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One good thing about being on the road is that when you return to what’s familiar, you have a fresh perspective. After a few days away we always see our office in a different light, and we usually make a few positive changes. Time away from our office allows us to see it more clearly through the eyes of our clients: the furniture placement that made sense when we left town now looks unbalanced, and those piles of paper on our desks that we always plan to get to, but somehow never do, just make our office look disorganized and, well, messy. Sometimes you just have to step back and be your own customer.

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it 1,000 times: there is no reality in retailing, only perception—the customers’ perception of your store is the only one that counts. You can have the best product at the best price, fabulous, caring and knowledgeable sales associates, great sales and even better in-store events BUT the second a customer walks in your door and finds you having a bad day, their perception changes. And usually not for the better. We all make an unconscious value judgment about the stores we shop in within the first 10 seconds of contact. It isn’t fair but it happens. That’s why you have to constantly be on guard about how your store looks through your customers’ eyes.

How often do you look at your store through the objective eye of the customer? Notice that we said “objective”. You’re not being objective if you look at a really tired display and think, “Oh, that display is a mess, but I still need to sell more of that product. I can leave it up another day or two.” No, you can’t. Customers will look at that same display and think less of your store. Ideally, you should do an in-depth tour of your store at least once a month, but to keep things in balance, do a 360 Degree Pass-By each morning before you unlock the doors for business. The parking lot is a good place to start.

Survey the Parking Lot: Is the parking lot easily accessible? Are store associates cars parked in the best spaces? Is the parking lot clean and brightly lit?
Size Up the storefront: Does your storefront require paint or repair? Is there clutter to be cleaned up or exterior displays to be reorganized? Have the flowers in your planters seen better days? Can customers easily see your storefront sign? Are all the bulbs in working order? Are your windows clean and free of old signs? Do the window displays need some attention?

Access the Decompression Zone: The Decompression Zone (DZ) is the 5 to 15 feet just inside the front door of the store. Its purpose is to slow down rushed and distracted customers so they can concentrate on shopping. Is your DZ uncluttered, inviting and easy to navigate?

Work Your Speed Bumps: Do your Speed Bump displays—small tables loaded with home décor items or a small, inviting, and completely accessorized, room setting placed just beyond the Decompression Zone—need to be fluffed or re-stocked? Work your Speed Bumps—they sell product. These displays should be changed at least once a week.

Power Wall Ahead: Look Right: 90 percent of shoppers will enter the store and look or turn to the right—that’s where you’ll find your main Power Wall. This is a premium location that is highly visible and heavily shopped; it should be used to merchandise hot product stories, new items, and high demand items. Are your Power Wall displays set to sell? Do they need to be re-stocked or re-merchandised?

Review Your In-store Signage: Does your signage reflect the style and personality of the store? Can customers easily read them? Is there old sale or product signing that needs to be removed? Are there hand-written signs with cutesy references to breakage and unwatched children present that need to go away?

Check Out the Cash Wrap Counter: Is there enough room at the cash wrap for a customer to comfortably complete the transaction? Are there impulse items displayed at the cash wrap to encourage add-on sales? Is there an interesting display behind the cash wrap counter that will keep customers thinking about product? Is your policy and procedure signing customer friendly?

Walk the Aisles: Is there product spilling over into the aisles? Are there dump displays blocking the main aisles? Can customers easily maneuver a stroller, wheel chair, motorized chair down the aisles? Can people comfortably pass one another throughout the store?

Survey Your Merchandise Presentation: Are your displays fresh? Do they encourage customers to stop and look, and entice them to buy? Are there empty spots that need attention or empty shelves of accessories that need to be restocked? Is the product “faced” (brought to the front of the shelf or hook)? Are there bin tickets missing?

If you do a 360 Degree Pass-By each day, you will soon become attuned to things that are out of place or need your immediate attention. Once a month dig deeper with KIZER & BENDER’s No-Fail Perception Exercise: Look at the same things that you review during your daily 360 Degree Pass-By. During this exercise, you will spend more time observing each area.

Don’t fix, move or adjust anything in the store before you do this exercise. You want a clean vision of what the store really looks like on a typical day. Survey your store during regular business hours—not before opening or after closing. You want to do this exercise while customers are in the store shopping.
Dress in the same attire as a typical customer. If it’s cold outside, put on a winter coat. If your customers tend to shop with children, haul a diaper bag with you. You want to recreate the customers experience as closely as possible.

Don’t just put on your coat and walk out the door. Hop in your car and drive down the street. Re-enter your parking lot and drive by your store from all directions so you can see it from different perspectives.

Carry a notepad and make a list of things to do; you can prioritize your list later and make changes as necessary. You might even want to ask a store associate to do the same exercise—you can compare notes later.

Remember that perception becomes reality. If you do not control how your store is perceived, it just might get away from you. Customers will create their own perception of your store and you might not like the one they choose. Your daily diligence will help ensure that customers see your store as you want them to see it. That alone is worth the 10 minutes of time it takes to do a daily walk-thru!

© KIZER & BENDER . ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Rich Kizer and Georganne Bender, Kizer & Bender Speaking! are professional speakers, authors and consultants whose client list reads like a “Who’s Who” in business. Companies internationally depend upon them for timely advice on consumers and the changing retail market place. KIZER & BENDER are well known for their unique and intensive consumer research. Any speaker can talk about customers, but Georganne and Rich actually become them. Contact Kizer and Bender at (630) 513-8020 or www.kizerandbender.com.

