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 SMS messaging lets you reach your customers in minutes! Direct marketing is all about one-to-one marketing, a “Call to Action” and measuring response. Direct marketing has traditionally used mail, telemarketing, and more recently, email. But one of the latest forms of direct marketing is through the use of mobile phone text messaging.
This type of direct marketing has a number of advantages over older forms including low cost of delivery and very high delivery rate. It can also include more time dependent “Call to Actions”, for example, “Come in for 20 percent off Tomorrow Only”
Who should you be Texting
If you already have a customer loyalty program, then the members of this program will form the core of your text messaging campaigns. You could add to this list by running competitions that require entry by text message, thus enabling you to capture lots of mobile phone numbers to add to your text-messaging database.
It takes much more effort to get new customers than keep the ones you already have. You may have a list from contest entries or loyalty program signups on paper.
However like any direct marketing technique, the more targeted it is, the better it will work.
So rather than sending a text message to everybody on the database advising something like “All stores have 20 percent off Store-wide this Weekend”, it is much more effective to send a message like “Downtown store – 20 Percent off Ladies Shoes this Weekend” to customers that have previously bought ladies shoes from your Downtown store before.
A good Retail Management System like CONTROL will allow you to extract a list of customers that fit the target profile of any marketing campaign you develop.
For the first marketing campaign, you may want to use a small list in order to gauge effectiveness, and to ensure you have enough stock and staff support for the results. Once conversion rates are known, you are ready for larger campaigns.
How to Write your Text Message
Text messaging is more correctly known as SMS messaging, where SMS stands for Short Message Service. In most countries the message is restricted to 160 characters, so you need to carefully construct your message.
If you compose your message in a Word Processor like Word then you can use one of the inbuilt tools to check the character count (select “Word Count” in Microsoft Word for this feature).
Here are a few example messages:
Fine Threads Promo – Free Shirt with Suit Purchase Tuesday 24th – George St & Martin Place
Exclusive Invitation! – Classy Gowns New Seasonal Preview – This Tuesday the 24th – Free Champagne and Hors Doeuvres – 6 – 9 pm – 303 George St
How do you get your Message Out
There are many companies that will send your message to your chosen list of recipients (try Googling “SMS messaging” or “Bulk SMS” for a staggering list of companies offering this service). The service providers offer a number of ways to use their service, including just sending them the list and the message via a web interface, and they will do the rest.
The service usually includes reports of which numbers had the message successfully delivered to, and which ones failed.
How to get started
1. Check what lists you have or can build from your Loyalty Program, POS sales and returns records, or competition entries.
2. Determine how that list can be segmented so it can be used most effectively, remembering that one customer can be placed into multiple target lists.
3. Check Availability of Stock to be promoted.
4. Choose a Text Messaging Vendor that provides the type of service you require.
5. Try the program and plan for success.
6. Carefully track in-store visits and purchases to get an idea of Conversion Rate – a POS system like CONTROL will help you do that.
 Historic Bank on Corner There is reporting that the Retail Industry is not pleased by the interest rate raise to 3.25 percent from 3 percent which happened October 6th at the Reserve Bank of Australia meeting. In the newsletter Inside Retailing Russell Zimmerman stated that he thought the rate hike was too soon and could impact Holiday sales for retailers.
Retail Industry gives feedback
“Usually changes to interest rate take between three to six months to impact the retail market. So, the damage could hit retailers just in time for Christmas.” – Russell Zimmerman ARA Executive Director
Well it is mid October and Christmas is less than 3 months away so it does seem unlikely that this will have a major impact on holiday spending.
Is Mr. Zimmerman serious in his appraisal that this is truly bad news, being a mouthpiece for members of the ARA, or is this an attempt to quell future rate increases that may come in November and / or December?
Rate hike not unexpected
But this rate hike does not seem to be unexpected but just maybe a bit earlier than hoped.
Previously JP Morgan chief economist Stephen Walters had said that the RBA would raise rates at this meeting on strong retail numbers previously.
