Get Customers Back Into Your Store After the Holidays

Summer NAMM 2013 kicked off with the NAMM Retail Summit. In this segment, NAMM President and CEO Joe Lamond interviews Whitney Brown Grisaffi of Ted Brown Music and Ryan West of West Music about boosting store traffic and sales during the slow period after the holidays.

Last year, Grisaffi held Black November and ran specials all month long. Customers received a $5 gift card for every purchase they made at Ted Brown Music during this period. "And the more they spent, the more gift cards they got," she said, noting that the gift cards were transferable.

The catch: Customers couldn't use the gift cards until January.

"When we started looking at numbers in January, we had 58 percent actually that returned in January," Grisaffi said. "We know that looking at our customer counter numbers that that made the difference in keeping the traffic coming in."

West Music hosted a similar promotion during the holiday season, offering 10-percent back on purchases up to a set amount. Employees then follow up with a phone call to those customers.

"And we do it both in November for December and then in December for January to try and help encourage people to make that additional trip to the store," West said.

"[We] say, 'OK, you've got everything you need. What's the next step? Where can we help you out with the lessons, the services? Maybe there's an additional accessory you didn't make that purchase on yet, but you've got the guitar under the tree.' So making sure they know that that 10 percent comes back.

​"You can't just wait for people to come into the door anymore. You've got to give them a reason to come back in and make that next purchase or that next interaction."