24-25_David Robertson.qxp_Grid 06/03/2024 09:50 Page 1
OVER THE
COUNTER
BY DAVID ROBERTSON OF JP POZZI, ELGIN AND BUCKIE.
Accentuate
The Positive Being in business can often come down to one thing and that is being able to turn a negative into a positive. Every day we will be faced with challenges, whether it be a delivery that doesn’t arrive, faulty item, a customer not getting the service that they require or a little staff niggle. These problems, while annoying, are not the end of the world. The key thing is how you deal with them. Sometimes even with the right phrase, you can turn things around. Some big brands really clinch it with their marketing. Think of Guinness and its tagline ‘good things come to those who wait…’ Why do they say this? Well, Guinness is a very slow pour so are tempered with your expectations in all their packaging and advertising. Now I know that us indies are not worldwide brands with advertising budgets of £millions at our disposal, but the words we use in our stores are still effectively marketing. If you are single manned and a customer is waiting, a quick “sorry I am on my own due to staff illness/problem” will make them give you that time that you need to juggle. A simple bit of communication can make all the difference. Giving context can change things right around. This goes for customers as well as those that work alongside you. Communication, contact and the perception of what you are doing and why is all that is needed. In the past few weeks I have had all kinds of instances of this, from redeeming way out of
24 PROGRESSIVE GREETINGS WORLDWIDE
Top: There will always be challenges, but adopting a positive ‘can do’ attitude cuts through a lot. Above: Guinness’ enduring tagline – the wait is justified! Below right: Jellycat remains big news for many retailers who stock the well-loved brand. Below: Hands up who’s feeling positive?!
date gift vouchers, to trying to get a new service for the business up and running, to a serious problem with a car after it had just tipped out of warranty. I decided the best thing to do was to tackle them all head on. I am trying to be more decisive as often a pause allows other things to happen. You look at your
phone, someone calls or you get dragged away. It’s back to my ‘5 second rule’ from a few columns ago – take action and move forward. In our newsagent business, another business in the next town was stopping newspaper deliveries. For two weeks we tried to offer delivery to the 30 of their customers who contacted us, but sadly we couldn’t get the logistics to work. I decided the correct way to communicate that we couldn’t continue was by phoning each one personally. I hesitated doing this due to the time involved, but I believe they all came away with a better impression of our business. Partly what prompted me to think about all of the above was a LinkedIn post targeted at Jellycat after the company was perceived to have been offhand to a prospective new customer at the Spring Fair. Sitting in the hotel in Birmingham on the Tuesday night of the show my phone pinged quite a few times with people sharing and commenting on the post. Jellycat is without doubt a major reason that many small indie card and gift shops have been trading pretty well over the last few years. Indeed, one idea for a column I had was to focus on how we can attract new generations of customers into our store. Well one of the solutions right now, is Jellycat. I witness it first hand, almost on a daily basis, seeing younger people who would’ve perhaps walked past our