Tips From The Pros
ROLE OF MERCHANDISING ON THE SALES OF REAL TIME INVENTORY
My name is Bob Quigley and I appreciate you taking the time to read my third Tips from the Pros blog for COVERMASTER®. My topics center around the operation of multi-purpose facilities. If you read my first installment, we discussed the valuable tool of using a percentage allocation analysis in determining the true cost of each revenue center in a multi-purpose facility. When using this analysis, a fairly accurate determination can be made of break-even price points on each of the products you sell. This creates a base line to figure out a break-even price point to determine your net return per sale. Commonly called your profit margin. What you are selling is your inventory. The type of inventory sold in facilities is what I like to call real time inventory. This can be compared to airplane seats or hotel rooms. If the inventory is not sold, the opportunity has been lost forever because it is time sensitive, as opposed to T-shirts on a store rack that can be sold tomorrow if not sold today. Real time inventory is here today, gone tomorrow!
In this column, we will explore the role merchandising can have on your sales of real time inventory. Particularly on repeat sales. Merchandising can have a number of meanings in this context, but for the purposes of this column we will interpret merchandizing as “What the customer sees, hears, smells, feels, perceives, and concludes from the moment they arrive at your facility until they leave.” Although exterior factors can impact the customers experience getting to and from your facility, such as traffic, this is beyond your control. What you can control is vital to customer satisfaction and reflects your ability to merchandise your products.
I am assuming most facilities are using evaluation forms. Rank the most common poor comments. Fix the problems and then turn the communication around and state in your advertising how well you have fixed it. An example: The swimming instructors never go in the water used to be a common comment on evaluation forms. We worked with our staff, showed them the results, and came out to the public through our advertising that our instructors ALWAYS go in the water. What a huge positive response we got from that. Same can be said about the locker rooms. We started cleaning them seven times per day. Customers loved it. So, act on your feedback from customers, merchandise the results and incorporate this into your advertising.
Parking is often a contentious issue at a multi-purpose facility. Everyone wants to park close to the door. Many facilities are very short on parking spaces, especially multi -purpose facilities. Problems can often arise as a result of events at the facility such as sporting events, trade shows, conventions and community events. These types of events can easily fill a 500-space parking lot, overflow the special needs parking, leave parents stranded a long way from the entrance with small children and babies to name a few problems. Solutions are minimal but it is your job to mediate the situation.
For starters, trained parking lot guards are a must complete with two-way radios. Police are often a must for traffic control on local streets. The fallout on regular bread and butter customers is brutal. You can mitigate these problems to some extent. Begin customer communication two weeks before the event. Don’t accept birthday parties and other coinciding events during these times if possible. Have a senior staff person available to manage customers. It will still be tough, but by showing due diligence, you are still merchandising in this case, your brand.
Keep your grounds manicured and CLEAN. Your entryway and lobbies, stairwells, hallways, and especially your locker rooms must be spotless. As customers enter the lobby, they should notice a welcoming atmosphere. Staff members with a smile sitting on a raised stool or standing to greet the customers at eye level and dressed in a uniform with a name tag. They should ask the customer if they need any help finding anything. Remember this is the first interaction with the customer and it can leave a lasting impression. This is an important merchandising opportunity. Have upcoming program registration signage to point to and brochures available applicable for the customers areas of interest, including events and concerts.
Clear directional signage is important for users, and as in all signage, should be in all the common languages spoken in the community. This in itself is a good merchandising technique and also important for safety.
Once the customer enters their destination within the facility, they often meet a second greeter. This can be a lifeguard in the pool, an attendant in the exercise room, an instructor in an exercise class, an usher in a concert or tradeshow, etc. Again, a positive greeting by a staff member with a smile can leave a positive lasting impression by helping the customer’s questions or concerns. Lifeguards somber in a lifeguard chair or a fitness attendant in an office with headphones on is not a positive interaction.
Merchandising quickies:
- Keep the pools at the proper temperatures. Evaluations will tell you if you are.
- FIX EVERYTHING promptly that is not working properly or broken. Keep common parts on hand.
- Provide a floater instructor during busy children’s “learn to” programs such as Saturday morning swimming instruction.
- Have a senior staff person present on the pool deck or ice rink etc. on the first and last day of programs to do nothing but meet parents on the deck or bleachers. Have them hand out business cards as a way of merchandising the program.
- It is up to the individual facility how hard you want to go after a sale. With good product merchandising sales can become easier.
These are but a few of the ways you can merchandise your sales in a multi-purpose facility. Many of you are probably doing a number of these techniques and those of you who are not I hope this helps improve your sales.
Posted April 19, 2022