Hi friends !!
First a quick intro. I am third generation entrepreneur from the Retail industry. We are one of the oldest and pioneers of Retail in the North-East India. We are into retail of clothing. My grandfather is a dynamic man and built this business from zero. Today we also have stores in one of the prime locations of Mumbai, Bandra (Hill Road) and also at Crawford Market. The Mumbai stores carry the name WAREWELL. Its a menswear store. However the stores in the east are a large format store and therefore a family store.
I guess that should be enough of who we are. Now I’ll tell you what we plan to do. My grandfather taught me a lot but two key lessons that I have learnt which has helped me in my Retail business are :
1. Focus on doing more and more of less and less than doing less and less of more and more. And focus on doing that which you are best at.
How I applied this lesson in our business was that we were manufacturing every thing inhouse from formal wear to casual wear to party wear to suits and blazers. Now we have cut down most of them and have collaborated with people who are better than us in that category who can manufacture for our brand. Now our focus is on retail and retail only..
2. In Retail, just focus on two things.. Procurement and Customer service.
When we are procuring, we put the procurement cap on and buy as if procurement is everything and there is no concept of selling or marketing. But when we sell, we put the service cap on and sell as if service is everything and procurement doesn’t count..
Now, while we are focusing thoroughly on procurement, I want your help on the latter.
How can we give more to our customers? How can we add value? How can we make them our fans? How can we make them our advocates? How can we build a great relationship?
When I think of these, the following answers come up..
1. Train your people because they are the face of your company.
2. Take care of your people. If you take care of them, they will take care of your customers.
3. Have a refund policy. If customers have an issue, don’t have any second thoughts and give them their money back
4. Give them gifts which they will cherish
5. Have an independent customer complaint number
6. Send mystery shoppers to the stores to ensure good environment and service
While, we are working on all of these… Can you pls suggest us more? How can I make you happy if you shop at our store? Any more ideas?? We want to give more and more to our customers and there is lot to be done… and undone…
Cheers !!!!