by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
Did you know you’ll spend five times more money attracting a new customer than you would satisfying an existing one? It’s not rocket science to figure out customer retention is far more cost-effective than customer acquisition. It only makes sense, or should I say cents to focus on creating more sales with current customers, rather than keep trying to continually search for new customers.
Increasing sales with your current customers is all about creating relationships. Creating good customer relationships is the most important duty that we have as business owners and this is something that does not cost a lot of money. Many times, it is the little unexpected things that we do that mean the most and keeps a customer coming back to our business over and over!
Here are some simple ways of creating more sales with current customers.
- Offer Exceptional Customer Service
- Offer More Low Cost-High Profit Services To Your Existing Customers
- Build A Relationship With Existing And Former Customers
- Offer More Than One Price Level Of Products
- Create A Good Web Presence with Social Media
Offer Exceptional Customer Service
Offering exceptional customer service to all of your embroidery customers is extremely important in today's competitive market place! Offering better service, or a bit more service than your competitor can make all the difference in the world.
Here are 7 Tips that if followed by your entire organization, will change your business and give it a whole new life!
- Start Out Each Day With A Positive Attitude!
- Always Wear A Smile!
- Have A Clean And Well Organized Environment!
- You Must Be Willing To Work With Your Customer-Give Them A Reason Why They Need To Come Back!
- Always Return Phone Calls And Always Respond To Emails!
- Take Accurate Notes
- Never Show Anger With A Customer!
Offering Exceptional Customer Service is not hard! If you give all of your customers more than they expect and you will be greatly rewarded.
Offer More Low Cost-High Profit Services To Your Existing Customers
Acquiring new customers can be very costly. It costs more money to acquire a new customer than to offer more services to your existing customers. Along with your embroidery, you can offer your customers many other complimentary services. Many of these services can create a low cost/high-profit income center for you. Here are 5 low cost/high-profit services that you can offer to your customers almost immediately.
- Bagging or Packaging Garments
- Sewing Services
- Banners
- Heat Press Transfers
- Promotional Products
When you can create a one-stop shop for your customers with many products and services, they are inclined to be more loyal and think of you first with all of their promotional and gift giving needs!
Build A Relationship With Existing And Former Customers
The best way to start building good customer relationships is to connect with each one of your current and lost customers. Start out by making 3 lists.
- Current High-Volume Customers
- Current Lower Volume But, Repeat Customers
- Former or Lost Customers
Create some scripts that will make it easier for you to talk to people. I have found that by having the scripts in front of me, it just made it easier as you are talking to them and you do not forget anything. You can also print out a script for each customer and fill in the blank as you are talking to them. Keeping notes makes it a lot easier to recall what they said for futures reference.
After you finish talking to each customer, fill out a thank you note, thanking them for taking the time to talk to you and insert the business cards. Make sure that you tell them to sign the back of the business cards before they hand them out. This handwritten Thank You note will go a long way in helping to build your new customer relationship with that customer and it will be something that they will not forget!
Getting your customers opinions and feedback is extremely valuable to your business and makes it a lot easier to plan your strategies as to how to work with them and provide them with the type of services and products that they will be anxious to purchase from you. They really do appreciate you asking them what they need. This can be the beginning of a long working relationship with each one of your customers.
Offer More Than One Price Level Of Products
Another way to increase customer sales dramatically with your existing customers is to offer them an alternative. Many times they do not need to have the best quality shirt for their promotion. Maybe they will be just as happy with a lower priced shirt.
I found that by giving my customers three choices in the quality of products I could increase my sales and create a happy customer at the same time.
I would not compromise on the quality of my embroidery, but maybe they would settle for a Stock embroidery font rather than the digitized lettering in a logo. This could make a significant difference in the price of their one time set up. It would not change the running time of the design but between the price of a lower quality shirt or cap and the lower price of the initial set up, you could save the customer many dollars on the total order.
I always gave my customer three quality choices.
