I haven’t designed any auto-body repair shops. But if I ever do, I would emulate what BumperDoc is doing. I’d also urge any retailer to emulate their customer-service process.

It started when I noticed BumperDoc’s freestanding sign and business cards at a car wash. They promised fast ding repair at prices lower than larger collision-repair shops. The sign prominently displayed their phone number, web address (www.bumperdoc.com, of course,) and street address. Since my car has a few dings that I’ve been meaning to get fixed, I grabbed a card from the rack.

Then I visited their website, which gives a full menu of services offered. The site even lets you upload photos of your vehicle’s dings and dents so a service rep can call or email a quote to you. I just sent a description of my car’s blemishes. As promised, I received a phone call within 30 minutes. There was no pressure, no hard sell, just an honest appraisal of what repairs probably would cost. The rep said to drop by at my convenience so he could take a better look and give a more accurate estimate.

When I did stop by, I was impressed. The site isn’t your typical body-repair shop. Instead, it’s a clean, well-lighted place with white floors, white walls and white ceilings throughout. I didn’t see a single grease stain. The paint shop for larger repairs is just a few steps away, but you’d hardly know it’s there. It looked pretty clean, too.

The customer-service room has large windows facing the repair floor, so you can see exactly what they’re doing to your vehicle. If you need to wait, you can settle into a comfy chair and enjoy some free snacks. Or complete a customer satisfaction survey, something I’d never seen in any auto-related business. From service reps to technicians, each employee treated me with courtesy and respect.

The rep took that closer look at my car’s dings, then gave me a written estimate. I told him I’d be back after getting my brakes relined. Again, no pressure from him to lock in a date and time.

BumperDoc only has one location now, but plans to open more. I think they have a winning combination: a waiting area that invites you to linger; clear signage that explains each available service and its cost; a helpful, interactive website; plus relaxed, informative customer-service reps.

So far, they’ve delivered on all their promises, from calling me back to giving a fast on-site estimate. If they can make my dings disappear, they’ll get even more positive word-of-mouth from me.

If you can promise the same level of attention as BumperDoc, I’d say your customers are less likely to ding you where it counts–in loyalty and at the cash register.

At TRIO we get the initial store design ideas from our clients in every stage of gestation. So it wasn’t entirely surprising when Dimples, an upscale baby furniture boutique in New York, came to us with only a rough sketch of a floor with dimensions penciled in the margins and a photo of the existing storefront. Head designer Jeff Grant quickly accessed similar projects in TRIO’s portfolio and started a phone and email dialogue with the client. Sketches and elevations were exchanged via email and from this dialogue Jeff designed a stylish, contemporary showcase for high-end cribs, bassinets, strollers, and high chairs.

Old New York brick buildings and their idiosyncratic design can prove to be problematic when it comes to retail lay-out, and this project was no exception. The offending “feature” in this case of was a brick 68”-wide opening bisecting the middle of the space. The opening couldn’t be widened to make it an uninterrupted space, so the TRIO design team turned a negative into a positive by placing a custom fixture centered just on the other side of the opening. The opening became a doorway, the floor fixture inviting customers to pass through to the back of the store, subtly elevating the product therein by its implied exclusivity.

Per the modern, urban design, the color palette tended towards light, mild hues, and plenty of wood finishes were used throughout. Open shelves were designed where traditional store design may have suggested cubbies. This lent versatility to merchandising and contributed toward creating an impression of space.

The rough sketch we started with should be fully three-dimensional and open for business sometime early this fall.

Contact: Jeff Grant
800-454-4844
858-539-7550

SAN DIEGO, May 21, 2007 – Displaying merchandise on countertops, at trade shows or any other setting is safe and easy with a new selection of portable display cases from retail design and store-fixture firm TRIO Display.

“Whether for in-store, trade show, swap meet or traveling sales, our countertop display cases are perfect for any merchandising need,” said TRIO president Jeff Grant.

“They’re made of lightweight, sturdy aluminum, with steel locks for security and steel hinges for added durability. You can even keep the top open to give customers a closer look at what you’re selling.”

All display cases are designed with safety in mind. Nothing hangs from the top that could scrape arms or snag clothing when reaching into the case. Easily assembled without tools, single-shelf display cases feature:

- Durable anodized aluminum frame

- Extra-strength heat-tempered safety glass

- Choice of colors gold, silver or black

For larger displays, TRIO offers a case with two adjustable shelves and an open back for easy access.

Priced from $192 to $535, portable display cases are available at http://www.triodisplay.com/portable. To talk to a customer service representative, call 800-454-4844.

