Hello, Quick question on store layout for a small showroom.
We have a staff desk or 'fort' as I've heard it called on this website, positioned next to the entrance of the showroom. We normally have 2/3 staff at this desk and greet customers when they come in, then if they don't need any help let them wander the showroom for a while until we speak to them again. I get the feeling that most customers don't want to hang around and look at the products positioned around and in front of the desk area. I've been to a bathroom store which had a similar setup and felt that I was constantly being watched by staff at their desk, which did make me a little uncomfortable.
Does any one have a view on this or could you share what sort of layout you have in your own stores?
Thanks
Tom
Posted By
Tom S,
9/15/2010
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Replies
From Ray-Lee M.,
9/21/2010
11:01 AM
Yes, the front desk is imposing especially if I do not have time to transition and collect my thoughts. I do however as a shopper like to be greeted within the first 3 minutes of entering the store or I am likely to believe that my customer service experience with the store will be unresponsive. I abhor sales staff who stalks and lurks behind furniture waiting to ponce if I stand beside a piece for more that 15 seconds.( many stores have their staff shadow customers. It's creepy!).
I don't mind greeted like this "Hi, welcome to (whatever is the store's name). My name ----, I will be assisting you today, I will give you some time to look around and check back to answer any questions you may have"
This way I know I will be working with ---- who will give me a few minutes to transition and look around on my own and is available to answer questions and won't walk from the other side a cabinet and creep me out! I also don't mind getting tidbits of information from sales however letting me know that the sales end in 2 days is way too much pressure and it's a turnoff since they are usually signs posted all over the place eluding to this fact.
From Joe Capillo,
9/16/2010
5:59 PM
Amen to everything Margo wrote. This has been one of my core issues for decades, and she is right on about the difference in what I call The New Retail Reality.
So, I'm no longer a lone voice crying in the wilderness "Make straight the way of the customer." If retailers dont wake up the drain of customers to the internet, where their shopping experience can be pretty much whatever they want it to be, and learn how to enhance and enrich customers' experiences in the stores, things are going to get a lot worse for all the bricks and mortar people left standing.
This business is about customers and their homes and rooms. As long as retailers make it about us and our stuff, and what we want to tell our customers, not much will change. The biggest blockade to change is that sometimes this crazy stuff works. Just enough times to keep store owners, managers, and salespeople doing it, and when you do the wrong things more forcefully, well, not many good things happen. Nothing fails like success.
Somewhere around 70% to 80% of all customer visits to furniture stores don't result in a sale. Our business is made up of thousands of details and options, many of which are not knowable to consumers, and when you shut down communications at the door, it's no surprise why this dismal conversion rate continues over decades.
You can read all about this in my book "Living on the Top Line" at www.amazon.com/joecapillo.
From Margo,
9/16/2010
10:30 AM
Thanks for the post Tom. I want to respond so that all of us as sales professionals can see take a good look at the validity of this “desk idea”.
I am going to respond to this not as a business consultant but as a customer who buys furniture (OK, as a business coach, too).
There is a furniture showroom in the town where I live that has a similar set up. You walk in the door, and BOOM! There they are! At least one, and usually two or three sales consultants, "working" at the desk (or near it). The desk is right in the large entryway, facing those who enter, although as you enter the desk is off to the left a bit. The INSTANT you come in, you’re done! You do not even have a few seconds to TRANSITION to a new environment (which is psychologically VERY important).
Immediately you are hit with the "can I help you" routine. MOST people respond by saying they would just like to look around—that's also what I say (this is a clue). The staff and consultants are very nice, and if you say you are just browsing, they let you know they are there if you need them, but of course they come by very often as you are looking, and they try to "SELL" you “service” by asking typical and boring questions, which really means they are trying to “SELL” you something (anything, please). If you are truly there just to get an idea (pre-shopping—another clue) and to consider the POSSIBILITY of buying new furniture—to first consider the fantasy, which is how most people shop— then you feel totally uncomfortable the entire time you are there. You can’t try on the fantasy because you just can “feel” there is someone on the sidelines peering at you like a sales-peeping Tom (sorry Tom, not you)! You can feel them waiting to pounce (pounce in a nice way of course). All because the mood was set by that bigger-than-life desk at the front door.
My own PERSONAL opinion as a shopper is that this is a HUGE turnoff. I feel bombarded, like I am sales meat, even if the store associates are polite. With this approach, from the very start, my mind is no longer fully on what I want or need. Instead I am thinking, "When is she going to come back over and start questioning (or pressuring) me” and it takes so much away from the experience. I may not be there to buy (just yet) but to consider the possibilities—the fantasy. I really just need a friend to help consider this with me (another clue). Instead of focusing on the fantasy of buying new furniture, I am thinking “I’d better get out of here if I am not serious about buying today because these sales people won’t like that” (PLEASE read that last sentence again, it is another big clue).
Of course sales consultants need to greet and interact, but in today's world where SPAM is the big well-known cuss word and INTERRUPTION selling is it's big-bad cousin, people see the hard sell (even though you think you are making it soft) as spam and an interruption. They resist it with everything in their being.
It is so much more important to use your showroom as a place for "friends" to come and feel super comfortable looking around, where they know that you are totally with them in their experience, and very close by if they need you. Friendship has to first be established (clue). The desk at the door sets the stage for pressure and distraction in the minds of the customers. It causes them to feel not like an important person with a need or desire, but like a piece of sales meat.
As sales consultants we need to make a friend, and friends don’t pounce and pressure. We need to help people visualize their own fantasy about a new way of living with gorgeous new furnishings—the fantasy that may soon become a reality through our help (this is your final big clue).
Of course there is a sales process, but I can tell you right now it is NOT the sales process of yesterday, when products were new and novel and people were not totally bombarded on all sides with advertising and sales pitches. People today have LEARNED to think differently about sales, advertising, and their own power of choice. THEY are in control of the shopping experience now, whether we like that fact or not, and business owners and sales consultants have to “get” that and sell differently, being a facilitator and letting the customer lead since they know what they want (and if they don’t, we can help them find out). A good sales person does not have to jump on anyone at the door in FEAR of not getting that sale. If you truly care about people and are sincere in wanting to help them FIRST and foremost and get the sale second, your sales process will reflect that (your final big clue)!