News & Events
Mid-America
News
Show
Calendar
State Event Calendars
Regular Features
The
Antique Detective
Antique
Detective Q&A
Common Sense Antiques
Editor's Notebook
Helpful Hints
for Collectors
Is This An Antique?
Reflecting History
Refurnished
Thoughts
Traveling with Ken
Good Eye
Discover
Mid-America
Marketplace
Directories & Classifieds
Auction Block
The
Finder: Unique Shops
Lodgings Directory
Heirloom Recipes
Museum Directory
Aviation Museums
Wineries in the Heartland
Books
for Collectors
Classifieds
Discover Mid-America — April 2006
Hospitality matters for shop survival
Given the current state of civility in our culture, most people will settle for just being left alone and not hassled too much while they're antiquing. But that doesn't mean they won't be delighted when they find a shop that goes that little extra mile on the hospitality front. In the great shop shakeout currently going on in the trade, customer hospitality is one of the factors that will separate the sheep from the goats.
Doing it up right
One of the advantages of writing a column like this, which runs in trade
journals around the country, is that you get to meet some amazing people
by email and to hear how various issues in the trade are handled in regions
of the country other than your own.
One of the most intriguing places I've encountered in this manner is a large group shop in the Midwest called, of all things, Exit 76. (Well, it helps people remember where it is, out there on the interchange between I-65 and US 31, 30 minutes south of Indianapolis in Edinburgh, IN.)
 |
The "Red Vest" team of customer service staff at Exit 76. That's General Manager Nic Nicoson standing at the far right in the back row. Be hard to miss those vests in a crowd! (photo courtesy of Exit 76) |
General Manager Nic Nicoson is assisted by a staff known for its customer service, including four full-timers and 15 part-timers for this 72,000 square foot, one-floor facility; and each is dressed in a bright red vest so as to be distinguishable in all that space. The facility sponsors four customer appreciation weekends a year with special discounts and door prizes. And in partnership with the American Basketball Association, Exit 76 even offers free cell phones to its customers!
But that's just the beginning. Most antique shops have chairs the customers are not supposed to sit in. Few have chairs obviously meant to welcome the tired traveler. My mom — the keeper of the checkbook in her household — has taken to staying in the car when my dad and I stop at a large group shop where she knows there won't be a place for her to sit when her legs give out.
At Exit 76, they don't just have an occasional straight-back wooden chair for the weary customer to rest in. They have an entire customer rest area, complete with large screen TV. And they have a Subway restaurant. Hard to imagine an outfit dedicating all that "spare, wasted" space to customer service when they could be filling it with inventory — unless, like Nic and his staff and mall co-owners Albert Skaggs and Norm Schlemmer, you really "get it" where customer service is concerned and understand that it's at least as important as the inventory.
 |
These guys at Exit 76 aren't kidding when it comes to customer service; here's the spacious customer lounge, complete with widescreen TV and checker boards! (photo courtesy of Exit 76). |
It’s more than the merchandise
If your shop doesn't have a clean restroom conveniently accessible to
customers, you're at a real and practical disadvantage in a competitive
market. Yes, clean restrooms are a hassle to maintain. But the "no
public restroom" alternative is becoming increasingly indefensible
to customers, especially if you hope to attract shoppers from any distance.
Other things affect the comfort level. What's the climate/temperature in your shop, and what can you do to make it more comfortable for shopping? How well insulated is the building? Is your air conditioning well maintained in the summer? If you have a year-round business, what's the place like in winter? Is it too cold? Can the heat be regulated so it's not jacked too high?
Some shops play background music for ambience. Classical music and "easy listening" are probably okay; "Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs" are not. There's a reason they call it background music, you know, and if the music calls too much attention to itself, it's probably irritating at least as many customers as it's amusing.
Don't forget the kids
Can you afford to set up some small corner of your space that's just for
children to browse? It wouldn't even have to be a shopping space per se,
but something more in the nature of a kid's interactive museum. What a
concept!
Instead of getting the bum's rush, as little folks do in most shops — where staff hover over them nervously and admonish them, if the parents don't, not to touch those inviting toys, until everybody gets nervous enough for young families to just leave — here would be a place where kids can browse and learn about kid-related antiques the only way that kids can: by touching them.
And if children know this dedicated space is especially for them, it seems to me they'll be more receptive to the limits placed on their curiosity elsewhere in the store. For a little kid, "Don't touch!" is a lot harder to bear when everything's off limits.
Such a space doesn't have to be a childcare drop-off site while harried parents shop, and probably shouldn't be allowed to be used as such. I can't imagine caring parents not being willing to accompany their kids into such a space and stay with them for a few minutes while the tykes enjoy it. And most parents will be especially grateful for such trade hospitality to their little ones.
We can't all do it the same way
Obviously, we don't all own the buildings that house our businesses, and
that means we may have limited permission to customize our space. We can't
all accommodate an in-shop restaurant or customer lounge. But that's not
the point. There's probably no shop anywhere whose owners couldn't do
something more, however small, to accentuate customer service and hospitality.
After all, even the biggest hospitality gestures have to start with just
a little creativity.
Peggy Whiteneck is a writer and collector living in East Randolph, VT. If you would like to suggest a topic she can address in her column, email her at allwrite@sover.net.
> Good Eye Archive — past columns