Vic Smith, owner of independent beds retailer Vic Smith Beds, talks about the perception of shoppers and expectations of value.
Not sure if it’s me getting a lot older and maybe too long in the tooth, or having been trading for too many years, but it’s becoming more and more apparent people’s perception of value as to what they would pay for goods.
I’m yet to see anyone standing in a queue questioning the price of a coffee in that well known chain store and not buying – can you imagine anyone saying, “but it’s just a bit of steam!” Or actually calculating how much that piece of ham left in the unsealed packed that now needs to be thrown is worth.
Yet, tell them the price of the bed that they have been eyeing up in the window on their daily commute and the horror on their face! In fact, after you told them the price of the bed they are looking at, they might need that coffee after all. Doesn’t matter that a good night’s sleep is what they will be getting from their new bed (well at least in our opinion!) and it could save them a small fortune every day in terms of buying ‘wake up coffee’ because now they should wake up more refreshed than before.
Sleep is fundamentally important to our health and wellbeing and one of life’s best medicines, but that flat screen TV or the latest must have trainers – well, the card gets handed over straight away. People are becoming more and more shallow in their wants and desires.
So, as retailers do you:
A – bend with them and sell them what they want?
B – try to re-educate your customers and show them the benefits of quality over cheap?
C – you try to educate and if that’s not working sell cheap instead of well made?
I’m extremely curious to know where they get their figures from as to what is a suitable purchase price. I’d say it applies to about a third of our customers that walk through the door, and like it or not, it’s our job to convert them from a walk in to a prospective buyer.
So, find out how much a coffee at Starbucks cost: so, your coffee costs x and lasts 20 minutes and your 7/8 hour human recharging station (because that’s what your new bed is – it’s your human recharging station, costs xyz per night) – you could even break this down by an hourly cost if you like.
It’s amazing when you break down the costs over time, how that light bulb moment kicks in – obviously for us we take the number of years the bed should last, divide the cost by that, then by weeks, and then if applicable by two, assuming that’s the number of adults. It’s almost become a slightly direct targeting form of selling – you almost need to go in direct with what is their budget, and what is their expectation of the product – we’re navigating a new world here!
We decorate our ceiling tiles in two ways, we have customer reviews and these are interspersed with the above equation. That way when people are lying on the beds, they can read them. It helps to reinforce what the sales team are saying and a further ‘prompt.’ Remember, a picture speaks a thousand words – people see a poster and believe it 10 times more than if a sales person says the same.
Talking to different types of retail, everyone is in the same boat as to what people are expecting for their money – I’m not sure if I’m meant to send someone with their delivery to stroke their brow to send them to sleep, and make them a cup of tea in the morning! Yet no one expects that large coffee chain to give them a free cake every time!
So, when our delivery staff get to a delivery and the customer say can you… “Move the old bed into the spare room” or can you…. “Move theses bits of furniture and see if I like it before they decide if they really want it in that place or not”. Our delivery team are well versed to say “of course we can, we will just let the store know to let the other deliveries behind you that some will be late and others will have to be cancelled so we can help you out. The store will work out a price and will call to take the Extra payment”.
You won’t be surprised how many customers suddenly are just happy for us to do the job we have been asked and paid to do!