- A-Lesser Quality – Low-level price
- B-Average Quality- Mid-level price
- C- High Quality – High-level price
I followed this formula for all of my sales. I always asked the customer what type of budget we were working with before I ever showed him or her any garments. I had them show me the logo and then I would go over what could be done and what I could do for him to meet his budget. At that point, I would show the customer the products in the price level that would fit within the given budget. You gain their confidence immediately when you show them that you are willing to work with them to meet their particular budget. This method will work 99% of the time to increase your sales.
If a customer came in with a certain product in mind, that meant that he had been shopping elsewhere and was looking for a lower price. I was always up front with them and told them that if they were here shopping for a lower price that I probably would not be able to help them, but I would show him what I had and go through the exact same process. Sometimes what I had was better quality than that was already offered. Most of the time, they would go with my suggestions and work with us instead of continuing to shop around.
Create A Web Presence with Social Media
Creating a web presence is a major part of any embroidery business. This is just as important to a local embroiderer as it is to one that is trying to reach the market globally. Before you can begin to reach a worldwide market, you must first reach out to your local market and the best and most cost-effective way to do this is through your own web presence.
Everyone in business needs to create a web presence. The best way to accomplish this is to start with Social Media. There are several Social Media platforms that work great for your particular market, but Facebook is the first one to get started with. This will help to get you out in front of your audience and let people know what you have to offer.
- Facebook
- LinkedIn
- Twitter
- Pinterest
- Instagram
These are the most popular, but as I said, start with Facebook. If your audience is primarily professional people such as doctors, lawyers, business owners, then you will want to be on LinkedIn. In today’s world, every business needs a Facebook Page. This is the first place that people go to start searching for you.
Focusing on creating more sales with current customers is far more productive than constantly marketing to new prospects. Yes, you need to always be marketing for new prospects, but that should not be your focus.
Many times, we have a gold mine right in front of us and don't even realize it. Our customers are our gold mine and without them, we do not exist!
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
Here is a link to an article about a new idea for embroidery on a cap back. This is a project that I created for “Wearables Magazine”. They requested a new idea and I had been working with one of my private clients, Linda Gadwood from “LogoLinda.com” that had a customer request this very idea. I helped her create the quality embroidery for a cap back and her customer was thrilled. I decided that this might be a great idea to share with other embroiderers. This was featured in the Decorating Solutions section of the April-May 2019 issue of “Wearables Magazine.” Embroidery on a Cap back
I have a step by step PDF copy of the article called “Back-Words Cap” for you to download and keep for a new idea for you to use for your customers or clients. This was very easy to do and a fun project!
The cap that I used for this project was a New Era Cap #1020 Stretch Mesh cap that I purchased from Sanmar.com.It was a structured cap of 100% cotton in front two panels, 100% polyester Spacer Mesh in mid and back panels. It was a mid profile with a stretch fit back.
The biggest challenge was to make sure that the embroidery was totally centered on the back seam. I placed my start point in the center seam on the outer edge of the first word, NEW. I tried using a regular hoop for this, but it was much easier to use the Slimline HoopTech Clamp with a 2.5 x 4-inch window. It made the project very easy to do.
Try this, have some fun with it. You can start the embroidery at the top or even at the bottom with the embroidery reading up the back instead of down the back. This type of embroidery on a cap back is different and fun!
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
Are you Branding yourself a specialist in a specific market? It is hard for any small embroidery shop to grow or even survive unless you are marketing to a Niche or a Specific Market. Let me ask you some questions that may help you to think about your current situation:
- Do you sometimes feel trapped in your Embroidery business?
- Are you an embroidery business owner with a struggling small shop?
- Do you have issues trying to make enough money to pay all of the bills at the end of the month?
- Do you have employees that get paid and you still do not have enough left over to take a paycheck for yourself?
I understand just exactly what you are going through. That scenario described me perfectly for many years as I continued to struggle. It just did not matter how much work came into the shop, I still was not making enough money to make ends meet.
