Fifty People Attend BEDC/EEZA Retail Seminar
On Tuesday March 26th 2013 fifty people attended the Economic Empowerment Zones Agency [EEZA] seminar targeted to retailers and vendors to help provide them with tips and strategies to better manage their businesses and attract and keep customers.
The two hour seminar began with a welcome from BEDC Chairman, Mr. Nicholas Kempe who thanked all participants for coming and encouraged them to take full advantage of the information that would be shared at the seminar.
Amir X of Gino Group, who also facilitated the BEDC Retail Development Programme last year, kicked off the seminar with an interactive presentation about the importance of customer service. He asked attendees to help him define customer service and in the process encouraged them to come up with their own solutions to common customer service challenges in Bermuda.
Some of the key suggestions included: listening to customers, analyzing customers’ needs, being committed to keeping your promises, and initiating good service from the very first interaction with the customer. Amir encouraged attendees to remember that “people try to make customer service something fancy but really it’s just a day-in, day-out, simple attitude towards people! Good customer service is essential to a good business!!”
Ms. Jan Quinn owner of The Lost Treasure was next to present with a focus on vendors. Ms. Quinn’s presentation was very detailed and provided existing and would be vendors with practical tips to start and manage their vending business. She shared her story of starting her business selling hand crafted sea glass jewelry, stating that in order to gauge whether or not her business was viable she started by inviting her friends and family to her home and introduced them to her products in an informal setting.
Based on the excellent feedback she received she determined that she could make a living selling her handcrafted goods. Ms. Quinn reviewed how vendors should determine “What you should sell”, encouraging vendors to identify a niche product whenever possible; “Who you should sell to”, noting that products that are uniquely Bermudian tend to be more attractive to the tourist community; and “Where you should sell”, encouraging vendors to identify as many opportunities as possible to sell their products, taking advantage of the local markets like, Rubber Tree and Olde Towne market and the Dockyard Arts Centre as well as seasonal opportunities like Harbour Nights.
Ms. Kelli Thompson was next to present sharing her story of how she and her mother Mrs. Roseclair Thompson started Saltwater Jewellery design as vendors over 14 years ago. She echoed many of the same sentiments that Ms. Quinn shared regarding vending and added that the presentation of your products is also important.
She stated that as a vendor you must be consistent. If you tell your customer that you will be vending at a certain time and place, you must be there every time as consistency is key to building your business. Ms. Thompson also shared that it is important to have a network of support, that without her family she would not have been able to grow the business into its physical location at 22 York Street in St. George’s.
Mr. Tony Thompson and Ms. Tori Simons of Gibbons Company were next up to share tips on the importance of visual merchandising. Their focus was primarily on retail stores; however they noted that many of the suggestions could also be applied to vending. Mr. Thompson’s presentation helped to break down some of the tricks that large retail stores, like Mango, use to help sell their products including, utilizing creative and attractive window displays as the first way to capture a customer’s attention to get them into the store.
He also shared that using music at the right volume and tone will encourage customers to stay in your shop longer and this increases the likelihood of them making a purchase. Mr. Thompson advised attendees to focus on the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste when trying to determine how best to merchandise your store or display.
Ms. Simons complemented Mr. Thompson’s scientific explanation of merchandising with a visual example of how to best dress a mannequin to appeal to customers. She suggested that keeping it simple while displaying multiple items for sale was the best way to be most effective. If done right, Ms. Simons suggested that you can encourage customers to purchase most if not all of the items on display.
Last to present was Mr. Damon Hollis of the Bermuda Police Service who shared information relevant to all retailers regarding how to detect counterfeit money and what to do if you suspect that someone is intentionally trying to pass counterfeit bills. He shared that all of the reported cases of counterfeit money have been with the old Bermuda notes and that it is the intent to devalue those notes. In the interim, he suggested that the best way to ensure that retailers can protect their cash flow is to check all BD$50 and BD$100 notes for the embedded security features, like the watermarks, to ensure that they are real.
If retailers unknowingly accept counterfeit money, it will be at their loss because the Police will have to confiscate it. Mr. Hollis advised that Bermuda Notes are printed on material and not paper so they should feel different. In addition it is difficult for counterfeiters to reproduce the detail in the pictures and as a last resort you can use the water test, if the ink runs when water is applied to the bill then it is fake.
Following the presentation of gifts to the presenters and the awarding of raffle prizes to participants, BEDC Executive Director, Michelle Khaldun closed the seminar by thanking all participants and presenters for taking the time out to participate. She reflected on some of the key points, acknowledging each presenter individually for their willingness to share and help to educate the attendees on best practices to manage and operate as vendors and brick and mortar retailers. An attendee remarked that “the seminar was excellent and helped them to get diverse ideas from different perspectives in order to focus and re-evaluate their customer service.”