About TRIO Display

TRIO Display is a retail design and store-fixture company based in San Diego, California. TRIO specializes in planning and outfitting retail spaces that “look good and sell goods.” TRIO delivers effective, intelligent design that builds a relationship between brand and customer. TRIO clients include many professional sports-team stores, the Ronald W. Reagan Presidential Library and Museum Bookstore, and the RMS Titanic exhibit store. To order from the TRIO catalog, visit www.triodisplay.com/catalog or call 800-454-4844.

About Jeff Grant

With more than 20 years’ experience designing and outfitting successful retail spaces, TRIO Display president and chief designer Jeff Grant works with 1,000-plus merchants annually designing stores, supplying retail fixtures and displays, and dispensing advice, ideas and suggestions. He can be contacted at jeff@triodisplay.com.

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Trio Display ATTN: PR 955 Turquoise Street
San Diego, CA 92109

“Going green” is a phrase that’s used a lot these days. From Al Gore to the corner store, many of us are starting to catch on to the growing green movement that promises everything from slowing global warming to better vehicle mileage to lower utility costs.

Possibly like you, I wasn’t too sure about how to join the movement, other than to buy energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs. But after my design team heard about green carpet tiles not too long ago, we started recommending them for some of our retail-store clients.

At the time, we hadn’t heard of Interface CEO Ray Anderson. It turns out the 72-year-old head of a carpet-tile manufacturing company in Atlanta is one of the main corporate evangelists for the green movement. This story about him in The New York Times is pretty interesting, especially the fact that he’s been on the green bandwagon since 1994. Back then, the only thing I knew about it was Kermit the Frog said it was something that wasn’t easy to be.

Anderson quickly realized the economic and societal benefits of taking his company green. Its products were formerly a major contributor to overflowing landfills. So he challenged his employees to look for ways to cut waste during the manufacturing process, which in turn lead to faster decay times for castoff carpet. Since 1995, the employees’ solutions have saved Interface more than $336 million. Profits are up, costs are down.

Anderson’s story challenges me to specify more products and materials that help our clients go green. I’m sure your store could find ways to join the green team as well, from carpets to light bulbs to the products you sell. It’s easy to find green goods these days. Just read the newspaper or watch TV and you’ll see that corporate America is taking Anderson’s message to heart.

Once your own clients realize that you’re going green, they should start showing their appreciation–with the green they deposit in your cash register.

…spend a little time with me on this story from Canada’s ReportonBusiness.com about why you should treat your heaviest-spending customers differently than everyone else.

The author trots out the old rule that 20 to 30 percent of your consumers buy 70 to 80 percent of your merchandise or services. Serving those 20 to 30 percent-ers can cost you more, but they spend four to 14 times as much as the rest.

His point: Invest in improving the heavyweights’ customer experience and they’ll reward you with repeat purchases, positive word-of-mouth, loyalty and the desire to buy other goods or services from you.

In my experience, it can be as easy as following up with phone calls every few weeks, assigning a permanent salesperson, holding invitation-only sales, or offering to deliver purchases to their home or office. What the big spenders really want, the author says, is consistency. They want it in everything from value to quality to selection. Providing it can actually lowering your cost of doing business.

I say make it a point to recognize who your heaviest spenders are and cater to them relentlessly. Educate your employees about the importance of serving them well. When everyone’s on the same page, even your light spenders will take notice. After all, they’re your big spenders of tomorrow.

By Jeff Grant
The good weather of spring and summer rings in the start of outdoor sales season. Whether it’s a sidewalk sale in front of your store, a swap meet, or your once-a-year warehouse sale, selling al fresco is profitable but requires special merchandising and fixturing. Here’s a rundown of fixtures and equipment that will make your retail store mobile.

• Gridwall & Gridwall Accessories
Gridwall is light, cheap, easy to put up, and can accommodate fixtures to merchandise most products. You are limited on how much of a load the grid will hold, but regardless, this display standard is the perfect platform to build your portable store upon.

• Portable Display Cases
A glass-topped portable display case is a great way to display jewelry while keeping it secure. (Shoplifting is a big problem in the uncontrolled environment of outdoor retailing.)

• Jewelry Display
Black velvet, leatherette, and acrylic mini forms, earring hang bars, etc., accentuate, highlight, and organize your jewelry.

• Clamp-on Display Lighting
With a universal clamp, display lighting can attach to any high point and enables you to spotlight and offer after-dark shopping (of course, a nearby power source permitting).

• Acrylic Counter-top Mirror
How many hat or jewelry sales have been lost for lack of a nearby mirror? A small bullet-proof acrylic mirror is an invaluable sales tool.

• Collapsible Rolling Salesman Racks
Especially convenient for sidewalk sales, a collapsible rolling rack is perfect for merchandising shirts, skirts, and jackets.

