While the quality of your inventory is paramount to the success of your resale franchise location, your customer service – or lack thereof – can just as easily make or break your business. Especially for consumer-facing concepts like resale stores, subpar customer service can be detrimental to sales.
Studies have shown increasing customer retention rates by just five percent increases profits anywhere from 25 to 95 percent. And since customer service is one of the quickest avenues to foster retention, giving your customers a memorable in-store experience could translate into significant profits.
The Importance of Great Service at Winmark
Within Winmark’s two-tiered business model, franchisees provide the highest level of service not just for their customers, but also for the people selling their gently used items to the store.
These “suppliers” more often than not, become avid customers as well. And, franchisees rely on them just as much as they rely on a consistent flow of customers. So, converting suppliers to customers and vice versa is incredibly important – and franchisees can only make this happen by providing great service.
Unparalleled Franchisor Support for Unmatched Franchisee Customer Service
All Winmark brands are a part of a 100 percent involved franchise model. There are no corporate-owned stores in the system, and each location is owned, operated and staffed by franchisees. While this model gives franchisees much more control and independence, it also makes it difficult for some brands to ensure a positive customer experience at each store.
Within the Winmark franchise system, however, we have several structures in place to combat inconsistent customer service. Not only do we thoroughly vet each franchisee to ensure they prioritize customer service, our unparalleled proprietary software systems provide franchisees with the day-to-day operational and logistical support they need to run their store effectively.
Without the burden of manually keeping track of inventory, pricing product and developing an inventory strategy, franchisees can instead focus on helping customers. The time and attention they dedicate to their customers and sellers will go a long way in making them feel valued – which can also significantly drive sales.
Customer Service in Resale
In today’s world of key performance indicators (KPIs) and success metrics for everything in business, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. But good customer service is far and away your most important metric, particularly in a store environment where you interact with consumers each day.
Without the right systems in place to keep you organized, creating a positive and memorable customer experience can be difficult. Winmark’s proven support systems – from inventory management software to infallible pricing strategies – take care of all the logistics, so our franchisees can focus on providing a great in-store experience.
To learn more about pursuing your passion and becoming a business owner with one of Winmark’s franchise brands, check out our website here.