But he didn’t stop here, he once again remodeled his store. When you walk in, it’s like a breath of fresh air. You will not find display after display, rack after rack, nope. Rather you find large comfy cushioned chairs, coffee tables with magazines, fireplaces, tile and wood floors. You are greeted with smiles and warm handshakes and asked if you would like some sweet bread, fruit or a beverage. His employees encourage everyone to take a seat and then they ask customer, what they can help them find. The customer tells them and employee runs off to gather what it is they have to fill customers request.

The customers sit, relaxed from rat race, rush to get from here to there—they sip their cup of tea or soda and eat snack they were served---while employee runs around and serves them up all their requests. When their experience is completed, they make their purchases and leave store with a smile.

I asked him how his cyber-customers brought about this change and he replied—“because world of internet took a key factor out of equation---it took hand shake, friendliness and smile. Many stores have also gone to attitude of---find it buy it—they even you to ring it up yourself---they have made world a strangers world where no one knows a name”. He said through years he fell into this category and managed quite well for more than 30 years under guise that offering more was what his customers wanted and needed. His internet customers proved to him that they wanted to ‘SEE’ less and be offered more---they still wanted human interaction and they wanted to know their purchase mattered to someone.

I asked him how his sales were going and he replied (I could feel warm smile through phone) “They have gone through roof”. He attributes a nearly doubled ticket amount to fact that. “We serve our customers in more ways than one. They no longer rush through our doors in a hurry to get somewhere. They come in, sit down and we ASK, we serve them not only in items they need, but serve them on basic level—the human side of money we ask them to part with. In offering them less to look at, we must SERVE them twice as much.”

I asked him how much he had to raise prices in order to offer such a great experience. He responded that his prices never rose at all—in fact they still compete on a price level of all other ‘similar product’ stores around. But he was most excited to share fact that even his own personal life has slowed down, he rushes around less and ENJOYS so much more. “We found to some extent that service offered to our customers who entered doors was sometimes just as cold as service offered on internet—so we brought whole experience, including internet back to days of a warm handshake and found success in fact that ‘offering less—and serving more’ is what people are after”.

Sorry this was so very long, but I thought it was important to share.

The bottom line is---break free from your habits if you are not realizing RESULTS you are looking for, and remember—“sometimes offering less—and serving more”—can often bring greater success.

Hope you enjoyed this weeks message.

Timber

http://www.timbersnoni.com

My favorite saying:

Bypass Your Ego to Connect With Buyers

Part two of this marketing process is often ignored by small business owners and even some advertising agencies, but it can spell difference between success and failure. It involves stepping back and looking at your message from standpoint of your target audience. Here are two important questions to ask yourself: "Are they going to notice ad or sales message at all?" and "If they do notice it, why should they care?" If you're not sure, then that's a clear sign you need to strengthen your sales message and gear it more to needs of your intended audience.

In order to create a winning ad or marketing campaign, it's necessary to ask yourself these blunt questions, and have flexibility to make changes in your headlines, ad layout, graphics, ad copy, or marketing strategy. Getting a second or third opinion from people who will give you unvarnished truth (as they see it) can help you develop a winning, original marketing message that will generate a profitable response.

If your marketing efforts fail to rise above clutter of all hundreds of nondescript ads, emails, and competing offers that public is bombarded with every day, then your marketing message will be about as effective as a whisper on trading floor of New York Stock Exchange. Challenge yourself to produce compelling, high-impact marketing messages that will command attention and trigger a response from your target group.