As you walk through the doors, you feel it: Cared for. Welcome. A barista smiles from behind a coffee bar and asks if you’d like a handcrafted cappuccino. As the aroma of freshly-ground beans wafts from the counter, a sense of comfort—even empowerment—envelops you. In-store messaging catches your eye, weaving tales that encourage you to dream, play, and choose products that lead to better living. But most of all, you realize you’re having fun—in an appliance store. And that’s when you realize, most emphatically, that you’re not in one—at least not like any you’ve ever seen before. This is a retail dream come true.

Opening in 2009, Fixtures Living started helping Southern Californians’ dreams come true through their unique brand experience. Capitalizing upon the realization that the premium Appliance & Plumbing Industry was truly underserved, Fixtures Living’s four business partners came together to build their dream. The goal was simple: to create joy for their customers.

Drawing upon their own concepts of what the ideal shopping experience should be, the founders created an unsurpassed retail branding experience. Customers go through a process of immersion as they enter the store (see cappuccino experience, above).“This gives our guests the opportunity to decompress, to absorb our environment and to understand why we are relevant,” said Jeffery Sears, one of the four partners. “Then we explain how the store works, and we empower you to self-shop, or to be helped. We give our visitors the ability to command and control. When that happens, they feel joy, and associate it with our brand. That is something we unlocked when we designed the store.”

The first two locations in San Diego and Rancho Mirage took tested theory of customer immersion and empowerment and were highly successful. Last September, they took what they had learned from those locations and created the Costa Mesa store—which is truly an unbelievable experience, taking visitors on a journey of discovery.

“Here, we provide the ability to dream and to play; everywhere water should run, it runs. Everywhere there is a kitchen, there is fire. Ovens turn on, there’s a pizza hearth and live beer taps hidden throughout,” said Sears. “Unlike other stores, we don’t try to sell people a box or an appliance. We don’t ask what they want to buy, but rather, how they want to live. When we do that, the brands in the store come to the customer based upon their desires, or upon their budget.”

Perhaps most extraordinarily, Fixtures Living has transformed a need-based industry into a want-based industry. Often times people will only visit appliance and plumbing stores when they are remodeling or something broke—rarely just to “hang out” there. By creating an experience and allowing customers to explore, Fixtures Living has created an environment that people want to visit—and to linger at, discovering ideas they might never have dreamt of before. Sears added, “They can take a steam shower, they can try out the sauna, they can even traipse around naked inside the seclusion of The Sanctuary and try out all of the shower heads while others are shopping just a few feet away. It makes a difference when you start empowering people to explore. Then they want something. That is the difference in what we have done—we have created a want-based atmosphere for these types of products.”

They have also created an atmosphere for learning. Holding daily classes in their kitchens, Fixtures Living not only showcases their products but their culinary skills. Every day from 11-2 they host complimentary “how-to’s” on everything from knife skills to seasoning hints. A friendly culinary staff shares helpful product knowledge, tips, tricks, and—most importantly—irresistible tastings and even, during select times, lunch. Fixtures Living also offers its business-to-business customers opportunities to utilize the showroom space for after-business-hour parties and social events. “We utilize a tribal theory to market to our B2B side of the business, which is architects, the design community and remodelers. We bring those people in, they utilize our space, and we gift it to them for private events. It’s kind of a fun place to have a party or a sales meeting, and the word-of-mouth begins,” Sears said. Part of the experience is in the stories you read on the walls and in the vignettes. Each vignette evokes an emotional response from the customer. “In these settings, you are reading about moments, not about BTUs or the features of a chrome faucet,” said Sears. “Some stories make you smile, some make you cry. The purpose is to transport customers to a place where they can see themselves in that tub, or in that shower, and to make a meaningful connection.”

Fixtures Living has found a way to infuse its brand in every aspect of the store, from its employees to the writing on the walls. Sears attributes this to being a very creative company that is also highly process-oriented. The four owners each bring a unique background with them, and this creates a rare cross-pollination between process control and creativity. They contemplate every single aspect of the stores they build, which is quite evident in Costa Mesa.

When hiring, each potential candidate goes through a personality profiling process. Once a person has been hired, they are brought in 6-9 months early to train, working in the market or one of their first two stores before working at the Costa Mesa location. “There is nothing better than to spend time with the people who are going to populate our locations. You could argue that with 20-40 stores in the future, it would be difficult, but it won’t be. It’s one of the most important things because you can build a beautiful store, but if you don’t get the last three feet right, you’ve lost it,” said Sears.

Along with investing in its employees, Fixtures Living invests in others. Each staffer is given a $200 account with the website Kiva.org, which allows them to invest and empower small businesses throughout the world. Then, they are encouraged to re-invest these dollars again and again. Not only does it give back to others, it implicitly conveys to new employees the culture of the company.

Fixtures Living has crafted a beautiful showroom, filled with amazing products and a joyful brand, which has created repeat business. “Any time that you care for people, empower them and provide them with an extraordinary environment—one that does not cost them any extra, and assures them of value—you will create loyalty to a brand,” Sears said.

This loyalty has made Fixtures Living successful during a time when most stores are closing their doors. They have plans to bring their concept of joy to new markets by replicating the Costa Mesa plan. With their sights set on two new openings, Fixtures Living will continue to expand their brand by creating joy, by realizing their customers’ dreams.