National Australia Bank chief economist Robert Henderson had said:
“A November rate hike would likely be followed by another in December, leaving rates 50 basis points higher by the end of 2009.”
Other Industries than Retail Respond
Not only was the raise from 3% to 3.25% stated to be unwelcome by many in the retail sector but also from the car industry that sees the recovery as starting but not fully developed.
The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries said the increase in the interest rate was premature.
“Economic stimulus has resulted in positive business sales but private buyers need the confidence to return to showrooms in larger numbers,” said chamber chief executive officer Andrew McKellar.
The chamber gave a sales figure that fell 3.5 per cent in September as a reason for the beliefs.
Future Actions by the RBA
The RBA is scheduled to have meetings in November and December. It is entirely possible that there will be another adjustment at either or even both of these meetings. But again maybe the RBA was hoping to slow the overcooking home price market now and bring some stability in price adjustments to the markets during the run-up to the holiday season by limiting changes then. Or it may be looking to reduce the amount of time that the end of some of the small business stimulus package overlaps with 49 year low interest rates.
Affect on Retail Businesses
Some in the retail field have stated that the interest rate change has a huge affect on consumer spending and quite directly. But while variable rate mortgages are common, Oceanic consumers will not necesarily retreat from spending on an expected quarter point increase from a 49 year low.
Most government inputs are a bit slow, indirect, and even uncontrollable.
An interest rate hike is one of these.
Myer CEO Bernie Brookes has said at a Press Conference that this rate rise would probably NOT have “any impact on our sales growth line”
A Source of Pride?
“Australia’s performance in the middle of this global recession has been the best of all advanced countries and one of the reasons for that has been the stability in our financial system.” – Treasurer Wayne Swan
And this adjustment is no different.
It is a small adjustment, might help some markets like housing prices from overheating, and has already made the Australian Dollar stronger in world markets.
A strong Australian Dollar has many good, and some bad effects on the Australian economy possibly beyond what a quarter percent interest rate increase has.
 Australian Business Rebounds Business confidence rose in August, to six year high in the latest positive news for the Australian economy. Last month we had an article about consumer sentiment reaching a 35 year high, this month there is good news in the business sector.
The National Australia Bank’s monthly business survey showed business confidence at the highest level since October of 2003, as the retail, finance, manufacturing and personal services sectors rose.
The index rose 8 points in August to 18 index points.
“It is worth noting firstly that the August survey came out of the field on Friday 28 August,” said NAB chief economist Alan Oster. This was before the announcement of the better-than-expected second-quarter GDP gain of 0.6 per cent.
“As such the further significant improvement in business confidence is quite remarkable,” Mr Oster said.
“Confidence levels are now considerably above long term average levels and indeed are at the highest level since October 2003. Nothing that happened last week would, in our view, have lessened those readings – indeed it may well have added to confidence levels.”
Confidence levels were consistently strong across most industries, NAB said.
The positive news comes after the ANZ Bank job ads survey for August, released yesterday, showed the first positive result in over a year.
Within NAB’s business confidence survey, trading rose 8 index points to 12 in August, while profitability skyrocketed to 11 points in August from 1 in July.
“While these outcomes are very encouraging, to some extent we suspect that current confidence levels may be starting to get to unrealistic levels – just as they fell to overly pessimistic levels earlier in the year,” said Mr Oster.
“Certainly the gap between confidence and actual business outcomes – and indeed business intentions for capital expenditure – points in that direction.”
Some Weakness evident
Not all metrics within the NAB survey rose, with forward orders slumping 7 index points to minus 2 in August.
“The survey clearly points to continuing strong growth in demand in the third quarter,” Mr Oster while the result is encouraging, activity levels are yet to catch up with the big spike in confidence.
“It does, however, suggest that business continues to draw on inventories to help satisfy increased demand.”
“Businesses are feeling happier, they’re getting better forward orders, etc. but they’re not cranking up the factories to produce more” Mr Oster said.
