Mary Portas - champion of the local independent retailer, broadcaster and general marketing guru - tweeted this this morning...
"To all Indie shops. The future has to be built on superb customer service, specialism and a great shopping experience. Embrace retail."
As usual, Mary's timing is perfect as Moben Kitchens, Kitchens Direct, Dolphin Bathrooms and Sharps Bedrooms are all reportedly going into administration. This comes as no surprise to Ian and I, as we have had more than our fair share of experience with these companies, which contributed to how IKD came to be. We believed - way back in 1992 - that there was a huge gap in the market for individual, personalised customer service built on trust, respect, honest pricing and a killer after sales service. We were horrified with the glamorous sales promises, cheap over-priced products and dreadful, non-existent after sales care.
Of course the "sheds" (i.e.: B&Q, Wickes, Moben, Dolphin etc) left us standing in terms of showroom square footage, staffing and national advertising, but we continued to plug away, relentlessly building something solid on rock, rather than on the shifting sands of endless false promises.
In our experience, and from the experiences of our many - many - disgruntled ex-shed conversions, the sheds threw money at advertising, but not on the customer's sales and service experience, or - unforgivably - the end product. This was never sustainable.
We're also aware that high pressure sales were a common tactic, which again, offers only a short term gain at best. With high pressure sales, you may hector the business from the customer this time, but follow that up with poor sales, service and products, and do you suppose they're ever going to come back to you? Do you suppose they're ever going to recommend you you to anyone else? No, in fact they're going to slowly destroy your reputation by telling their friends and family about their bad experiences and the poor value for money they received. There's an old, old adage that says: a satisfied customer will tell 5 people that they're happy, but a dissatisfied customer will tell 15 that they're unhappy!
Repeat business and recommendations from elated customers has been a significant factor in how IKD has been able to thrive through the leaner times. Don't get me wrong, we're still unable (and unwilling) to compete on the showroom square footage front, and we remain a small local independent retailer, but - dammit - you will receive no greater personalised service from anywhere else.
We're small and mighty, like the atom!
We fully support Mary Portas' campaign to help local independent firms thrive; after all, small businesses are the backbone of this country and the economy. Personalised service, specialism and great customer experiences should always have been the way of the world, but now the sheds are dying one by one (and taking their automated service, manned by their cheap, inexperienced and disengaged workforce with them), I believe we have a great opportunity to see the rise - and rise - of the independents.
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