Brainstorms

Want to Make Your Clients Feel Loved? Hire a Store Grandma

It made one store $200,000.

Published

3 months ago

February 16, 2023

INSTORE Staff Instore February 2023 Issue

Want to Make Your Clients Feel Loved? Hire a Store Grandma

There are some things a grandmother does better than just about anyone else, like birthday wishes. If it’s your big day and you’re a regular customer of The Diamond Family in St Louis, MO, you can expect a call from Linda, their “store grandma,” to wish you the best for the day. Perry’s Emporium in Wilmington, NC, created a similar position for a former sales associate to call customers to wish them happy birthday, anniversary, or to welcome them back into the store after a year-long absence with a $50 gift certificate to use any way they wish. The program generated $200,000 the first year, says owner Alan Perry.

Time for More “Me Time”? Time to Call Wilkerson

Rick White, owner of White’s & Co. Jewelry in Rogers, Ark., knew it was time to retire. Since the age of 18, jewelry had been his life. Now it was time to get that “me time” every retailer dreams about. So, he chose Wilkerson to manage his going-out-of-business sale. White says he’d done plenty of sales on his own, but this was different. “Wilkerson has been a very, very good experience. I’ve had the best salespeople in the history of jewelry,” he says. “I recommend Wilkerson because they are really the icon of the jewelry business and going-out-of-business sales. They’ve been doing it for decades. I just think they’re the best.”