer Service
The Recommender
Perhaps the most important role in natural retailing is the role of the recommender… the person who helps choose which product will bring the greatest benefit and value to the end user, the consumer. Over the past five-plus decades, millions of Canadians have benefited from safe and effective natural products sold at local health food […]
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The Core Shopper
I believe the core shoppers of health food stores amount to about 15% of Canadians. I am unsure if this number of core shoppers is growing very fast, we just have far more choices of natural food, cosmetics, supplements and natural medicine for them to choose from. The core shoppers are fully engaged with the […]
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Customers shop your store for solutions not products
This is frequently repeated statement in our business yet I still find many health food stores only displaying products without ANY solutions. People shopping in a health food store come in to either prevent or deal with a health issue. They also have family and friends who may benefit from the solutions you sell. Unless […]
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The Body Speaks Louder than Words
During a conversation, apparently, our words amount to only 7% of how the other person perceives what we are saying, our tone of voice [38%] and body language [55%] make up the rest. I guess it is the old story you will trust the mechanic with the most grease under his nails… Many books are […]
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Customers Shop your Store for Solutions not Products
This is frequently repeated statement in our business yet I still find many health food stores only displaying products without too many solutions. People shopping in a health food store come in to either prevent or deal with a health issue. They also have family and friends who may benefit from the solutions you sell. […]
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Caring Service
When I travel to visit health food stores I am continually reminded of the incredible people who work in our stores serving customers. From owner operator stores to large retail stores with staff in the hundreds there are dedicated, hardworking, well educated, passionate people helping bring wellness to their customers. In most cases many of […]
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5 Keys to Creating a Fully Engaged Business
In their thoroughly researched book The Carrot Principle authors Gostick and Elton laid the foundation for their ORANGE REVOLUTION. This is a book I strongly recommend to those who are looking to build a stronger business ‘team’. Their research is taken from surveys of over 350,000 employees. 5 Keys to developing a highly motivated fully […]
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Shop your own Store
It is so easy for us humans to fall into routine in our businesses and not notice where we may need some fine-tuning. There is always room for continual improvement and I suggest you make a point of marking on your calendar specific dates to give your business a check-up. Often times a faded poster […]
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Information We Trust
A study by the Henley Centre UK listed the following as trusted sources of information: Husband/wife/partner – 90% Friends – 82% Work Colleagues – 69% TV News – 50% Retailers – 27% Manufactures – 27% Government – 14% Advertisements – 14% The top three become more trusted when it goes beyond information to imitation. Family, […]
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Selling vs Clerking
I have a simple mind and the simpler the concept the easier for me to understand. The challenge is to take a simple concept and put in words… While preparing a talk recently for a group of health food retailers I had the thought, do you, as a retailer, sell products or do you just […]
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We are all Salespeople
For many there is an uneasy feeling associated with thinking of themselves as salespeople but please get out of the closet and accept the fact. Either you are selling health products and selling people products for a healthier lifestyle or you are??? It is all nice to be educators, friendly, caring etc but if we […]
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A Strong Retail Immune System
Maintaining a strong retail immune system. Very few industries are having the type of growth as the Natural Products Industry. Our window of opportunity is wide open and if we expect to enjoy long term success we need to do what we do best now. This often requires first we define what we do best? […]