Tag Archives: sales

Showroom Design Ideas: Creating a Special Retail Experience for Customers

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Now that consumers can comparison shop year-round, 24-7, creating an interesting and compelling shopping experience is key to the survival of any retail store. Photo courtesy Dimension One Spas

By Vic Walker

The benefits of the information age are continuing to grow even today. While the Internet has given us access to vast amounts of information and data, it has also given rise to wonderful new concepts that no one ever could have imagined. Companies like social media giant Facebook and retail giant Amazon exist today because of the wide spread acceptance of the Internet. In the last few years, buying products online has led to a new philosophy on how brick and mortar stores must approach store design.

Now that consumers can comparison shop year-round, 24-7, creating an interesting and compelling shopping experience is key to the survival of any retail store. Consumers are no longer required to go to a physical location to make their purchases. However, when they do, it is important to create a retail experience the Internet is not capable of duplicating. Customer service is again becoming a way for retail stores to differentiate themselves from the faceless experience of online shopping. This is especially true when considering certain types of products that require ongoing maintenance during their life cycle, e.g., hot tubs.

In this day of online shopping and electronic consumerism, it is more important than ever to create a ‘remarkable’ retail experience to stay competitive.

Read the full article: Showroom Design Ideas

How to Get the Appointment: Improved Phone Responsiveness Can Make All the Difference

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By Todd Bairstow

When a homeowner makes their first call to a pool/spa builder or service company, they are looking for the expert help only a trained professional can provide. Unfortunately, many of these potential customers, who are often eager to spend money on whatever they need to make their backyard getaways perfect, are met with silence. Calls are not answered. Voicemails are not returned. E-mails never get sent back to online inquiries. No one wins.

This phenomenon is regrettably common among home service companies, including pool and spa service providers. In fact, lack of phone expertise and responsiveness may be the single biggest performance issue currently facing the industry; addressing it could make a huge difference for any pool or spa company.

The value of picking up the phone
The lifeblood of any growing pool and spa company comes from homeowner inquiries, whether they are in the form of phone calls, web forms, e-mails or in-store visits. As such, it makes sense to always pick up the phone, return e-mails or voice mails immediately and focus on driving revenue and value through every single inquiry. So why doesn’t this happen?

The short answer is good phone work is often taken for granted. Someone always assumes the phone is being picked up or that the truly determined customer can always call back.

There is also a cost issue. Paying one employee to man the phones costs money; money that many pool and spa professionals would rather save for other things. One less employee will provide more dollars in the budget. Unfortunately, those short-term savings can hurt growth if pool and spa company operators fail to seize valuable sales opportunities.

Read the full article: How to Get the Appointment