“They’re tending to run down their inventory levels and they’re tending to import.”
“So some of that demand is going to leak away, but at the end of the day we’re still an economy that’s probably still growing, which is pretty good,” he said.
Creative Computing has been established for over 20 years and specialises in integrated Retail Business Solutions for multi store retailers and wholesalers.
Creative Computing’s mission is to design, develop, and implement systems that allow retail business owners to operate and manage the business in a holistic fashion, meeting personal and corporate objectives.
Creative Computing’s philosophy is to continually enhance the CONTROL system through communication with users and staying in touch with current retail trends, keeping CONTROL at the cutting edge of retail system functionality.
Backing up our software and your investment are our friendly support staff that will provide all the assistance required, both during the initial implementation and in the many years to come.
For more information, go to our web site: www.creativecomputing.com.au
 Retail Promotions that Increase Revenue Retailing is always tough and even though the economy is picking up, it is always important to maximize sales.
We have previously discussed the benefits of customer loyalty programs but in this article we will focus on attracting additional customers into the store.
One historical favourite with many retailers for generating additional revenue has been the percent off sale.
The trouble is that retailing is so competitive now that it seems that there is a sale on almost every week, so this type of sale does not work as effectively as it used to. And this type of promotion substantially reduces margins without necessarily increasing turnover enough to cover the lost margin. The net effect can be reduced total profit during sale time, rather than the increase that you were expecting.
Here is a list of modern retail promotion ideas that are designed to not only increase turnover, but to increase profit as well. None of these ideas is completely original, but you may find the list useful for when you are planning your next promotion. The examples are for a sports store, but they could be for any type of retailer.
1. X percent off second item. Example: buy one pair of runners (at list price) and get a second pair at 50 percent off. Not only does this appear to be a better offer than the 25 percent off which it is equivalent to, but assuming your “normal” margin is at least 50 percent, then this offer is guaranteed to get at least the same amount of profit per sale as without the promotion, but the turnover should increase substantially with the promotion, thus substantially increasing profits
2. 3 for 2. Example: 3 pair of sports socks for the price of 2. Again this promotion looks better than the equivalent 33 percent off. And with some price support from the relevant supplier, can be great for increasing brand awareness, turnover and profit.
3. Bonus item. Example: buy a new bicycle and get a free helmet from a specified range. This is again better than a flat discount as you are not sacrificing turnover. And depending on the quality, etc. of the bonus item, often the customer can be upgraded to a better quality item, complete with a healthy margin.
4. Package deal. Example: golf clubs, bag and buggy for $$$. Often once the customer is attracted into the store by the advertised package, they can be upgraded to an alternate “package” at higher margins. And even if they take the promoted package, the profit from the deal is higher than if the customer only bought one component of the package at the regular price.
5. Bonus coupon. For example, buy any pair of runners and get $20 off your next purchase. This has the great advantage that the customer has to come back to the store at a later date to take advantage of the discount. So the one promotion has actually generated two sales.
CONTROL includes facilities to create and manage all these types of promotion. Please contact me at Bernie@creativecomputing.com.au for more information about promotions and how they can be easily implemented in your retail business.
 Interview with Bernie Hogan of Creative Computing In this article, Retail Business Newsletter talks to Bernie Hogan, Managing Director of Creative Computing, about the company’s international expansion.
Retail Business Newsletter (RBN): Some of our readers might already be familiar with Creative Computing but what does your company do?
Bernie Hogan: We specialise in business systems for multi-store specialty store retailers, such as fashion, footwear, jewellery, furniture, mobile phones, etc.. Retailers that you could find in any typical shopping center.
RBN: And how long has Creative Computing been in existence?
Bernie Hogan: Our company has been operating for over 20 years. And throughout much of that time we have been developing, implementing and supporting refining our core product CONTROL. Naturally it has gone through many upgrades and revisions over that time.
RBN: What geographic areas does Creative Computing operate in?
