This weekend a local wine store opened in town and my wife and I decided to spend time on main street and check it out.   It was a nice store in a historic building with a good selection of wine.

I notice a buddy of mine who is an area wine rep was helping the new store owner by doing some tastings in the back of the store.   Great guy and very knowledgable.   Never got to talk to him as he was helping another couple.

We browsed the store for probably 15 minutes to see if he would free up.  As we perused the wine there were some unique selections that we studied.   We might have even bought a few of these unique bottles but nobody helped us.   I am assuming the other two other folks were the owner and employee or partner.  Not once did they greet us, welcome us to the shop, or asked if we had questions.  Nor did they seem busy as they just hung out at the cash register talking to each other.

Now this might be a bit obvious but if a person comes in your shop they are likely there to buy.   If you do not help said customer out or out right ignore your potential customers, how do you plan to sell the wine?   If I wanted to be ignored and not talk about wine I could have gone to the local super market.

When your a specialty shop your advantage of the mass market such as a super market is expertise in the product.   People go to these specialty stores to learn more about the product and enjoy the experience.

As a business owner you should always ask yourself:

  • Are you ignoring your customers?  What can I do to increase interaction?
  • What is your competitive difference the market place?
  • How can you exploit that to your advantage?