Welcome to Working Wednesday
Part 3
Working Wednesday is a compilation of stories from various working environments. We tend to spend a large portion of our lives doing it and we can learn a lot from each other's experiences, good and bad alike.
I've worked in a number of little places through my life but one of my first jobs I will never forget. A tiny little shop that was filled from pillar to post with every kind of decorative trinket and gift you could ever imagine. Shelves loaded with incense boxes, stone statuettes, iChing Frogs and Buddhas that lined the wall edges and everywhere you looked above were items hanging from the ceiling. Windchimes and good fortune thingies and suncatchers sparkling in the diffused light. The counter top was covered in bumper stickers stuck to it's surface and there were a million different colours everywhere you looked.
I didn't work there for long as I was still studying and then the shop closed down shortly before I went overseas.
My time there was both exciting, exhilarating and absolutely abysmal and it was a lucky packet largely dependent on whether the shop's target was achieved as that led to commission. There were happy little celebrations when we did and there was chastisement when we didn't. It was a bit of a hit and miss kind of environment and you never quite knew what to expect. All of the staff were on different rosters so you never really fell into a routine with your colleagues as every shift you'd be working with a different set of people. Somehow we got it to work but it was all a bit too jumbled for my tastes nowadays. That kind of never-know-what's-going-to-happen vibe would get old with me very quickly now, but I was young and it was only a part time gig.
The one thing that I remember that stood out was their best sale's pitch of the shop and it worked beautifully. In the back corner of the shop, there was a little stand with a coffee urn. It could hold a lot of coffee and we would fresh-brew coffee in the shop every couple of hours. This firstly made the shop smell insanely inviting, I mean who doesn't love that fresh coffee smell? Then we would cheerfully walk up to the customers, greeting them with a massive smile and offer them a cup of free coffee.
It was amazing to watch this magic at work. We used half size little enamel mugs and each person would be brandished with their own little coffee cup. People suddenly would feel more at ease and we'd leave them to browse while walking around. They would feel like they could now pick up things, have a better look at them, ask questions and they completely dropped their guard because of that little gesture - a free coffee! Added value is still a thing.
I don't know what the monthly spend on that coffee was, but I guarantee that it was well worth it and paid for itself numerous times over in sales due to the completely different feel that people had about that little shop. They were happily welcomed in and it was a shopping experience, not just a walk around in a shop.
That shop made a LOT of money out of the strange assortment of stock items that they held many of which were only ever supplied to that specific shop and nowhere else. There were so many people that rated it as excellent and even with the chaotic atmosphere, the two strangest owners who had completely clashing personalities...it was a fun place. A melting pot where the only thing that mattered was being happy and showing that to the customers as you offer them a cup of freshly brewed coffee.
It's a great business trick and one that will stay with me forever. If ever I open a shop of my own, I'll be sure to employ that tactic and take absolute advantage of it in the process from a networking point of view. I won't be handing it over to my current place though, this is my trade secret....shhh, promise you won't spill the beans, ok?
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Have you got any great tips or tricks that worked really well with getting people to feel comfortable at meetings or in a shop setting? Let me know in the comments.
All writing is by me
The image belongs to me