*Also see AVB conference social scene<\/p>\n
LAS VEGAS \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Retailers today are competing for consumer \u00e2\u20ac\u0153heart share,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d authors and consultants Rich Kizer and Georganne Bender told attendees of AVB\/Brand Source national convention and buying fair here.
\n
\n\t\t <\/p>\n
And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot more difficult to capture hearts these days.<\/p>\n
In the 1980s and \u00e2\u20ac\u212290s customers were more like sheep, led to a purchases with just a gentle nudge. Kiser and Bender describe the modern consumer as more like a panther or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the customer from hell\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201d better educated, more demanding, expecting quality, value and service all on the spot.<\/p>\n
To make an impact, retailers need to constantly evaluate and improve on what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing, Bender said.
\nKizer, Bender and other speakers here offered a multitude of tips on how to do just that for the record crowd. Some 3,000 dealers, manufacturers and other guests of the buying group gathered for four days of educational programs, supplier shopping, networking and entertainment. They also heard updates on what the member-owned organization is doing to remain relevant and a source of profit improvement for its 2,500 member furniture, electronics and appliance retailers.<\/p>\n
This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s theme was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Force to Be Reckoned with,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d playing on Brand Source\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tie to drag racer John Force and his three racing daughters. About a year ago, Brand Source became a lead sponsor of the Force women \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Ashley, Brittany and Courtney Force \u00e2\u20ac\u201d who along with their father, appear on an A&E reality TV series called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Driving Force.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
John and Ashley Force were at the conference for a day, signing autographs for dealers and providing some comic relief as John Force mixed it up on stage with a magician. Attendees also enjoyed a concert by 1980s rock star Rick Springfield and a giveaway of four Ford Mustangs, tying in to a delivery truck program Brand Source has with Ford.<\/p>\n
The record crowd also saw a larger-than-ever exhibit area of vendor partner products and services \u00e2\u20ac\u201d up 35% to 140,000 square feet. Some 91 companies exhibited, including 20 furniture and bedding suppliers.
\nOn opening day, Brand Source took about 200 members to the nearby World Market Center for a tour, including a walk through the showrooms of some conference exhibitors.<\/p>\n
In their presentation called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Crackle Factor,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kizer and Bender focused on how retailers could keep their stores in the hearts and minds of consumers.<\/p>\n
For starters they can collect e-mail addresses of customers, take digitals photos of them in the store with their purchases, then send them as a courtesy.<\/p>\n
They should survey customers to learn what they do and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like about the shopping experience, from first impressions to the personnel. They should \u00e2\u20ac\u0153indulge in careful spying of your competition,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d too, Bender said.<\/p>\n
She said she and Kiser have an exercise called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How does it feel?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d where they challenge each other to enter unfamiliar retail territory and buy something they know nothing about to get a full picture of how a customer might be treated through a buying process.<\/p>\n
And when retailers find a competitor or someone else doing something smart and useful, they should invest in R&D, which stands for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rip off and duplicate,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kizer said.<\/p>\n
Other suggestions:
\n* Regularly e-mail customer with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153meaningful\u00e2\u20ac\u009d information. They said every 20 days or so is acceptable.
\n* Create a blog.
\n* Telephone four customers a day and just thank them for choosing your store.
\n* Write four handwritten thank-you notes each day, and send them with real stamps.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You will touch thousands of people and build word-of-mouth,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kiser said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
*Also see AVB conference social scene LAS VEGAS \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Retailers today are competing for consumer \u00e2\u20ac\u0153heart share,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d authors and consultants Rich Kizer and Georganne Bender told attendees of AVB\/Brand Source national convention and buying fair here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-furniture-world-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indonesia-furniture.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}