Dan Lowndes, Trade Marketing Manager at Tetra UK talks about the importance of engaging the customer in aquatics, and its role in building a sustainable business.

Reacting to customers' needs is one thing, but providing excellent customer service means being closely engaged with your customers and being proactive.  It means making the most of every opportunity to extend your service and add value to your customer’s experience on all levels.  It’s not a one-off activity but something that is on-going and has to be in the mind of your staff all the time.

Excellent customer service is increasingly important as it is expected by today’s consumers. The bar has been set extremely high across the retail sector and this is where aquatics retailing has to compete. If the store isn’t welcoming and the staff uncommunicative then you’re going to put off a lot of customers before they even start the hobby.

Our industry provides a great opportunity to present wonderful pictures of your livestock in their natural habitat; inform customers of the origins of the species, care and treatment; relate them to the communities they come from; building an understanding of their specific needs. Help the customer understand the consequences for these communities and the environment of not buying from responsible retailers. It all requires time and effort but it will engage your customers in an area they are already interested in; help improve the level of care they get once sold; and help build a trusting and long-term relationship with more and more customers.   

Having a good understanding of your stock and your customers and matching the two in the most effective way is a great skill to have, but one worth developing as it will make sure you sell appropriately and get the most out of your business. This will help maintain a loyal customer base and thus a sustainable business.  In fact it is the essence of a sustainable industry for us all.

Selling additional but appropriate products is part of this process and demands creative thinking, good knowledge, skill and imagination. A customer may come into the shop with a clear idea of the solution to a problem but close questioning may reveal a different issue that demands alternative solutions. The customer may also not have the knowledge to know the full range of options. 

There are now a wide range of products available from high quality manufacturers that are designed to make the hobby easier and more enjoyable and these provide extremely good opportunities for additional sales. Retailers are in a position to know the best products and make these additional sales that the customer wouldn’t have been in a position to necessarily know about. The sale should leave the customer feeling the retailer has gone the extra mile, and the retailer benefits from the extra sale.

The key in all this is to build trusting relationships, but you can’t do it on your own. Build links with good, reliable suppliers that sell high quality products and they will also provide you with the support you need. Make sure your staff are equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary and the ability to encourage the fishkeepers whatever their level of expertise. 

The whole process needs to be supported by simple messages.  It has to be an education process that engages the buyer.  If you are asking your customers to commit to a project such as installing a pond or new aquarium, you need to have the staff there to support them throughout the process. This means having staff that stay in the job, that they can come back to time and again. 

Giving the right advice may at times mean a non-sale but if the advice is right they’ll return to you again and again. Having expertise is essential but we don’t all have to have the same level of knowledge.  As long as less experienced staff know at which point to ask for help, that’s the most important thing, and that’s how customer loyalty is established.

The key to keeping the customer happy and providing good customer service is to focus on helping them, not say “no”. Running customer service training programmes in-store will help while giving a strong focus on how you talk to customers, how to read how much information to give them and how you can provide a service that builds loyalty and trust in the long-term. 

Having expertise in-store is vital but if you don’t have the right approach with customers to go with it, that expertise is wasted. So amongst our staff we have a wide variety of expertise and levels of knowledge.  No one person is expected to know everything but we are all expected to focus on inspiring and helping the customer, and improving the enjoyment they get from their garden or aquarium.

For further information contact Tetra on 023 80 60 60 70 or go to www.tetra.net