MOTIVATIONTrick and Treat
Halloween falls on a weekday this year. It’s your chance to show a scary face to customers (dressing up is fun and lowers threshold anxiety), but a kind heart to employees with children by allowing them to leave early for family commitments, says business consultant Megan Crabtree.
IN-STOREStone Cold Productivity Chiller
Trying to save a few dollars by dropping the temperature in your business? Think again, say researchers at Cornell University, who conducted a study that tinkered with the thermostat in an insurance office. When temperatures were low (68 degrees), employees made 44% more errors and were less than half as productive as when temperatures were warm (a cozy 77 degrees). It makes sense. When our body temperature drops, we expend energy keeping ourselves warm, making less energy available for concentration, inspiration, and insight.
MARKETINGLeave Reading Time
As you plot your email marketing for the fourth quarter, be sure to leave “time for reading,” says digital marketing veteran Chris Marriott. And the material he has in mind are your competitors’ ads. “Email in particular gives retailers a great opportunity for a rapid response to a competitor’s challenge. For instance, if a competitor promotes a deal that your brand can beat, a quick email might interest consumers,” he says.
ONLINEKeep It Fun…Ctional
If part of your website gallery is dedicated to the styles that teens like, you should focus on making your website fun and functional for browsing, says a recent report into youth buying habits by C+R Research. “Between not having the means (i.e., an accessible credit card) and preferring the experiential aspects of shopping, teens are more likely to use retailer websites to comparison-shop and to pre-select items from their favorite stores,” says report author Amy Henry.
HIRINGShort-Term Risks
The dark side of the upcoming holidays is that the shorter an employee’s tenure, the more likely they will steal, according to a study done by the National Retail Federation. “Seasonal or part-time individuals … might not have the loyalty,” says Joe LaRocca, NRF’s vice president of loss prevention. If you can’t get personal references, be as diligent about running background checks and public record searches for seasonal workers as you would with full-timers.
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ARTWORKAll Eyes Left
Text to the left, imagery and iconography to the right. That’s how your ads — whether on TV, billboards, webpages — should be set up to maximize the converse way your brain visualizes and processes elements (elements on the right are picked up by the left frontal lobe and vice versa). “The right frontal lobe is particularly good at interpreting imagery and iconography,” said Dr. A. K. Pradeep, co-founder and CEO of NeuroFocus, a neuromarketing and neuroscience research company. “And the left frontal is better for semantic and quantitative info,” so your ads should be designed in accordance.
MARKETINGShow Your Authenticity
An advantage small businesses have over bigger competitors is the personal ties owners can establish with customers. While corporate operators must create fictional holiday moments to connect with customers in the months leading up to the holidays, you can offer the real thing. This month, give your monthly newsletter a more personal touch by sharing an anecdote from your own family’s holiday traditions or stories from past seasonal promotions that will get them excited for what you have planned this year.
HIRINGChoke the Internet
Want a quick insight into the true character of that prospective hire filling out a job application? “Move them onto an abysmally slow internet connection and observe,” says Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly in his book Excellent Advice for Living.
CUSTOMER RELATIONSChange the Scale
When you seek feedback from customers do they only ever tell you you’re fantastic? Try what Gentle Giant Moving Co. does. Ask customers to rate your store on a 14-point scale. “They could circle 12, meaning you’re excellent but you could be better. You have to do everything you can to find out,” the company’s CEO, Larry O’Toole told INC. magazine.
