By Ron Kustek
Thanksgiving and Christmas provide some of the most important selling windows for businesses all year. Besides opening your door on a sunny day or putting the word “Sale” in your window, how do you plan on getting this season’s tourists to visit your business — whether in person, online or both?
Historically, tourism has contributed over one-third to our economy in Santa Cruz County. Appreciating the value of tourists and converting them to being your seasonal customers is essential for your success this upcoming holiday season.
Some of the topics we’re going to cover are those that you may not know about — which could be a problem — because if you haven’t collected or know specific information about your tourist customers, then you’re at a disadvantage to your competitors who do.
Where They Stay
You know when there’s a tourist customer who walks in your business. Since they’re not a regular customer that you likely know or recognize, you’ll probably ask if they live in the area to see if they’ve recently moved here, and if so, where they moved from.
Not being a local you may notice their un-tanned skin tone or those who actively look all around their surroundings, as first-time tourists often do. These are likely easy cues for you and your staff.
But when you talk to them, and ask where they’re from, do you bother to ask where they’re staying? Are they staying with friends, and if so, where? Are they AirBnB folks? Are they staying at one of the nearby hotels in the area?
If they’re staying at one of our many fine hotels or motels, you need to first know that (by asking) and then collect that information, to find out which may be the lodging facility that would be best for you to partner with.
Perhaps you offer special offers to those who stay at a certain hotel. Maybe you partner with the hotel to promote their location on your website and/or in your store, in exchange for them to hand out a flyer to your location, or place one in each room as a “may we suggest for our special guests, our favorite local merchants.” And always be sure to include full contact information — email, website, phone number, your physical address.
The point is, if you don’t ask, you won’t know. If you don’t have an easy tracking or info collecting system in place, you won’t know. If you’ve not trained your staff to ask this kind of question, you won’t know how you may be missing out on this season’s tourist opportunities to increase your sales.
Where They’re Connected: Socially
Is your business actively engaging with loyal or potential customers on Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook? If not, you’re likely missing out on the conversations and sharing that happens between people who find a great local store and want to share that with their friends — on Facebook or other social mobile platforms.
Trippy.com is just one of many online travel options.
If you and your staff observe a person looking at your items, taking pictures, and/or looking like they’re sharing something on their phone — that’s a great opportunity to ask what site they’re loving, and also to offer to take a picture of them next to what they may have photographed, so they can share themselves pictured with your items in your location!
This helps generate the buzz you want to be relevant to tourists, who are sharing their newfound discoveries with their friends in their network, but also likely on tourist-friendly sites like TripAvisor.
But did you know about the other popular social travel sites like Trippy? Everplaces? Gogobot or Tripit? If not, it’s time for you and your staff to brush up on your own social travel connectedness to have something in common with your tourist customers, and also a way to understand how tourists can promote your business to others who are looking for the “inside scoop” on local travel gems.
Directing Foot Traffic To Enter
Finally, don’t underestimate the value of being able to entice the senses of customers to walk into your location. There are some tried-and-true means depending on the type of business you own.
If you’re a bakery, directing the buttery-smell of hot pastries outside is a great way to attract customers. Coffee shops can also direct the aromas of their brews outside in order to intrigue a passerby’s sense of smell — which is one of our most powerful senses.
If you’re a clothing store that also sells perfumes or colognes, perhaps a fine-misting every 10 minutes outside your location will intrigue those to enter. And on blistering-sunny-hot days, consider outdoor water misters that help refresh those walking by — so that they’re instantly thankful for their refreshing experience, and turn to find out more of what you’re offering inside …
With so many new customers coming to enjoy family and friends this holiday season, be sure you’re able to get tourists to visit and buy from your business so they’ll happily be sharing, talking about (and coming back to you) for years to come!
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Ron Kustek is a former senior executive at The Coca-Cola Co. and small business owner who is currently a business instructor at Cabrillo College. Contact him at [email protected].