Strategy & Tactics

Since KarTele Mobile Electronics underwent a complete renovation, owner Mike Hungerford said numbers are up. The new atmosphere of the business adds value to the sale.

WORDS BY ROSA SOPHIA

In 2018, Car-Tunes Inc. in Greenville, Miss. went through a major remodel, but owner Kimberly Trainer said whenever her team makes changes, it isn’t long before they find something else to update. “It’s never-ending,” she added, noting the Top 12 submission videos also force them to look at things in a new light. The Industry Awards process, she said, “makes you look at things in a different way. When you look at something from six months or a year ago, or more, you might say, ‘That was before we did this, or that….’ It’s eye-opening.”

An improved atmosphere, all on its own, “adds value to the sale,” according to Mike Hungerford of KarTele Mobile Electronics in Waterbury, Conn., who recommended that stores begin by planning their remodel on paper. KarTele recently underwent a complete front to back renovation, even rebranding the company logo. “You have to have the image of what you want,” he said. “It’s like laying out an audio job in a trunk. You have be able to see it in your head.” One main focus of KarTele’s renovation was to ensure

everything was branded with the store’s logo. “The displays and counter are branded with KarTele. You see our name on everything,” he added.

When it comes to remodels, James P. Smith of A.C.T. Audio in Vernon, Conn. said it’s important to define the business’s clientele. “We are aiming for the higher-end,” he said, so it’s important that the showroom reflects that. “A professional-looking, clean showroom that’s more like a car dealership will make a difference.” Smith’s goal is to keep it simple. “We won’t put product all over the place. We don’t want to be a grab-and-go store,” he said, adding that the main focus is to become a shop that caters to a specific type of client and offers a memorable experience.

The business is currently focusing on an install bay remodel—after which, they will switch gears to the showroom. He noted there’s a lot to do around the shop. Smith took full ownership of A.C.T. Audio a little over a year ago, he said. The business now has five employees. Since then, “I added window tinting,

detailing and jumped into fleet work. I’ve been diversifying. My goal is to become a one-stop-shop.” Business has been good, Smith said, adding that while they’ve had product shortages like everyone else, they’ve still experienced record-breaking months.

The diversification itself has required major renovations. “Our store was kind of awkward, but we had a big middle room for storage, and we worked on motorcycles in there because we could fit them through the door. We blew down the wall so we can drive a car straight through, and we built a woodshop that we’re still working on. Time and money have put a small hold on it, but it’s usable. We still have to rip up the subflooring and paint it to match the rest of the garage, but we can drive a car in and work on it. It’s functional, but it doesn’t have the cosmetic aspects yet.”

Additionally, Smith explained that the building has a high ceiling of about 25 feet, but the wall in his office only went up 10 feet and stopped. “We added a complete ceiling, and we raised the wall in the showroom up to the ceiling and put our logo on it. I still have to finish some

of the logos. I have my Top Retailer stickers going up, but they just put the logo up yesterday,” he added.

The showroom displays are all from Avid Worx, and a motorcycle display was recently added, but it isn’t complete yet. The business is flux as the staff continues to work on the garage area, while looking toward improvement projects in the showroom. Smith said he wants to remove the closed-in sales booth—a holdover from the tow truck company that used to occupy the building—and create a much simpler, open sales counter. Currently, the team utilizes a round table when consulting with customers.

Defining a business’s goals goes handin-hand with defining the clientele the business wants to attract. Smith said he wished he’d had a better defined “end goal” to start with. “You have to really map out what you want, even if you have to do it in stages to get there,” he

explained. “I didn’t map out what I really wanted, and I definitely wasted more time and money backtracking sometimes.” He stressed that it’s important to keep future expansion in mind.

“We worried about filling the space, but in reality, we should have left some space so we had room to add to it,” he said. “You want to be able to showcase everything you sell in the showroom, so you need to make a spot for it no matter how small it is.” Without showcasing it, he noted, you have to rely on yourself or your salespeople to tell customers about it. “The more you have showcased, the more people will ask you about those products. You become more than just an audio or a remote starter store—you become an aftermarket accessory store.”

Smith said if he could go back and change how he approached his initial showroom remodel, he would have downsized his focus on audio to make sure he had room for the categories and services he would add in the future. “When we

eliminate the sales booth, we’ll open up space in the store,” he added. “Make sure you have a defined end-vision of what you want your garage or your sales floor to look like, rather than what you need from it right now.”

It’s important to try to see things from the perspective of the client, according to Hungerford. “Any time I make a change, I stand at the front of the showroom and look in to see it from the customer’s perspective,” he explained. “If you stand behind the counter, it looks different.”

Recently, he said, his staff set up a coffee bar for customers, calling it the KarTele Café. Hungerford will sit down for a different view and make sure the fridge isn’t crooked, the displays are clean and everything is stocked properly.