The main problem was that I was going after the wrong market! I was doing contract embroidery for sporting goods stores and promotional products dealers. I was continually growing in this market, but my prices were not high enough for me to make a living doing contract work. I was told that I could not market to retail customers because I would be stepping on the dealers‚’ toes, so to speak, so I stayed inside of my shop and just kept working. I thought that if I had enough volume this would work, but it truly did not. Doing contract work alone can work for large shops with many embroidery heads, but for small embroidery shops you need retail to balance out the mix. Are you branding yourself a specialist in the right market?
Afraid To Raise My Prices
My embroidery shop was well known for high quality work and good customer service, but like other embroiderers, I was afraid to raise my prices. I just knew if I did that I would lose the work! I felt so trapped and I really did not know what to do.
My accountant said to either raise my prices or go out of business. This was very difficult for me to do. I loved what I did and I knew that I was good at it but he was right! It was ridiculous to continue in this manner and be the only one in the shop not getting a pay check!
With the help of my accountant I created a new pricing structure and raised my prices. Did I lose customers? Yes, I did, but it was customers that were with us only for our low prices. I did not lose the customers that were with us for out high quality embroidery.
Created A Plan To Sell Retail
Even though I was told that I could not sell to the retail market, I created a plan to start selling my products and services to retail customers. I decided to go after a market that we were not servicing through our sporting goods stores or the promotional products dealers. I opened up a small retail location and increased my selection of gift items. I had been selling gift items with monograms but it was small single items, not any type of volume.
Are You Branding Yourself a Specialist In A Niche Market?
My Son-in-law was a police officer so I had the state police logo digitized and embroidered some sample items that he thought would sell. He took these items to some of his meetings and conferences and I started receiving orders from the other police officers. Soon the word spread and I started selling Police Corporate Wear to all of the other Police agencies in our area and throughout our state. I visited the other agencies and arranged meetings to find out exactly what types of items they would like to have available to them to purchase at retail.
I started carrying a small selection of embroidered items in my retail shop for the local police agencies to come in and purchase on the spot. This included caps, t-shirts, golf shirts and casual jackets. I required a Police ID card for the sale of this merchandise and I created ID cards for the police officers to give to their wives, parents and husbands. This worked out very well and helped to bring in profits and it also brought in a lot more sales for monogramed gift items.
I had finally found my niche; a market that was not being serviced that clearly needed servicing! Are you branding yourself a specialist?
How Do You Find A Niche Market?
The answer is, you do not find a niche market, you create or carve out a niche market! It is hard to survive in today‚’s marketplace competing for the same business that every other embroiderer is competing for. You must find an area of the market that you can specialize in; one that other embroiderers have overlooked or aren‚’t willing to service. In this way, you can brand yourself as the specialist for that specific market.
You can quickly become the leader in your chosen market and will have less competition if you market to a specific niche rather than trying to compete with the masses, so, are you branding yourself a specialist in a specific market?
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Management
Working with customers is different today than it was just a few short years and even months ago and you must offer exceptional customer service in your embroidery business to stay in the game. In today‚’s world, customers expect to have a great customer experience with you and are much more demanding than they used to be. With the internet at their fingertips, there is so much available to them and they have many more choices today than they did in the past. It is to our benefit as embroiderers to offer our customers exceptional customer service and the best buying experience that we can possibly give them.
In this competitive market place you must you must offer better customer service or at least more customer service than your competitors if you want to stay in business. Unfortunately, this is a concept that is so hard to understand for so many embroidery business owners. Many embroidery business owners think that they need to offer the lowest price not the best customer service to stay in the marketplace. This is a total falsehood and I wish that I could abolish it!
Offering exceptional customer service can be the one area that can make all the difference and make you stand out from the competition. Not all customers today are shopping for the lowest price. They want to be treated with respect, and be shown that you really have their best interest at heart!
Here are 7 ways to help raise your level of customer service, and if followed by your entire organization, will change your business and give it a whole new life!
- Start Out Each Day With A Positive Attitude!
