Dos & Don’ts To Become A Beloved Customer (Part 1-The Dos)

Recently, I wrote a Facebook post (below) that was meant to encourage consumers to visit and spread the word about their favorite quilt shop as much as possible in order to help the shop survive for the long term. This post was surprisingly popular and was shared many times especially by shop owners. In sharing the post, many of the shop owners thanked their customers for their continued support and patronage.

Somewhere along the way, that got me thinking about what makes a customer a VIP, star, beloved or ideal customer? Then it dawned on me that I have access to nearly 500 shop owners in a private group. Why don’t I just ask them? What lies ahead here is a compilation of the dos and don’ts for quilt shop customers from none other than quilt shop owners and compiled by me. This post will be in two parts: The dos (part 1 this week) and the don’ts (part 2 next week).

I would like to say that if you put yourself in the shoes of a shop owner that it would greatly help you understand how challenging the business could be and how important it is to have loads of amazing and loyal customers. Owning a quilt shop is not an easy job so please don’t take your local shop for granted. Before I dive into the dos, I want to paraphrase an anonymous shop owner whose comments were prescient to me and hopefully you as well.

“The thing we do that you can’t get just anywhere is that we INSPIRE! We have samples, we encourage newbies, we teach, we help, but we inspire women to be their best selves and men to break barriers and quilt. We inspire through civic participation and service work. We inspire future entrepreneurship. We inspire social change by keeping our businesses clean inside and out, we encourage reusable shopping bags and that helping others can be as simple as a clean pillow case. We inspire by investing ourselves in our customers’ dreams.”

THE DOS in no particular order as they are all important:

• Be social on all of your favorite shop’s social media platforms as often as possible. That means you should share, like, tag and comment.

• Not only should you be social on the shop’s social platforms, but also show off what you have made as a result of a purchase or class you took at the shop. Share it on your own social platforms so your like minded friends can see and perhaps be enticed to visit the shop. Don’t forget to tag your local shop so everyone knows where the greatness was derived.

• Write a review of your local shop on their social pages, but also other places like Yelp and similar sites. A glowing recommendation does help and it doesn’t take long to compose and post.
• Bring a friend or two or ten with you on your next visit so you can show off to everyone the amazing shop that you have been raving about for eons. Furthermore, if you are attending a class, consider inviting some friends with you. Beginners are the best.

• Speaking of friends, consider arranging a private class with the shop owner for a bunch of your friends. Or consider getting a group together to visit for a shop tour. You would be amazed as to what a shop owner would do to thank you for bringing the customers.  
• Let the owner know if you were not happy with your experience rather than broadcasting it on social media. Help them to do better and not damage their reputation. Whenever I run into a situation where someone is speaking negatively about my companies on social media, I often ask them if they realize the impact of writing what they wrote? Do they realize that the comment is there forever? The worst part of all is that these sort of comments almost always contain falsities. People all too often believe that everything they read on social platforms is correct and it definitely isn’t. The problem is that all it takes is one person to see for it to be damaging.  
• If you are getting help from an employee at a shop, know that the time they spend with you comes at a cost as that time with you is keeping them from doing something else for the owner.  To help the owner cover the salary of the employee you are learning from, please buy something and don’t just use the staff and leave. The quilt shop is a business and not a charity or a showroom floor.   

• Tell the shop owner what you like i.e. fabric tastes. Tell the shop owner what you want by name if you saw something on social media or otherwise. For example, if you watch one of my videos where I show off all the lines we shipped to shops the previous month, don’t be afraid to ask your local shop owner to buy it for you. The worst they could say is no, but I bet, more often than not, they will say yes.
• I often like to tell my quilting community on my Facebook live videos that shop owners can’t buy every single fabric that exists. It’s not feasible as there is too much available in the marketplace and it would be overly expensive. Be mindful of this fact.
• Compliment a teacher and be appreciative. A lot of these teachers are schlepping all around the US and not exactly getting rich. Let them know that they are appreciated and be thankful to the shop owner for bringing in such a great teacher.  

• Be patient when you are in the shop. Not every shop can afford to have a huge staff. Therefore, when it gets busy, give the shop owner a break and don’t add any undue pressure by being impatient. Or just jump behind the counter and start cutting fabric…..I am joking….a little.  
• Give constructive and actionable criticism. If you think you have a good idea for the shop owner, please share it in a nice way and perhaps your idea will be implemented.

I am sure you can probably think of more dos, so please share in the comments if you have more ideas and keep in mind that next week I will go over the don’ts.

Until next week

Creating Super Star Customers Scott