“If there’s something I missed, I’ll see it there. You have to look at it from the customer’s perspective, more than your own.”

Trainer said when the store underwent their 2018 remodel, part of the plan involved actually removing about 300 square feet of space from the showroom. “You’d think you’d want more space,” she said. “Why would you make it smaller? But when people come, they think it’s bigger.” What they really did, she said, was declutter the space. “We simplified things. We used to have doors that blocked things off behind our counters. Now, everything is wide open.” The new showroom layout took Trainer almost a year to plan, she said, including everything from floor plans to concepts to execution and building the displays.

“It involved time, phone calls, meetings and even traveling and getting out the measuring tape.” She added that the initial concept won’t always fit the actual measurement. “Another thing I wanted to do was allocate a separate area for when we’re building a system with a customer, away from where people are trying to pay for what they’re buying,” Trainer added. “If someone is paying for something, and we’re talking to another person about something else, they get distracted and now they’re thinking, ‘Maybe I need what he’s getting,’ and then you have to start the sales process all over.” The new layout is conducive to a smoother sales process, with less distractions.

When planning a remodel, Trainer said it’s important to remember that the process will likely take twice as long as anticipated. “Make sure you allocate the time and consider your customer’s perspective. One of the toughest things we had to do was stay open while we were remodeling and still feel like we weren’t sacrificing our customers’ experience.” During the remodel, she said she planned out week by week which area would be worked on, ensuring everything was safe for visitors. “If we had to, we could present the products in another area—even if it was smaller than normal, it would still be appropriate,” she explained. “That’s hard to do, but it’s important.”

All of KarTele Mobile Electronics’ displays are fully interactive. Hungerford said visitors like to press buttons on the

lighting display, which prompts them to ask questions. When they discover the shop offers headlight upgrades, he said the next thing he knows, the shop is selling a set of HID upgrades when the client initially came in for a remote starter. “It’s nice to be able to show people all the products and services we do without having to run around the store,” he added.

Hungerford said his store’s revenue is up since the remodel. “We incorporated a sound deadening demo into the audio board, which we got from 5 Axis Innovations. Now we can demonstrate the difference between mounting a speaker in a door panel versus doing it properly with the right mounts, sound deadening and proper speaker rings,” he explained. “Our prices may be higher, but the atmosphere our clients experience when they are here is what sells the services.”

Trainer said Car-Tunes, Inc. has made sure everything is fully customizable. She noted that any changes are planned strategically to ensure customers are exposed to options they might not have been aware of previously. Some prebuilt displays, she said, only allowed users to test one item. “We added things so that anything a customer pointed to, we could make that item play using whatever speaker or amp they wanted,” she explained. “We want to make sure that every product a customer sees, they can also experience, hear it and touch it.” Ensuring proper organization in the showroom is important, too. After incorporating motorcycle audio and accessories into the showroom, Trainer noted, “I found out fast that motorcycle owners want everything a particular way,” which meant that the motorcycle category had to be defined and separate from marine and ATV.

All the product add-ons, she said, appeal to everyone—no matter what they came in for—so it’s important to have displays for remote start and security and radar detectors. While a client may not be thinking of these categories when they first come in, “When they see the screen and the statistics on how much it costs if you get a ticket, it helps sell the product.”

In the open floorplan of the Car-Tunes, Inc. showroom, people often walk behind the sales counter. The new design minimized boundaries, making the space feel larger. At first, Trainer said this made her staff uncomfortable because customers were so near to the cash register. However, she added, “I turned everything digital. The registers are on an iPad anyway. When customers walk behind the counter, they seem to feel like they’re part of the team.”

During a MESA Summit, Trainer said a concept was presented which she realized her store was already implementing. “We thought the iPad would help declutter and take less time, but it had another impact.” She explained that some people have a different way of interacting socially, and the iPad or screens on the walls “gives their eyes somewhere to go.” If they don’t like making eye contact, such tools can make them more comfortable, “and they make better decisions and buy more because they feel more at ease.”

Trainer said the most difficult part of the store’s big remodel was encouraging a positive first impression despite the work in-progress. When it comes to a specialty retailer like Car-Tunes, Inc., Trainer noted that customers hold them to a higher standard. “You want to make sure you can still accommodate the customers coming in. Even though we were trying to improve, some customers might be there for the first time, and this is their first impression of us.”

For shops that want to begin a remodel or a refresh of their facility, Trainer recommended decluttering first. Although Car-Tunes keeps a lot of inventory in-stock, the focus is always to be clean and organized. “If you only have a small area of space to work with, don’t overwhelm your customer. Your sales process will take twice as long if they’re getting distracted.” Stay focused, she added, “and target that one, main thing you want to sell first. Then, build from there.”