After reading Chapter 3 on Project Management, the first thing that came to my mind was my job. I have been working at Tino’s Menswear for almost seven years now. Tino’s Menswear is a small business located inside Discount Mall in Little Village. There is a lot of competition in the mall since there are a lot of other men stores around us. We focus on selling men dress suits for special occasions such as proms, graduations, weddings, and cotillions in the spring, but in fall we focus on casual apparel. We sell the most during spring because since the weather is nice, people plan their weddings and cotillions.
Every year around this time we start planning on what tactic we are going to use for next spring. We set our goals and plan on how we are going to attract customers to the store. During this time we also plan on how many people we are going to have to hire for the next season since we have gotten really busy for the past two years. We have a lot of customers that have been coming to buy suits from us for years. These customers recommend other people to come and purchase suits for whatever they may need. Tino’s Menswear relies a lot on our long-time customers because they are what keep our business alive. This past spring, my boss and I decided that in order to set ourselves apart from the other small businesses in the mall, we were going to offer free socks and belt when they would purchase suits for wedding or cotillion parties. We also gave customers a special discount if someone had recommended us to them. One of our biggest competitors would always give dress suits cheaper and we agreed that this incentive would attract more customers.
My job relates to project management because we plan, schedule, and control how much we are going to buy for next season. Since I am the manager at my workplace, I have to help my boss choose what suits are going to be sold the most and have to be organized with our inventory. I give my boss my ideas in order to increase our sales and how we should save money when sales do not go as expected. Our main focus is giving great customer service because that is what keeps customers coming back.
My question to you is what keeps you going back to stores to buy clothing? Is it the customer service or the prices? Any ideas on what we can offer our customers for next season?
I think that customer service is essential in the retail industry. This industry is so competitive that you need to have that extra something that brings back the customer. I feel that your approach is great for a business like Tino’s. You really want the customer to be satisfied. Having long-time customers that keep coming back must mean that Tino’s is doing something right. I am assuming that the customers may be a bit older because you mentioned about how long they have been coming to this suit store. Maybe try and approach the younger demographic by promoting at local universities, like DePaul, especially since most new graduates need suits for their career.
Customer service and price leadership are equally important to me. However, since your business does not appear to be a chain, plausible promotions and sales are limited, likely making customer service the most important aspect of the brand. Customer referrals seem to have been successful for you, and agree with the comment above about approaching a new demographic. I think the younger generation would probably need more assistance in picking out formal apparel and if they like what they get and how they are treated, it can be assumed that they will refer their friends.
I agree with targeting college graduates. I personally have trouble fitting in suits and offering custom suits for people like me would attract people to a suit store. The only type of suits that fit me are custom suits and a lot of stores do not offer them. Customer service is key to a suit store because everyone has different builds and I know when I am going to spend a lot of money on something, I want it done right and measured right. Recently I just purchased a suit and had to send the suit back beacuse they measured me wrong. They lost me as a customer and for now on im going to go to a suit store that cares more about the customer.
As I work in an environment where excellent customer service is vital, I think that is something that would always bring me back. But with this economy, it is not a surprise that we are on the lookout for a item’s cheaper price if it exist. My suggestion would be, along with the first comment, market yourselves on school campuses as much as you can. Have promotions that are time-limited, but also a reasonable amount where they can work around their schedules to stop by. Word of mouth, as it seems to be working for you, is always a plus when you have the loyal customers that only do business with you. Although it takes time, building lasting relationships is key to maintaining customers, while keeping it professional.
“Our main focus is giving great customer service because that is what keeps customers coming back,” this is so true. However, it is depends on what kind of the store. In this case, you are talking about the special occasion clothing store. As a customer, I definitely think that customer service is the most essential for the store. Although the price is very low and affordable, I would not come back if the employee was not welcoming. Therefore, the customer service is the more important than the lower price.
I think that customer service is everything. People do or don’t purchase products based on their experiences with the employees. If I am really enjoying the customer service at a store, I become more enthusiastic about the product and I typically purchase it. I also think that offering free belts and socks with a purchase is a great idea. It would be even better if you changed up the products that you were giving with purchases, like one month you could try giving away Mens undershirts. Since Tino’s is a word of mouth kind of brand, amazing customer service is vital.
I think that although good customer service is incredibly important it has almost become expected in todays marketplace. I know that for me personally, I would probably not return to a store if they had extremely poor customer service. It seems like there is so much competition in retail sectors today that you can always find a similar product to the one you want at a reasonable price. I think that price is more of an issue than customer service especially with the down economy. I would use the dire financial situation of Best Buy right now to bring about my point. Although Best Buy is known for having great customer service they are not able to offer the lowest prices in the market anymore due to the fact that they are a brick and mortar store. They have been refered to as Amazon’s showroom and are in danger of going out of business.
What keeps me coming back to retail stores is their quality and customer service. Providing great customer service and prices provides an incentive to give a certain company money over another. During this economy, many people are looking for sales but I believe what keeps customers loyal to a company is also being a company that they trust and will provide them the service they are looking for. There is a lot of competition in the marketplace today and being able to provide great prices along with great customer service will keep me coming back to stores. Also, being proactive with social networking I think is also key to have in today’s time. Almost everyone is on some social networking site and this provides great advertising.
As a manager at any sort of workplace there are certain responsibilities that are given to you to fulfill, in your case it seems one of the biggest tasks given to you is to retain your customer base as well as attracting new customers. I like the idea of giving the incentives of offering free dress socks and belts to your customers, as well as discounts for referrals. As you said your competition for whatever reason has the ability to offer a lower bottom line to their customers, and to be competitive you need to offer comparable incentives. I think the idea of free add ins for the customer purchase is very smart business move, as well as a good choice as a manager. Whenever I go to make a purchase for work clothes or a business suit, one of the biggest things for me is having knowledgable people who are willing to help you have a good shopping experience. I think most people would agree that what would sway them towards one retailer over another who have similar pricing is their past experiences with customer service, good customer service can leave a lasting impression, as well as making people WANT to tell their acquaintances about their great shopping experience.