Bernie Hogan: For many years we have considered Australia as our market. However, in the last 3 years, we have had success outside Australia. We have gained a customer in the US; quite a large customer in Sri Lanka; and we will be able to announce our first customers in India and Singapore very soon.
RBN: So how did your company go about entering the Indian and Southeast Asian markets? Do you have established company branches there?
Bernie Hogan: We believed it would take too long for us to establish our own offices etc. in those areas so we are working with local partners that bring their own local market knowledge.
RBN: Could tell us about one of these partners?
Bernie Hogan: Yes. One of the partners is Syntel. They are a large multi-national IT company with over 11,000 employees. They have offices throughout India, the US, Canada, Europe and Southeast Asia.
RBN: What value does Syntel bring to the partnership?
Bernie Hogan: They have a very strong retail background. Traditionally they have been providing consulting, programming and other services to large retailers, predominantly the US but increasingly to Indian domestic customers. They now see the benefit of having a retail system product to go to market with, especially in the Indian domestic market.
RBN: Is this an exclusive partnership that you have with Syntel?
Bernie Hogan: No. The partnership with Syntel is quite important and we are fully committed to it but retail is such a big market that we believe there is plenty of opportunity for us to have more than one partner, both Tin India and other regions.
RBN: And what value does Creative Computing offer to this partnership?
Bernie Hogan: Like I said, Syntel has been working with some of the large retailers and they have some in-depth knowledge of some of those large retailers, but mostly in the back office and supply chain side. We can provide a lot of expertise about the point of sale, the in-store processing, and also more generally about the operation of mid-size retailers.
RBN: And I gather that this type of knowledge would be difficult to gain?
Bernie Hogan: We have gained our retail expertise over many years from working with many, many retailers from many different retail segments. So without employing people with that experience it would be very difficult to come by that knowledge.
Interviewer: So these projects with Indian companies such as Syntel. Do you expect the majority of projects with Syntel to be Indian, North American, European or even Australian projects?
Bernie Hogan: We are primarily focused on the Indian domestic market. However we are already working on opportunities in the US, the Middle East and other regions.
RBN: How do Point of Sale and Retail Systems in India differ to those you in Australia?
Bernie Hogan: I think the basic functionality required at the point of sale is quite similar, however there is more requirement for “management approval” of various POS functions in India. The back office varies substantially in at least two ways. One is that the tax calculating and reporting requirements are substantially more complex in India than they are Australia. Conversely, some replenishment requirements are less complex than similar size Australian retailers. However, like many things in India, I expect that level of complexity to rapidly increase among Indian organised retailers over the next couple of years. We look forward to meeting that challenge.
RBN: What about the United States? What differences are there in the software systems compared to Australia?
Bernie Hogan: I think in general the retail operation practices are similar between the two countries, but again the tax processing and reporting requirements are much more complex in the US.
The US market is obviously a mature market for retail systems and most retailers already have systems. So, like Australia, the US retail system market is primarily a replacement market, with many, many companies competing for opportunities to replace existing retail systems. However we have a very competitive offering.
RBN: What would be some advantages to a company in the US going with a product that is provided by a company such as yourself considering your Indian partnerships?
Bernie Hogan: Firstly, the licensing fees would be less than a US product with similar functionality. And Syntel brings much lower implementation costs as they can leverage people based in India.
To get more information about Creative Computing visit www.CreativeComputing.com.au or to contact Bernie Hogan directly email Bernie@CreativeComputing.com.au
 Bernie Hogan of Creative Computing
 Consumer Sentiment All Time High in Australia Latest data suggests that consumers are feeling more optimistic about the state of the economy and in numbers never measured before.
The Westpac-Melbourne Institute has been tracking a metric called the consumer sentiment index.
The index is up 27.8 in the last 3 months which is the biggest three-month gain since the survey was started in 1975.
“The message is clear – as far as consumers are concerned, the worst of the current downturn appears to have passed,” said Westpac senior economist Matthew Hassan on Wednesday August 12th.
