Jun. 4-10
RECALLS Early summer is a good time to experiment, especially with a typically challenging area like recalls from last summer’s exams. Could you do a dad and daughter tie-in with Father’s Day, stay open later one day, or a visit to an old-age facility?
DISPLAY If things have slowed down, take an afternoon off to check out mall optical stores and look at their showcases and displays for visual merchandising ideas. Sure, they can’t compete for genuine customer service but chains’ displays and marketing are often based on intensive studies of customer behavior.
Jun. 11-17
EVENTS Local neighborhoods tend to come alive at this time of year. If you’re in a lifestyle center, strip mall or downtown location, take the lead in organizing a community block party.
OUTREACH Contact school counselors about putting in place a program to help identify children in need come the new school year, such as a mutually created form they can give to selected kids with program details.
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Jun. 18-24
IN-STORE Check your air-conditioning so that people coming in from outside are comfortable, not just the people working inside. This is also a good time to check and replace the air filters in your building’s ventilation.
BUYING Dig into your POS data to discover your best and worst sellers of the past 12 months and fine-tune your open-to-buy for the second half of the year.
MARKETING Do something to shake up your routine. One option: a different social media platform. If you spend the bulk of your screen time on Facebook, devote yourself to getting more familiar with TikTok, Pinterest or LinkedIn. Post, respond, join a conversation.
Jun. 25-Jul. 1
FINANCIALS The midyear is the perfect time to check your competitive position. Jen Heller, owner of Pend Oreille Vision Care, Sandpoint, ID, makes it an annual point to do “a price check on our contacts, realigning our price-matching with one of the big vendors.”
SALES Meeting topic: Discuss how to improve customer service. Brainstorm the top 10 reasons why a customer should buy from your store. If your staff have a problem coming up with ideas, it probably says something.