Orange Slice Podcast | Episode 1: The In-Store Experience w/ Seth Stetson
Jesse and Seth sit down to talk about the in-store experience, training employees, and the importance of the human interaction.
Podcast Transcript
Jesse: We're live. We're not live. 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 a lot of it has been, a lot of it is like very polished and kind of set up to digest really quickly. We are trying to create a platform where we can have like more candid conversations about marketing and kind of talk about our experiences without it being so polished because marketing is, it's 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 yeah, 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 like 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. I worked there as a buyer, marketing manager and sales manager for over 10 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.
Jesse: And why do you think, I mean, 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?
Seth: 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, you know, the business wants to convey a message and 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 like what we were, what I was doing at Skinny Raven in terms of the, you know, the purveyor of that message and what the higher ups, if you will, you know, wanted 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: Yeah, going back to what you said about like a real personal experience. I think what sometimes we miss is like we can post on social media, we can send emails, but you're still 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, you know, people really feel that relationship. They can feel that caring. They can feel that and know that you're the expert. Many times, you know, people look at once. So once they feel like you're the person that has like 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 that's in skinny Ravens case it was all about like what they were trying to accomplish on the, you know, fitness athletic running side. So it was just great to be able to listen to their stories, ask them questions and develop that relationship. You know, we always said like the opportunity to meet with somebody in person is always an opportunity to make a customer for life.
Jesse: So how do you if you're an agency, which we are. How do you recommend that you kind of work your way like from talking to your, your contact at a business. How do you make sure that the people on the floor are getting that same sort of material.
Seth: Yeah, I think that is one of the most difficult things about especially bigger businesses have trouble with that. But I, you know, in the end it's it's it's about training. You know, there's a big emphasis on training with with businesses such as Starbucks and Apple has a huge training process at the skinny Raven level. I think we were at about 30 employees. Much of what we did was what we called 10 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 in into the sales process. And it's 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: So yeah, I think also just going back to the personal connection thing just making sure that your, 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, they're the ones like boots on the ground meeting the meeting the customers. Yeah, that's huge. Exactly. And it's, again, in skinny Raven's case these were, you know, the employees are all passionate runners, which helps a lot. So the people, you know, the customers are also passionate runners so that's an easy match. You know, it's a little harder for businesses that may be, you know, Apple guys really techie usually you know the the Starbucks person loves coffee you know there's those, you know, those lines you have to draw in order to to kind of create that relationship and that authentic sort of feel when people have those interactions it's like, you don't actually feel a certain way about something then you can't fake it people know that, and you're just they're kind of doing your job but if you're like passionate about like some something that you're that you're selling it's so much easier to talk to people about and sell somebody on something. I keep doing the, the Gary quotes.
Jesse: So, okay so looking forward there's obviously a lot of talk about like the metaverse and web three being this whole virtual experience. But I personally believe that there's going to be some sort of like bounce back of people really wanting like the in person experience, and I think what the pandemic taught us is that we, we do like being around each other in a lot of ways, and I was just curious your opinion do you think there's going to be sort of a shift in like coming back into like either brick and mortar or just having like a more holistic human person to person experience.
Seth: Yeah, I mean my short answer is I hope so but yeah you know like, 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 you like I don't see it. I'm not seeing it when I go into to local shops. Certainly the malls not the place where people are getting it because people are flocking from malls like crazy. But you'll still find like I know skinny Raven has seen an uptick in their, you know their foot traffic, their sales. They're also getting more on the digital side as well as that comes about. Maybe, maybe the in person future is the meta. You know, 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 know 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. Yeah, 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 of value product. Yeah, that's going to help me accomplish something or, you know, get a look I want or whatever it is that people are looking for I really, I do love that.
Jesse: Yeah, I think that's important. I think it's important for us on the marketing side to explore what what else comes with that insta experience.
Seth: Back to your question on the, I mean I think, you know, to convey the message from, you know, your management marketing people who are creating the processes I think, you know, you can develop those streams of communication whether it's through slack or through email, where you're, you know, informing your staff on like promotions on things that you're promoting, because I see 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 it becomes 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, you know, tie there to where you're missing the boat if you're not putting those two things together and having those converge.
Jesse: Right, 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.
Seth: Exactly, yeah.
Jesse: Oh, 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 more 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 like making sure you're paying them well and treating them well and yeah.
Seth: I think great people are the key to any successful business. Yeah, I don't think there's any exceptions to that I think great people are the key and yeah, and usually great people love to be I mean not aside from pay but they love to learn new things. They love to be 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 go as they retain their obviously learning and gaining a base of knowledge that's far beyond a new employee could ever, you know, 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 some help with for sure.
Jesse: Definitely. Yeah, I mean 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 about their in store experiences or like running a sales to a floor to what a sales team
Seth: Yeah, a sales team. I think even just like, you know, anytime you have people, employees interacting with customers physically end users I think there's always the opportunity to improve on that. Yeah, process and making sure that, you know, 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's, it's really important we could probably have a whole podcast on the sales process itself and, and 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.
Seth: Thanks for tuning in. See you next time.