The last time that similarly large gains were observed was coming out of recessions in the 1980s and 1990s with gains of 22.8 and 20.3 percent respectively.
Additionally other indices showed increased belief in a recovery. The June quarter house prices rose 4.2 percent. And the jobless rate seems to have leveled off at 5.8 percent with some signs of increased hiring.
Some other metrics and their improvements:
• 12 per cent jump in share prices
• 1.2 per cent fall in petrol prices
• 4 US cent jump in the Australian dollar
• Consumers’ economic outlook 11.2 per cent increase
• ‘Good time to buy a major household item’ rose 2.2 per cent
• ‘Time to buy a dwelling’ rose 1.6 per cent
• ‘Time to buy a car’ also rose 3.1 per cent
“The continued rally in consumer confidence in August underscores the resilience of consumer demand,” Mr Hassan said.
For retailers this means that the worst may be over and that those posed to fulfil this increase in retailing purchase are likely to gain the most. And metrics are even showing that consumers are more interested in buying large items, cars and even homes.
Creative Computing has been established for over 20 years and specialises in integrated Retail Business Solutions for multi store retailers and wholesalers.
Creative Computing’s mission is to design, develop, and implement systems that allow retail business owners to operate and manage the business in a holistic fashion, meeting personal and corporate objectives.
Creative Computing’s philosophy is to continually enhance the CONTROL system through communication with users and staying in touch with current retail trends, keeping CONTROL at the cutting edge of retail system functionality.
Backing up our software and your investment are our friendly support staff that will provide all the assistance required, both during the initial implementation and in the many years to come.
For more information, go to our web site: www.creativecomputing.com.au
Free Tracking from your Webhost
The funny thing is that most of us get free website statistics tracking with our webhost package. Maybe you were so happy to finish your website and that everything seems to be working that you never login there. But most webhosts use a control panel named Cpanel. Maybe you remember having to go there to tell it what your domain name was, to renew your contract or submit a trouble ticket. Usually you can access it at www.yoursitename.com.au/cpanel or something similar. One of the options there is usually named “AWStats” or “statistics” or something like that. If you cannot find it you should ask your web designer or webhost to help you. If you are not sure of what you are doing be careful. In Cpanel you can break your website so it does not work if you just start clicking around. You could even erase your only copy of your website. So please be careful or get help.
 AWStats Webstats Example - Visitors, Monthly Graphs Once you have found it, you can look through some various statistics and details about where people are coming from and what they are doing once they get there. Some of the things you should look at are unique visitors and time on site. Are they getting better or worse? Did you do anything to make your traffic better one month? Is it economically feasible to do that again? Here is a screenshot of what AWStats looks like.
For more information on AWstats please go here: http://awstats.sourceforge.net/
Free Tracking from Google
 Google Analytics Free High Powered Stats Your webhost probably offers free website statistics and it probably has been collecting data since when your hosting was started so that is probably a good place to start. But some people like the more polished interface, easy centralised access, paid to unpaid traffic differentiation and the Google Adwords integration that Google hosted Analytics offers. If setup properly the package can give you visitor details, conversion rates, and cost per acquisition down to a keyword level. The ability to find the “loser” keywords in your ad spend and turn them off is often the difference between a good traffic opportunity and a terrible one.
What user metrics should you look at?
As you have probably noticed there is a lot of data that you will see when you get website statistics set up properly on your website. Most of it you do not have to worry about too much. But some of the more important ones you should look at, and watch for trends that will help your business. You should review unique visitors, pageviews, and time on site to watch if they are increasing. Filled in forms, watched videos or some other conversion goal (Google) should be logged to make the determination that the traffic is more receptive to your message. If a visitor is on your site for 3 seconds it is highly unlikely they liked what they saw. You might want to start a journal and track some of the key numbers so you can watch it throughout the year. Can you or your web design team come up with ideas or changes that improve these numbers? Most stat programs will also tell you what keywords you rank well for, and how many people came from each of these terms. For more information don’t be afraid to Google on the idea that you would like to know more about. For example you might google “How to decrease bouncerate” or “how to increase pageviews”.