There is no better way to create an atmosphere of Exceptional Customer Service than to be very upbeat and positive. When you have a great attitude it is reflected in everything that you do, from waiting on a customer or getting employees started in the morning, to finishing up the day with your family. Everyone around you benefits from your attitude.
- Always Wear A Smile!
Treating your customers with dignity and respect and always wearing a smile is the most important principal in creating exceptional customer service. This policy applies to direct contact in person, as well as on the phone. People can tell how you feel and know if you are wearing a smile.All of your customers should be treated as if they are the most important customer you have; it does not matter if they are a large account or a small one. Small accounts very often grow into large accounts.You want your customers to feel that you are a partner in their business success, and as a result, you will receive more orders from these same customers.
- Have A Clean And Well Organized Environment!
Invite your clients or customers into a clean well organized environment when they visit your showroom or office. This goes a long way in making that first impression.Have your samples clean, well-organized, in top quality condition, and available for quick viewing as you are giving your presentation.Make sure that all of your samples are labeled with the information that is pertinent to that sample. Having a system in place makes your presentations more effective and creates a feeling of trust with your customer.
- You Must Be Willing To Work With Your Customer-Give Them A Reason Why They Need To Come Back!
In the marketplace today, you need to be available and be willing to work with your customers in whatever capacity they are requesting. Today, the customers are demanding more and more from their suppliers in the way of services. If you do not meet their demands or wishes, someone else will. If this is not possible for you to accomplish, given your situation, you must let them know up front immediately.Sometimes their requests seem to be unreasonable, especially delivery dates, but you must deliver on time or ahead of schedule of the agreed date, in order to keep them happy and coming back for more. Customers become very unhappy and untrusting when they have to wait past the due date for goods they were promised.
- Always Return Phone Calls And Always Respond To Emails!
When a customer or potential customer calls and has to leave a message, make sure that you get back to them in a timely manner. If you do not return their phone call, they will feel that you do not want their business. All present and future customers need to be made to feel important!
This same principle applies to emails. If a person takes his time to email you, you must be courteous enough to take your time and reply to that email. They do not care how busy you are; their time is as valuable to them as yours is to you! This type of customer service is expected!
- Take Accurate Notes!
Take accurate notes when you are working with a customer in person, over the phone, or my email. Customers very often want to make a change in their order and this must be taken care of immediately, as to not hold up their order.You should have a system in place for this type of procedure, with forms to use to take the notes or make changes. Make sure that the notes get connected to the customer‚’s order. This is also true with email. If the customer sends you an email letting you know that he is requesting some changes in his order, print it out and attach it to the original order. Then you want to bring it to someone‚’s attention so that it is not missed.
- Never Show Anger With A Customer!
If a problem or mistake has occurred by either you or the customer, never show anger towards that customer, even if they show anger towards you. It does not matter if they are right or wrong; you must hold your head up high, keep your composure, and talk to them in a manner that will diffuse their anger.Being angry does no one justice, and in business it is one of the best ways to create bad relations. I have found many times by offering the customer a bit more or giving the customer a slight discount that they were much happier, and I was able to smooth over a bad situationand build a better relationship with the customer at the end of the problem. They must be treated with dignity at all times.
Offering Exceptional Customer Service is not hard and is expected at all times! If you give all of your customers more than they expect and you will be greatly rewarded.
by The Embroidery Coach | | Embroidery Business Marketing
Do you find that meeting your customer deadlines can be a real issue for you and your business? This seems to be a universal problem, especially with the small embroidery shops. I have many Clients that come to me because they want to learn how to run their embroidery business smoothly and be able to get the jobs completed on time or ahead of schedule.
They are missing their deadlines and their customers are very unhappy with them. But they don’t want to have to work 7 days a week to make it happen. Even though they have a scheduling system in place, they still are not getting the work done on time and they are losing customers as a result. And they tell me it makes them very frustrated and fear that they will lose more customers.
