Welcome to Lesson Eleven - What Might Make Your Store Look Unprofessional?
Now that you have learned and implemented, all the information, in all of the previous lessons, your online presence will be looking great!
But is there another area of your business that could be improved?
This is the ideal story -
Your customer has found your website, loved your cakes, sent in her form telling you what she wants, you have spent time on the phone with her and sorted out all the details. So she is ready to order and is about the walk into your store to do a quick tasting on some of the flavors and finalize & pay for her order.
When she is walking up to your store she recognizes that the colors of your store and the logo are familiar - because they are the same as the Website & your Instagram page, – yes she looked there too!
The storefront is inviting her in. When she comes through your door she sees a well-laid-out interior, with happy customers making their purchases, and happy & knowledgeable staff serving them.
The store is beautifully lit – not too dark, but not too bright, - the cake displays are full, the counters and showcases are gleaming & clean, and, as she is right on time, you greet her by name, and guide her to the cake flavor testing area, where you already have all her notes and are ready to make the sale and take her payment.
Well, yes – in an ideal world . . . !!!
But, what really is your customer’s experience, when they walk into your store?
To test this QX (customer experience), take a few minutes, leave your store, take a walk around the mall or the block, have a few minutes in the park, - a few relaxing things to get your mind out of the day-to-day stress of running of the store. Then pretend you are a new customer, and when you come back, enter through the front door & stop, just quietly observe & take notice of what you see.
How far away from the ideal scenario is the real experience?
Hint – almost no-one is that good!
Yes, we know - limited money, limited time, staff and supplier hassles, the time it has taken to get that website & social media looking great and sending customers! Sometimes the head just spins!
But, now that your online presence is working, there is just that one last item on the agenda – your store systems and presentation.
Unless you had a great budget to set up your store in the beginning (some owners do, many don’t) you basically got set up as well as you could, to get the business going and “will improve it once you get established”.
Even if you did start out with a great budget, is it still looking good? Or could it do with a refresh?
However, even more crucial than store fittings, are the customer service systems you've implemented. Customers will forgive those basic-quality fittings, as long as the place is clean and tidy, the staff are well organized and the overall feeling is friendly & efficient.
So how do you define “efficient”? (Psst - I have not been to your store - this was my store years ago)
Do your staff know where everything is, and can they answer every question about all your products – or know where they can quickly & easily get truthful answers, rather than just saying they don’t know, or even worse, making something up on the spot. (– yes it happens!)
Can your staff quickly locate customer orders and bring them out easily and safely without risking tripping over?
Do you have a cake-order handover procedure? Is it easy for the customer to actually pick up the box – or is it just plonked on the counter with a “there you are!” for the customer to then pick it up the wrong way and risk spilling it?
Do you have "Cake transport, care & storage instructions" on the box where the customer can see it?
Are your store displays set out in a logical way? – does your customer know, just by looking around, where they should go to see or buy the item they came in to get? Do you need signs, or labels on counters for the various categories or transactions?
If you have brochures or information that should be given out for a particular product, are those brochures on hand at the right place, for staff to get and give to the customer, without having to wander around looking for them?
If a customer has a query that requires you to write something down for them, do you have business cards on hand for that? Or does it get written on a torn-off piece of paper?
If they need a proper invoice for their school or business, rather than just a cash register receipt, can you quickly provide one with your logo and business details on it.
Do you have signage to encourage your customer to consider something extra, or an upgrade on what her original buying intention was? Is that signage refreshed occasionally - or is it getting old, faded and tired?
Do you have a QR Code sign that she can use to easily look up your website on her mobile phone to remind her what “that other thing I was going to ask about” was?
Do you have a sign about the Happy Birthday Cookie email system with a QR code to connect the form to fill in quickly on her mobile phone? (with no staff time consumed.)
Do you have an easily visible sign on the window or door with your “Open Hours” and perhaps your website & email address for window shoppers or passers-by who want to come back later?
Does your staff have a uniform, or at least a ‘dress code” so that your customers can easily identify them? Do they have name badges?
Are your staff tripping all over each other trying to get to another area of the store to serve customers?
Are there boxes stacked in customer view, which are getting dirty & crushed?
Those are all things you can improve on, for very little cost.
Before you change anything - Talk to your staff about how your layout & systems could be improved, they will have ideas – give them some time – for instance, say something like this to them, “Next Tuesday we want to get your ideas on how we can set the store out to make it easier for you to serve our customers better.” Give them a few days notice, so they can think about it while they are working and know you will be requesting input. Ask them to write some suggestions down for you in advance – supply a suggestions box/folder for if they don’t want to appear to criticize you in front of other staff.
Then have that staff meeting and take notes – write all suggestions down – be receptive to ALL ideas and definitely do not dismiss anything as “well that won’t work!” or the ideas will stop coming right there. Finish with “Thanks for a wonderful set of great ideas – we will see what we can do with all of those over the next few weeks” - but in your own words!
Then DO think about what you can do with the ideas. Not all will be good suggestions, but many probably will be, and there will be ideas you have not thought about, but that also make sense. Even the worst suggestions are probably coming from a place of frustration for the staff, so see if you can 'workshop' those to find the actual problem to fix.
Then, combine your ideas and staff ideas, and over the next few days, weeks, and months, work together to implement as much as you can. Your staff will love that their input was valued & used. The wonderful pride of ‘That was my idea . . . and it’s working!” is great to see in junior staff. Morale will move up to the next level! And their customer service will skyrocket!
Summary
In conclusion, the success of cake shop owners and cake decorating businesses heavily relies on their ability to attract more customers and increase sales. Throughout this lesson, we have discussed the importance of your store's customer service systems to achieve this goal.
Key Takeaway
Update your store & systems for a better CX - Customer Experience.
Giving a potential customer a great experience in your store WILL translate into more Orders!
Next Steps
Review this lesson again, after a break, to allow you to digest & absorb the information.
You can always refer back to this lesson as a handy resource whenever you need it.
Remember, attracting more customers and orders with your website is an ongoing process that requires continuous effort and adaptation. Stay proactive, stay creative, and keep striving for excellence.
List of Lessons
These Lessons are not in any specific order and are all stand-alone,
So, see what interests you the most and do that one next, but don't forget to study them all as soon as you can!
Chances are that the ones you find least attractive at this stage, are the ones that will make the biggest difference in your business.
- Updating Your Website.
- How Best To Use Your Social Media.
- Using Business Directories to Bring Customers.
- Finding The Latest Trends In Cakes And Cake Decorating.
- How To Become The Local Cake Expert.
- How To Collect And Use Email Addresses To Target Your Audience For Birthdays & Seasonal Products.
- Expand Your Range Of Products And Profits With Not Much Extra Effort.
- Staff - Morale, Productivity & Upskilling Ideas and Methods.
- Optimize Pricing Strategy And Decrease Costs To Maximize Profits And Competitiveness.
- Business Promotional Ideas And Supplies: Enhance Your Presentation And Productivity.
- What Might Make Your Business Look Unprofessional?
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