By spending an hour or two to learn about the reality of your web traffic, you will no doubt be better prepared to discuss future web design projects and make better marketing decisions.
Creative Computing has been established for over 20 years and specialises in integrated Retail Business Solutions for multi store retailers and wholesalers.
Creative Computing’s mission is to design, develop, and implement systems that allow retail business owners to operate and manage the business in a holistic fashion, meeting personal and corporate objectives.
Creative Computing’s philosophy is to continually enhance the CONTROL system through communication with users and staying in touch with current retail trends, keeping CONTROL at the cutting edge of retail system functionality.
Backing up our software and your investment are our friendly support staff that will provide all the assistance required, both during the initial implementation and in the many years to come.
For more information, go to our web site: www.creativecomputing.com.au
 Website Statistics Tell you Reality Why you got a website in the first place
Most businesses, including retail businesses have a website to inform and draw new customers. Like many store owners maybe you tried to avoid having a website for a few years, but eventually you had to give in. You have a website now and you think all your responsibilities are over in that department. That is not entirely true. Just because you have a website does not means that it is doing all that it could be doing. In fact at this stage most people start to realise: they have no idea how many people go to their website and what brought them there in the first place.
What is the Reality of your Website Traffic?
To take your website to the next level or to make sure it is well rounded in how it gets visitors you need to know how many people come to your website, where they come from, and what they do on your website once they get there. Maybe you can make some assumptions about what they do because you get phone calls or emailed forms directly attributable to your website.
But what percentage of web visitors do that? 100%? 5%? 1%? 0.05%?
The reality is that most people have no idea. They assume that visitors are all the same and the sources of traffic are equally valuable. But not everyone who views your website will contact your business. Knowing the percentage of web visitors that contact you helps you determine what the real value of an average web visitor is. And when you start to do specific methods of advertising, knowing how that particular traffic behaves on your site is imperative for you to determine it’s value. And all of that makes a huge difference in how you should position your website. Today we are going to talk about some of the ways that will help you know what people are doing when they get to your website. Are you interested in spending some money on website advertising? We will talk about how to track each spend and determine if that type of marketing should be done again.
Software that helps you understand your web traffic
One of the things that is great about website traffic is that it is much more trackable than other mediums of advertising. If you buy an ad in a magazine that has 100,000 circulation, there is no way of knowing how many people actually look directly at your ad for more than a few seconds. With online advertising because of the trackable click to your site, the ability to measure how long a visitor is on your site, and what they do when they are there; online advertising is the most trackable way to advertise. What you need to do is make sure the tracking is installed and working and then occasionally monitor it.
Click for our followup article on 2 Ways to Implement Free Website Statistics.
Creative Computing has been established for over 20 years and specialises in integrated Retail Business Solutions for multi store retailers and wholesalers.
Creative Computing’s mission is to design, develop, and implement systems that allow retail business owners to operate and manage the business in a holistic fashion, meeting personal and corporate objectives.
Creative Computing’s philosophy is to continually enhance the CONTROL system through communication with users and staying in touch with current retail trends, keeping CONTROL at the cutting edge of retail system functionality.
Backing up our software and your investment are our friendly support staff that will provide all the assistance required, both during the initial implementation and in the many years to come.
For more information, go to our web site: www.creativecomputing.com.au
 Australia May 2009 Retail Sales Good The figures for May 2009 Retail Sales have just been calculated by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and they seem to be good news. For most industries and in most regions of Australia year on year sales for the month of May 2009 have risen and quite substantially.
