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What Can An AV Company Learn From A Soccer Store?

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You’ve gotta have a goal.

 

It’s a quirk of mine that, given a choice, I’d rather patronize a small, locally owned business than a big, corporate, national one.

In addition to being a locavore I guess that would make me a locaemptor.

Sometimes that desire pays off, such as when I shop at the small, family-owned shoe store not far from where I live (which I’ve blogged about before).

Other times it doesn’t really pay off at all.

Soccer season is just around the corner, and my son needs new cleats and shinguards.

Recently I noticed that there was a small soccer specialty store nearby. Consequently I decided to take my son there for his equipment.

It was, to put it mildly, disappointing.

Their store was clean, their stock assortment was varied and their pricing was reasonable.

But the level of engagement from the two young people who were working there was nonexistent.

Maybe my expectations were too high, but compared to the top-flight level of service from the shoe store down the street the level of service at the soccer specialty store was no better than Walmart or Canadian Tire.

Which brings me to my point: If you’re a small local business it’s not enough to have the inventory. It’s not enough to have a good looking place of business and it’s not enough to be competitively priced.

All of the big box corporate monsters that want to eat your lunch have all of that too.

It’s not enough either to trade on being the local, small town company. Not even close.

The only way to differentiate your business is to take care of people. Engage with them, and knock their socks off.

Maybe if the owner had been there and helping me my experience would be different, but that shouldn’t be the case: everyone working for you should be committed to wowing your customers, every single time.

The big box electronics stores have plenty of indifferent workers on staff, you don’t need any on yours.

Make people feel special, take good care of them, and they’ll take care of you.

What can an AV company learn from a soccer retailers?

For one thing you can learn what not to do.

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