Christmas is in the air! What does that mean for business owners? It means shoppers filling your aisles and buying items as fast as you can place them on the shelf. And that’s great. So now it’s okay to just sit back and watch it happen right? Wrong.
Marketing Doesn’t Stop When the Sales Roll In
I get it. You’ve been working hard, you had a killer marketing campaign leading up to Black Friday and it is finally paying off. It’s time to reap what you’ve sown. Only that won’t work, at least not in the long term. The problem? You have to continue sowing so you’ll have more to reap in the future. After Christmas comes a more lean time when customers are recovering from their holiday expenditures and looking to spend only what’s needed. You want to make sure your store makes their list.
This is accomplished by remaining in the public consciousness, continuing to market your business even when it is successful. And don’t forget your most important marketing tool for repeat business, customer service!
Increased Traffic Shouldn’t Equal Reduced Service
If there’s one thing that customers hate, it’s feeling ignored. That can be a result of extremely long lines, distracted employees not finding the confused-looking customer or just over-worked people who are losing their smiles. I’ve been on all sides of this experience from the manager to the employee to the customer, and none of those positions is pleasant. But you can’t expect your regular staff to handle the increased workload alone. After all, the same staff plus twice the customers equals an unhappy mix, and nobody wants that!
So what can you do? Don’t be afraid to hire temporary help. I know, sometimes it seems that temps are more trouble than they’re worth, but knowing where to use them will make the transition so much easier. Your temporary people should be used to restock shelves and do all the grunt work that takes little to no training. This frees your normal staff to handle customer questions, run the register and keep the customer experience as positive as possible in an already hectic environment. Impressive service during an insanely busy time can win you a customer for life!
Marketing isn’t just a seasonal thing, it’s an all-the-time thing. There are no shortcuts in the business world or at least none that yield adequate results and taking time off from marketing is never a good idea. Remember, marketing isn’t solely about the business you have now, it’s also about the business you want to have in the future.
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