Week 1 / OCT. 31-NOV. 5
Marketing Boost wish lists with a contest offering the chance to “win their wish list.” Arm your website with a wish-list function and get staff to push these great sales tools whenever they can.
Customer Service Holiday party season is here. Consider offering loaner jewelry to your best customers. You’ll need to work out the insurance aspects beforehand.
Management Recommend staff members get a flu shot.
Marketing Send save-the-date cards and emails for all events.
Week 2 / NOV. 7-12
Management You and your staff should start soon on your own holiday shopping to get it out of the way.
Shop Do you have a sign in the store explaining your policy on unclaimed repairs? If not, get in touch with your state attorney general’s office and find out the rules regarding abandoned repairs.
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Marketing Time to discuss your Valentine’s Day campaign.
Sales Create employee award categories for the holiday season, such as Top Seller, Employee of the Month, Most Items Sold, or Biggest Sale, to reward as many of your salespeople as possible. See if your vendors will spring for prizes.
Week 3 / NOV. 14-19
Operations Do you know who your best diamond salesperson is? Ensure he or she gets the opportunities to sell diamonds before anybody else. And look into specific diamond training for the rest.
Staff Schedule a training session to prepare sales associates to engage wedding ring customers during the chaos of the holidays. Coach them how to change gears for this important consumer type, so he doesn’t feel rushed or underserved.
Advertising Advertise your expensive pieces everywhere, especially on outdoor billboards. “People remember those magnificent pieces. And they associate the high-end items with your store, which is good for branding,” says Sissy Jones of Sissy’s Log Cabin in Pine Bluff, AR.
CRM Pay staff $1 for every business card they collect and $2 for every full profile that includes birthday and anniversary. Email addresses are a must. Website Update your local pages on Google, Facebook and elsewhere to ensure they reflect any longer store hours or other special services over the holiday season. Add terms such as “holiday hours” and “holiday sales” to your meta descriptions to give your web pages a better chance of ranking above those of the competition.
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Week 4 / NOV. 21-26
Marketing With only four weeks until Christmas, step up your email campaigns to twice a week, scheduling campaigns on Thursdays or Fridays to stimulate weekend purchases.
Training Monitor individual performance through the month. Teach at every opportunity.
Display Want to try something different this holiday season? Why not decorate a small tree with pendants as ornaments? Or even a few trees flocked in colors to match different skin tones?
Management Start a store tradition to let people know the holiday season is here. It could be a special bowtie like the one Jeff Vierk of Vierk’s Fine Jewelry in Lafayette, IN, dons each year to let his staff know this is no normal time.
This article originally appeared in the November 2016 edition of INSTORE.
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