Just A Slice Ep. 1: In-store Experience
Jesse and Seth sit down and talk in-store experience on our first episode of Just A Slice, where we have honest and open talks about marketing. Transcript below.
Jesse: Okay. So I guess I'll start just by kind of queuing up what we're doing. We both watch a lot of marketing stuff and I think think a lot of it is very polished and kind of set up to digest really quickly. We are trying to create a platform where we can have more candid conversations about marketing and kind of talk about our experiences without it being so polished, because marketing is a lot of different things. It's not always cut and dry.
Seth: Yeah, I didn't know that was what we're doing here, but that's exactly what we're doing.
Jesse: So I kind of wanted to talk about In-store customer experience, and I've been thinking a lot about how marketing seems like it's often left to the higher ups. Like, you think of marketing, you think of SEO and ad placements and social media, but what people aren't talking about enough, I think, is like in store experience. And I know you have some history in retail, and I was just kind of wondering what your background was in terms of the In-store experience, if you could tell me a little bit about that.
Seth: Yeah, so I worked at a great shoe store and probably the best shoe store in Alaska, skinny Raven Sports top 50 Running Stores in America several years in a row. Worked there as a buyer, marketing manager and sales manager for over ten years. So a lot of my experience came from working there, being in front of people, selling them shoes. In all honesty, it was the best experience I could have ever asked for in terms of learning how to sell. And why do you think do you agree with me that it feels like sometimes there's a disconnect between what's happening, like, behind closed doors and what's actually happening on the sales floor? Yeah, so I think you're right. There's an entanglement of marketing and sales, and I think it's in store or in person, like, marketing is really what sales is. It's like the business wants to convey a message. In Skinny Raven's case, it was all about the customer experience, creating an experience that not only made people walk out with a pair of shoes, but made them feel really good about that pair of shoes and made them feel like it was going to help them accomplish their goal. And so when I think about what I was doing at Skinny Raven in terms of the purveyor of that message and what the higher ups, if you will, want us to be, it was really just when it came down to it, it was being a real person, being kind and caring, but also being an expert in the realm of the product we were selling or marketing. So that was really one of the things that we focused on. In addition to that, we created a process for salespeople that allowed us to make sure that there was a consistent step by step process that we went through to create a consistent customer experience.
Jesse: Going back to what you said about a real personal experience, I think what sometimes we miss is we can post on social media, we can send emails, but it's not like that person to person experience and that changes everything.
Seth: It absolutely does. I think the touch points in physical form is the most powerful. That's where people really feel that relationship. They can feel that caring, they can feel that and know that you're the expert. Many times people look so once they feel like you're the person that has the knowledge that they're seeking, they don't really need you to sell them on anything. They just want to talk about their life and about their goals. A lot of times in Skinny Raven's case, it was all about what they were trying to accomplish on the fitness, athletic, running side. So it was just great to be able to listen to their stories, ask them questions, and develop that relationship. We always said, like, the opportunity to meet with somebody in person is always an opportunity to make a customer for life. So if you're an agency, which we are, how do you recommend that you kind of work your way from talking to your contact at a business? How do you make sure that the people on the floor are getting that same sort of material? Yeah, I think that is one of the most difficult things about especially bigger businesses have trouble with that. But in the end, it's about training. There's a big emphasis on training with businesses such as Starbucks and Apple has a huge training process. At the Skinny Raven level, I think we're at about 30 employees. Much of what we did was what we called ten minute clinics, where we would, as managers, we would go around to staff and teach them about something or help them, educate them about a certain process that we were implementing into the sales process. A lot of just like quick educational anytime vendors would come in, manufacturers would come in, we would ask them to sit down with our staff. So using those opportunities that are there to educate, educate, educate all the time was really a big key to that. But I realized when you get bigger, you got to automate that to some extent.
Jesse: I think also just going back to the personal connection piece, just making sure that your floor people feel appreciated, that they feel seen for what they're doing, that they're not any less of the process than the person in an office.
