FINDING SUPER FANS
Trader Joe’s Has Raving Fans— Does Your Business? by Mike Martuza, Consultant, The Franchise Consulting Company What is a Raving Fan? It’s a customer who not only uses your services regularly but also raves about your business to others. Inside the world of Trader Joe’s long time shoppers will give newbies advice as to what products to try while they are in the store and will rave about the products and customer experience while they are out of the store. Trader Joe’s has perfected growing their business by having existing customers become their primary source of advertising. In case you do not have access to a Trader Joe’s and have no idea what I’m talking about, Trader Joe’s is a grocery store – but not your mother’s grocery store. It’s an eclectic, fun and interesting place that turns grocery shopping into kind of cultural experience. They provide their customers with incredible combinations of low-cost staples along with moderately priced exotic items that cannot be found in a common grocery store. At first glance someone unfamiliar with a Trader Joe’s might think, “So what, another specialty grocery store”, but for its customers, Trader Joe’s has achieved the most loyal and fervent following in the industry. If you haven’t been able to tell, I would be the epitome of a Raving Fan. My
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wife claims that if Trader Joe’s was a cult I would be first in line to join as I not only shop there all of the time but I’m also a walking commercial. How does Trader Joe’s create raving fans? How can I take some of their methods and apply them to create raving fans for my business? What I realized was that to create raving fans I needed to create a “superb (or) memorable customer experience” that exceeded what my competitors provide. This proved to be trickier than expected because I quickly realized that my customers were not just the people looking to buy. My customers also included my employees, business partners and members of the business community with whom I interact. My goal is to have anyone who refers my business be certain that I will treat his or her referral the
right way. Walk into any Trader Joe’s and you will find crew members (employees) wearing Hawaiian shirts, handing out balloons and stickers to kids, and providing customers with samples of their products. Since every crew member has been trained to do all tasks in the store, the shopper never waits in a long check out line; I don’t ever recall standing in a line of more than 2 or 3 people. When I can’t find something a crew member will stop whatever he or she is doing and walk me over to the product. Lastly, if I’m unsure about a new product they encourage me to buy it, try it, and return it for a full refund if I don’t like it. Can you think of another grocery store chain that creates this type of experience for its shopper? To create an experience like this for the shopping-