Christmas Tips For Retailers

Motivate Your Customers – Gift Ideas Competition

Here’s an idea I included last year that proved popular with my retail clients.  I’m sure it can work in your stores too:

 

Create some simple, fun competitions for your customers.  For example, get them to list 5 gifts from your store, one for themselves and 4 for other people they have to buy for.  Click here to download a sample form which you can adapt for your store.

 

It can be a daily or weekly draw.  Winner gets all 5 gifts (up to a certain value if you have high ticket items).  This encourages customers to think of the gift purchasing opportunities in your store while they are getting other things.

 

Your team can also use the ideas to help other customers with suggestions for their hard to buy for friends and relatives.

Tip # 40 - Make It Fun

• Christmas can be one of the most stressful times for customers. They don’t want to be doing it. It’s costing them a lot of money, it’s one big headache and they wish it were over. Look for ways to relieve their stress. Make it fun.
• Wear something funny eg. Christmas earrings, Rudolf antlers, Santa hats or beards, red and green hair, sparkle make up.
• Most important of all, wear a smile.
• Even if you wear a piece of holly it will promote Christmas cheer.
• Hire someone to entertain the customers while they shop and wait, say an actor or a magician or someone flamboyant who will make then laugh. Customers will remember your store next Christmas.
• Find ways to involve your customers in the fun. Spontaneously (seemingly) start a Christmas quiz eg. Name the 7 dwarfs, why does Santa wear red?
• Have everyone cheer when people get them right.

Tip # 28 - Make It Easy

• Provide different services / options - gift vouchers, phone orders. Professional people often don’t have time to shop. Provide a service where they can phone up, receive a gift list, then phone back and place an order which can be delivered to their home.
• Mail or email ‘Dear Santa’ forms to your customers and have them on the counter: “Dear Santa, There are some fabulous things at XYZ Store that I would love to have. To make it easy I’ve numbered my favourite items. I don’t mind if you don’t get them all but the top three would be really nice. I promise I’ve been good!"
• Then include a list of the items that you think will be your best sellers this Christmas with a box next to each. Leave room at the end to write in additional items.

Tip # 7 - Turn Your Team Into Successful Shoppers

• Who do your staff have to buy for? Get them to share their lists. Get this done well before the Christmas rush. Help one another out with ideas. Have fun. Put up a chart where people have to mark off as they buy their gifts.
• Make it public. Let your customers know what is going on. They will empathise and while encouraging your staff to get their Christmas shopping underway, may just do the same themselves.
• Your staff won’t be able to perform as well if they are worried about their own Christmas shopping. Try and give them an afternoon off in early December, so they can do their own shopping. Make the time off under the proviso that they keep an eye out for good customer service ideas for Christmas that they notice other businesses doing.

Choose your attitude

• Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?
• We can’t always choose our circumstances but we can choose how we react to them. We choose whether or not we come to work. We choose to be in retailing. So, lets choose to be the very best at what we do.
• Our objective should be to have every customer going away feeling and thinking, “I’m glad I talked with you. You really listened even though you were very busy. I feel better about myself as a result of talking to you”.
• No one else can get us in a bad mood. No one else can make us stressed. We aren’t puppets, we are people. Take control. Choose to be positive. Choose to make each moment a special moment for you, your colleagues and your customers.