Before he even introduced himself to the local business owners attending a recent retail seminar hosted by the Kosciusko-Attala Partnership, Joe Donovan already knew a great deal about his audience and what ails them.
Donovan, the director of the Entreprenuerial Center of the Mississippi Development Authority, had previously gone undercover to evaluate the local retailers on three different occasions between April and the time of the seminar.
What he had to say was not what the retailers hoped to hear.
“I went in every store and took extensive mental notes on how each store looked, felt, smelled,” he said.
“The average clerk I met was not nice. They were dealing with their friends, the people they knew,” he noted. “Walmart doesn’t kill small towns; you do.”
Donovan said that small retailers cannot compete with the Walmarts of the world because they cannot compete on price.
“You cannot compete on price and not necessarily even on quality,” he told the dozen or so participants. “You need to compete on a different level.”
The business coach said the entire experience for shoppers must be cohesive - and convenient.
“Did the store feel like the merchandise you were selling? Did the place look like the merchandise you were selling? Did the people dress like the merchandise you were selling?” he said he asked himself as he, and sometimes his wife, shopped the local retailers. “Muisc is also very important. It needs to fit what you’re selling and fit your customer. Silence is not golden.”
Donovan recommended that each business owner try to walk into their businesses as if it does not belong to them to see where improvements can be made. “Your opinion (as an owner) really doesn’t matter; your customers’ does,” he said.
One of the biggest challenges he saw with the local businesses was one he said could be easily fixed.
Most of the retailers, he said, are not open when customers are most available.
“If they show up and you’re not open, they might try you one more time and that’s it,” he said. Being open in the evenings and on weekend days is vital, he said.
“I came her at 5:05 one evening and this place was a ghost town - dead. Why? Most of your customers work 9 to 5. You need to be open when your customers are around. Be open Saturdays. You - the owner - should be working Saturdays,” Donovan said.
“Focus on service. They can’t get that at Walmart. Make sure your staff is trained to provide good service,” he added.
Promotion is also important. He recommended retailers garner data on customers, particularly email address, phone number, zip code and facebook page.
Donovan said that information can be used to keep in regular contact with customers because doing so reminds the customer that you are there and ready to serve them.
“You don’t want to reach a lot of people; you want to reach the right people,” he told the group.
When Donovan learned of therecent start of monthly Jiving After 5 business hours downtown, he said it was that kind of availabiltiy and consistency that would help the businesses grow.
“This is such a great little town,” he said in concluding the session. “It has so much potential.”