And if that sounds familiar to you, you’re not alone. How can you not feel frustrated and scared when you do everything that you know how to stay organized and keep the work on schedule and you still can’t seem to get the work out on time.
Here’s what I tell people…If you are not able to meet your customer deadlines and you are losing customers…the one thing that works is to stop and re-evaluate exactly how you are scheduling your work.
- Are you sure you have the right system that is going to help you schedule your work correctly?
- Are you spending too much time on each process?
- Do you have your processes timed out so that you know exactly how much time it is going to take you to do each process? Without this, it is very hard to schedule properly.
If you are using a scheduling system that does not take all of this into consideration, then you are using the wrong type of system. I have found that there are many management systems with scheduling systems build in that are being used in the decorating apparel industry today that tell you your job will take x amount of time, based on your stitch count and your machine speed.
This is sort of true, but does it take into consideration, your thread breaks, thread color changes, trims and even the time that it takes to load and unload the machine? If this is not part of it, then you definitely have the wrong type of scheduling system.
It reminds me of how I used to work so hard and struggle with trying to get my work out on time and I worked night and day trying to get it all done.
After feeling very frustrated and ready to quit, I finally got help from my accountant. He helped me get organized and create a great scheduling system that truly worked. Between my new organization, my new scheduling system and a great pricing system that he helped me create, I was able to start running my business more easily and creating a profit. My business grew and prospered as a result. I was for the first time, meeting my customer deadlines or was ahead of schedule almost all of the time and my customers were very happy.
Here’s the deal… Meeting your customer deadlines is a must in this business and if you want to make it easier to get your jobs out on time, schedule your jobs, not necessarily by due dates alone, but by like kinds, thread colors, and garment types. Maybe you even need to give a little more lead time. Are you trying to give an unrealistic turnaround time like next day or 2 to 3 days?
I know that many companies today are trying to give a next day turnaround time thinking that they are going to be able to grab a segment of the market that needs it in a hurry, and this will be their niche. This can be true, but realistically, you are just training your customers to wait until the last minute to place their orders. Not a good technique!
To start creating a system for scheduling correctly, you need to follow these steps.
- Start by timing all of your processes – From the time you talk to a customer to the total completion of the order.
- Taking the order
- Ordering the product from the distributor
- Receiving the goods from the distributor- Checking to make sure the Packing Slip matches the Order Form
- Planning out how the job will be done – Which hoops-Thread-Backings, etc
- Loading the design into the machine – How many color changes, how many trim, how many stitches
- Hooping the garments – hoop several different types and come up with an average time that you can plan on
- Loading the garments into the machine
- Running the Design
- Unloading and unhooping the garments
- Removing the backing, trimming the threads, steaming the garments, folding them
- Packing for shipping or pickup
- Creating an invoice
I did not include design creation or the time to get the design ready to go to the digitizer, that is another whole process. That is not part of the production process to be timed. That is part of Design Creation process that also needs to be timed.
Another item to take into consideration is to schedule Left chest sized designs, thread colors and knit shirts all on the same day. You will save time if you do not have to change hooping systems or thread colors between jobs.
Another great tip that will save you time, is to put ball point needles on the first half of the machine and sharp needles on the remainder of the needle bars on the last half of the machine. You always have the right needles in the machine no matter what type of fabrics you are going to embroider. Remember, ballpoint needles for knits and sharp needles for woven fabrics and caps. If you have a 15 needle machine and you also embroider tiny letters in corporate logos, then you will need one needle dedicated to using a 65/9 needle and 60 weight thread. This is another huge time saver in scheduling.
If you want to know more about how to save time and create the right systems to help you get organized, meet your customer’s deadline and run your business with less frustration, go to… ProfessionalEmbroideryTraining.com. Fill out the form and I will send you my Production Timing Checklist. Becoming a professionally trained embroiderer is going to help you create the right systems to grow your business efficiently!
Get this simple Production Timing Checklist today that will help you get started scheduling your work so that you can be meeting your customer deadlines and make those customers very happy!
