Question: How many times have you visited a business for your first time, made a purchase and in a week or so, received a welcome letter or packet from that business?
Answer: Probably not too often!
Perhaps one of the things we do in our store that I value as a customer relationship builder most is sending that new client something to recognize their first visit and purchase at my establishment. I’m not referring to the “Thank You Note” which my customer also gets, but something sent separately.
Many jewelers have the means through their POS systems to send thank you cards, birthday & anniversary announcements, special sale event notifications, etc., but how often are they recognizing and mailing to these new clients to get them into their “Marketing Funnel?” Certainly most of us have a marketing funnel – or at least I hope so. What I mean by this is that you should be sending your customers special offers, notices of events & other things at least six or more times per year. Friends, if you’re not doing at least this much, I’m afraid you’re being left behind in the race!
Angie, my lovely wife, loves to shop at a clothing store called “Chico’s,” and from the get go I noticed something different about this company. When she made her first purchase, she got a welcome letter along with a special offer from the management at Chico’s. Did she use it? You bet she did – and many other offers that they’ve sent her since that time. Geez honey, could you slow down on my pocketbook just a bit? Chico’s even leaves her messages on our answering machines saying something like, “Hi Angie, we just wanted to thank you for being a new client. Because you’ve made your first purchase at Chico’s, you now qualify for a special offer of xxxxx.”
If a large clothing company like Chico’s can take the time to do something like this for their new clients, don’t you think you and I can do it in our jewelry stores? This testifies to the power of marketing to your new clients.
You’ll be amazed at the results you’ll get when you start developing marketing & offers to this new group of clients. I know I was!! Some jewelers have asked how I go about doing this, so here is my formula:
- Every Monday morning using my Edge POS system, I pull a report showing names and addresses and phone numbers of every new client who purchased from us the week before.
- Each of these new clients will be sent a special offer that I devise whether that be a gift certificate, simple letter telling them about our services and lines offered or a combination of each.
- Personally, I put an expiration date on each a month out so that the customer has time to use it and not feel overly rushed back in.
Please take the time to track the return of these customers to your store as well so you’ll know how effective your marketing has been. Let me also say this, you can be as simple or as fancy as you’d like with this. I’ve seen jewelers use simple gift certificates they’ve printed from their own computer using Microsoft Word or Publisher and I’ve seen fancy colored brochures and guess what… I’ve seen both be very effective at getting the customer in for a repeat sale!
If you’d like to see what I’m currently using to drive new customers back in my store, I’d be willing to share it with you. Simply drop me an e-mail requesting my new customer brochure at: goldman86@bellsouth.net and I’ll e-mail a PDF file for you to see and get some ideas for starting your very own “New Customer Welcome Pack”. Trust me… this works and you’ll reap huge dividends from it!
Now, my prescription for you is, don’t let this idea sit around for long. Do it today because your store’s profit line will thank you tomorrow!
Bill Warren is president of The Gold Mine Fine Jewelry & Gifts, Inc., a successful jewelry store in the Hudson, NC. He recently formed Warren Marketing Systems, a company dedicated to helping small to medium size jewelers achieve success through innovative marketing. He regularly speaks at jewelry shows and conventions and also is a member of the Marketing Wizards Alliance. If you would like to receive more money making ideas like those in this article, consider subscribing to the Marketing Wizards Alliance Newsletter. To do so or to contact Bill, call 828-729-1020 or e-mail goldman86@bellsouth.net.