Most regions rose
The news was pretty much the same for most of Australia: More Sales Volume. There was only one region that had a decline and that was a small 0.1% decline in Tasmania. New South Wales and the Northern Territories were flat for retail growth. The remainder of Australia saw growth in retail sales and at about twice the amount expected by the AAP. 4 Areas had over a 1% growth in sales and those regions were: Queensland (+1.5%), SA (+1.8%), WA (+3.5%) and the ACT (+1.8%).
Most Industries Increased
According to the new report all industries had an increase in seasonally adjusted terms in May 2009 except for the Household Good sector which contracted 2%. Everything else increased and often by a large amount. Some of the leaders were Department stores with a 5.5% increase and Clothing and soft good retailing with a 2.9% increase.
Two Big Chains see Good Indicators
In this last month, two of the big chain stores are seeing strong sales. David Jones CEO Mark McInnes states that he is seeing a return of consumer confidence. Just this past Sunday McInnes stated that the Australian Government Stimulus and the return of more normal equities trading prompted a figurative sigh of relief in the markets. Another large chain chairman, Gerry Harvey, of Harvey Norman stated that they saw increases of at least 25% in the sales of notebook computers, plasma and LCD televisions in June.
People have feared doom and gloom and that is far from the case. The news is not bad and in fact is quite good in the retail sector and that is usually a good barometer for the economy as a whole. Some areas and sectors are clearly showing very strong growth.
Creative Computing has been established for over 20 years and specialises in integrated Retail Business Solutions for multi store retailers and wholesalers.
Creative Computing’s mission is to design, develop, and implement systems that allow retail business owners to operate and manage the business in a holistic fashion, meeting personal and corporate objectives.
Creative Computing’s philosophy is to continually enhance the CONTROL system through communication with users and staying in touch with current retail trends, keeping CONTROL at the cutting edge of retail system functionality.
Backing up our software and your investment are our friendly support staff that will provide all the assistance required, both during the initial implementation and in the many years to come.
For more information, go to our web site: www.creativecomputing.com.au
 5 Retail Store Tips to more Customers 1. Capture customer details. Gather names and contact information any way you can. If you’re a primarily online business, you can offer newsletters or specials for registered members. If you’re a more traditional retail business establishment you can collect business cards in a drawing or request information on feedback forms. Ever enter a drawing? You wanted to win so you wanted to be contacted.
2. Create a customer reward program. It can be a free meal or dessert on the customer’s birthday, “Buy 6 cups of coffee get the 7th free” special, or an invitation-only sale for preferred customers before the normal sale. Rewarding customers for loyalty is a good business practice and you can see it at many large chain businesses. Do you think they do it on a lark?
3. Use e-mail and direct-mail methods. Informing customers about promotions, new products or other news gives you an excuse to remind them about your business. This newsletter was a bit difficult to setup at first but gets easier every time. There are services that make it easier, and software that automates much of it.
4. Distribute promotional items. Calendars, pens, refrigerator magnets, and mouse pads branded with your corporate identity are another tried-and-true method of reminding customers of your business. There truly is a fine line between being overtly marketing and giving someone something that is useful and not obtrusive. Try to think: Would I appreciate and keep that item if a company gave it to me?
5. Make customer service a top goal. There’s simply no substitute for creating a positive brand experience. You must be able to deliver on time, soothe customers’ ruffled feathers, and make customers happy to be your customer. Companies such as Apple, Rolex, and Mercedes can charge premium prices by making customer service a top priority and making ownership something you want and pursue with their company.
Creative Computing has been established for over 20 years and specialises in integrated Retail Business Solutions for multi store retailers and wholesalers.
Creative Computing’s mission is to design, develop, and implement systems that allow retail business owners to operate and manage the business in a holistic fashion, meeting personal and corporate objectives.
Creative Computing’s philosophy is to continually enhance the CONTROL system through communication with users and staying in touch with current retail trends, keeping CONTROL at the cutting edge of retail system functionality.
Backing up our software and your investment are our friendly support staff that will provide all the assistance required, both during the initial implementation and in the many years to come.
For more information, go to our web site: www.creativecomputing.com.au
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