FMG member stores swap their best ideas
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, February 27, 2006
Henderson, Nev. — Here's a sampling of some of the suggestions that came out of the best-idea swapping session during the Furniture Marketing Group's symposium:
-
Extra hardware within reach — Bill Daniels, secretary and treasurer of Furniture Fair in Fairfield, Ohio, always keeps an extra set of hardware in the bottom right hand drawer of the dressers on his showroom floor. He estimated that sales drop by one-fifth when a floor sample is missing hardware.
But what generally happens when a consumer comes in looking for a missing or replacement knob or handle? It ends up being taken off the floor model. With extra hardware tucked away in a place that's easy to remember and easy to get to, the problem is solved. -
Fast follow-up after delivery — At Wolf Furniture in Bellwood, Pa., all delivery teams are equipped with cell phones, and the drivers call into the office as soon as a delivery is completed. A customer service representative immediately calls the consumer and asks several questions, including whether the delivery was on time and whether the team was courteous.
"First, they're floored you're calling so fast," said Gene Stoltz, Wolf vice president of merchandising. And the quick follow-up can smooth later service issues, if a customer finds a flaw in a piece of furniture.
Taking the idea a step further, Gary Steinhafel, president of Waukesha, Wis.-based Steinhafels, said his company has service vans on the road that can respond within an hour of a customer service call. -
Recruiting brochure — Steinhafel also shared a slick, color brochure the company developed for its recruiting efforts. "Probably the biggest obstacle to our growth was retaining and keeping quality people," he said. Not only did was the brochure an effective recruiting tool at job fairs and elsewhere, but the exercise of creating it motivated the company to do some basic things, Steinhafel said, such as clarify its vision and values. An added plus: the brochure provided a nice boost to the Steinhafels employees who appear in it.
-
Form an operations leadership committee — Becker Furniture World of Becker, Minn., did this. At the first of what would become weekly meetings, the group came up with a list of more than 100 issues that needed to be addressed. "It's overwhelming at first, but it's been a powerful thing to get through all of it," said Joel Huseby, merchandise manager. The meetings are carefully structured, one-hour sessions, and committee members are key people from various areas of the business.
-
Friends and Family Night — Gill Bros. Furniture in Muncie, Ind., gave each of its employees 20 invitations and told them to invite that many people to the special event. Cash prizes were given to employees, including the one with the most invitations returned and the one whose invitee led to the single biggest ticket written. "Everybody in the company was a salesperson that night except the cashier," said Richard Gill.
The Friends and Family event was such a success, Gill Bros. has repeated it. And although the second and third times weren't as powerful as the first, Gill said they were well worth the effort, considering the minimal promotion costs — about $420 per event. -
Free DVDs, TVs — Tom Olinde, president of Olinde's Furniture in Baton Rouge, La., had success with a promotion that offered free DVD players and televisions with a bedding purchase. The prizes varied with the size of the purchase. Olinde said he took a shorter margin — in the low 40% range vs. a typical gross margin in the high 40s — but made up for it with greater sales volume.
"It's not so bad if you get a vendor to participate (in subsidizing the giveaway)," he said.