Seth: Exactly. They're the ones like boots on the ground meeting the customers. Yeah, that's huge. Exactly. And again, in Skinny Raven's case, the employees are all passionate runners, which helps a lot. So the people, the customers are also passionate runners. So that's an easy match. It's a little harder for businesses that maybe Apple guys really techy. Usually the Starbucks person loves coffee. There's those lines you have to draw in order to kind of create that relationship and that authentic sort of feel when people have those interactions. It's like if you don't actually feel a certain way about something, then you can't fake it. People know that and you're just there kind of doing your job. But if you're passionate about something that you're selling, it's so much easier to talk to people about and sell somebody on something. I keep doing the Gary quotes, sell someone on it.
Jesse: Okay, so looking forward, there's obviously a lot of talk about the metaverse and Web3 being this whole virtual experience, but I personally believe that there's going to be some sort of bounce back of people really wanting the in person experience. And I think what the Pandemic taught us is that we do like being around each other in a lot of ways. And I was just curious, in your opinion, do you think there's going to be sort of a shift in coming back into either brick and mortar or just having like a more holistic human person to person experience?
Seth: My short answer is I hope so. But I know that I crave those high quality experiences and unfortunately, the more and more I do get around and shop, the more and more I see. I don't see it. I'm not seeing it when I go into local shops. Certainly the mall is not the place where people are getting it because people are walking from malls like crazy. But you'll still find, like, I know Skinny Raven has seen an uptick in their foot traffic, their sales. They're also getting more on the digital side as well as that comes about. Maybe the in person future is the Meta. Unfortunately. I hate to say that, but maybe that is where, like, oh, I got my avatar and we're all just talking in a room about shoes and then I end up buying that from you. But really I'm just at home with a VR set on. God, that'd be depressing. I'm going to be honest with you, that does not inspire me at all. I crave those authentic conversations where you go into a place, you don't know what it's going to be like and then you come out saying like, man, that was a great experience. And then I also have something about the product that's going to help me accomplish something or get a look I want or whatever it is that people are looking for. I really do love that. Yeah, I think that's important. I think it's important for us on the marketing side to explore what else comes with that in store experience. Back to your question. I think to convey the message from your management. Marketing people who are creating the processes. I think you can develop those streams of communication. Whether it's through Slack or through email. Where you're informing your staff on promotions. On things that you're promoting. Because I see it a lot of times with businesses promoting things on the social media side that they're not really talking about in store as much and then become sort of like a disconnect from what the employees are talking about versus what the digital side is talking about. So I think there's an important tie there to where you're missing the boat if you're not putting those two things together and having those converge.
Jesse: And the digital side can always move faster than the in person training, so you have to be very careful that you're not moving one without the other. The other thing I wanted to add was I think it's important to touch on employer retention. I think one of the best ways you can keep your employees informed is just to keep them on your team for a long time. The longer they're there, the more they're learning, the more they're engaged, committed. And so, again, it kind of goes back to making sure you're paying them well and treating them well.
Seth: I think great people are the key to any successful business. I don't think there's any exceptions to that. I think great people are the key. Usually great people love, aside from the pay, they love to learn new things. They love to get the education. They love the attention and the authentic conversation like we were talking about before. They love the same things that we love. So giving them those things outside of pay and benefits, I think can help retain your employee base. And then as they're retained, they're obviously learning and gaining a base of knowledge that's far beyond a new employee that could ever imagine. And yeah, the employee retention is a huge hot topic right now. They think a lot of employers could probably use a little bit of a lesson or some help with for sure.
Jesse: Definitely. I think that's all I have. I was just going to say if anyone has any thoughts on what we've discussed and want to share their in store experiences or running a sales team…
Seth: I think even just like anytime you have employees interacting with customers, physically, end users, I think there's always the opportunity to improve on that process and making sure that the salesperson understands their role and how it's tied to the rest of the company and how it's tied to that person's life and their view of that business. I think that it's really important. We could probably have a whole podcast on the sales process itself, and that taking a customer through a journey in store that really adds a ton of value and creates customers for life.
Jesse: Great. Yeah, that's all I got. Cool. Thank you. Thanks for tuning in. See you next time.
