Are you doing it right?

I have a question for you today – Are you doing it right?

The “IT” that I am asking about is this – are you making it easy for your customers to identify you and your staff when they are interacting with your business in person?

Have you ever been in a store or a business and you wanted to ask a question or needed some assistance, yet you could not figure out who worked there? No one jumped out visually as an employee – making it likely that you either left the business without spending any money or that you purchased less than you intended to simply because you could not get the information you needed to make your intended purchase.

The easiest way to help your customers is to make your staff LOOK like the staff! Make it easy for your customers to spot your team members by putting your team in shirts that are in a color that coordinates with your business name and logo, and by adding your name or logo to the shirts.

If you are not sure if making shirts for your staff is really worth it, just wear a red shirt and khaki pants into the local Target store and see how many people approach you because they think that you work there. We are conditioned to view people dressed this way as employees in that environment, even when they are not!

I know that a lot of operations give their overruns and oopsie's to employees to wear. While that may seem like a practical use for these unsellable items, it also sends a message to your customers that you do make mistakes, if the mistakes are readily apparent on the shirts.

We are in the businesses of selling the importance of building and reinforcing brand identity. How can we convince our customers that staff apparel is important if we do not walk the walk ourselves? Use items that have been discontinued, or are budget friendly since you can get them at wholesale prices and drop your logo on them. When you hire someone new, have them make their own shirts as part of their training. Drop the business logo on the front or sleeve of the garment, and then have them practice other techniques such as applique on the back of the item.

Use the back of the garments to wow your customers – splash colorful impressive designs on the back of employee apparel. Go BIG – big designs, bold colors, interesting appliques, multimedia, unusual placements. If an employee is into animals, have them do a huge awesome animal design. Let them express their personal interests with what they put on the back of their garments. They become walking billboards for your business when they wear these items, at your place of business and out in your community.

If you have a bit of open machine time, fill that time on the machine by letting your staff put some spectacular work on the back of the shirts that you and your team wear. Avoid the “cobbler’s kid, the one without shoes” syndrome!