• Folding Merchandiser Tables
Light and inexpensive, a folding merchandiser table will corral loose product and the grid design allows your customers to see your product clearly.

• Bags
Low-end kraft or plastic t-shirt bags are often forgotten in outdoor retailing but are very much appreciated by the customer. Put your logo on it and you have a walking advertisement.

• Shade/Shelter
On a hot day at the swap meet, shelter from the sun will attract intended and unintended customers. It’ll protect your product too. An EZ UP shelter collapses for easy transport and won’t break the bank. Taking it a step further, think about offering thirsty shoppers free cold water.

Hopefully this list will get you started. Remember: the basic rules of retail layout still apply outdoors. Keep the aisles and sightlines open. Mix racks, tables, and other fixture types. Alternate the heights of your displays. Incorporate big graphics if you can. Above all, keep it visually interesting and the product accessible. Good luck!

You don’t need to be the size of an Office Depot to benefit from their marketing knowledge. The company’s e-commerce director recently shared some great advice in an interview with MarketingSherpa.com. Rather nice of him, I think.

You certainly don’t have to be as big as Office Depot to try some of the strategies he suggests. For example, collecting data on your customer’s buying behaviors is a good way to find out what they expect from your store. It can be as simple as asking for their email addresses so you can send them a questionnaire. They can complete it online and, once you receive it, you can email them a discount coupon or an invitation to a special sale. As I’ve mentioned before, sites such as SurveyMonkey.com can help you gather this data at very affordable prices.

Another easy feedback-gathering method is follow-up phone calls. I always like it when I get such a call from an auto-repair shop or medical group. It tells me they care about my experience with them, good, bad or in between. Have you ever made follow-up calls to your customers? I’ll bet they would appreciate it. I’ll also bet that the smaller your business, the more they’ll be impressed that you called.

Office Depot also realizes that customers who get treated right in their stores are more likely to place orders on OfficeDepot.com. They even show customers how to change their computer settings for a better shopping experience online, then give them a printout of instructions. “The offline experience complements the virtual one,” the e-commerce director says.

The article is full of good ideas, so I suggest you read it. Let the ideas sink in, as I’ve done. My staff will have their marching orders soon.

Contact: Jeff Grant
800-454-4844
858-539-7550

SAN DIEGO, May 14, 2007–Water displays–one of the coolest trends in retail store design–are making quite a splash for customers of retail design and store-fixture firm TRIO Display.

“Water displays have evolved from short, bubbling panels into a new era of creative shapes such as pyramids, CD towers, tables, lamps and etageres,” said TRIO president Jeff Grant. “They’re filled with thousands of colored bubbles that support and illuminate retail merchandise.

“Water fountains and water features are cost-effective design elements that will enhance any retail space, restaurant or office. The negative ionization of moving water has long been known to improve mood and attitude while the soothing sound buffers the often-noisy retail environment.”

The water displays in TRIO’s online catalog are attractive, easy to maintain and can be customized for any particular need. All are fully self-contained and built to provide years of maintenance-free service indoors or outdoors. Prices range from about $125 for small displays to $10,000 for elaborate custom-made displays.

Most models house internal components within a black acrylic base, such as air pumps, light fixtures and interchangeable color filters. Downward lighting is provided within the header of some models.

To view TRIO Display’s large selection of water displays, visit www.triodisplay.com/water. To talk to a customer service representative, call 800-454-4844.

About TRIO Display
TRIO Display is a retail design and store-fixture company based in San Diego, California. TRIO specializes in planning and outfitting retail spaces that “look good and sell goods.” TRIO delivers effective, intelligent design that builds a relationship between brand and customer. Trio clients include many professional sports-team stores, the Ronald W. Reagan Presidential Library and Museum Bookstore, and the RMS Titanic exhibit store. To order from the TRIO catalog, visit wwww.triodisplay.com/catalog or call 800-454-4844.

About Jeff Grant
With more than 20 years’ experience designing and outfitting successful retail spaces, TRIO Display president and chief designer Jeff Grant works with 1,000-plus merchants annually designing stores, supplying retail fixtures and displays, and dispensing advice, ideas and suggestions. He can be contacted at jeff@triodisplay.com

Trio Display ATTN: PR 955 Turquoise Street San Diego, CA 92109

The good news for online apparel retailers is good news for just about everyone else who sells retail on the Web. I expect this story will be all over the mainstream media for a day or so: Online retail clothing sales reached $18.3 billion last year, $1.1 billion more than computer hardware and software sales.

The perceived hassles of ill-fitting clothes, tough return policies and the inability to touch the product have pretty much faded away. The boom in high-speed Internet connections and improved e-commerce technology give virtual clothes shoppers a new luxury item: the gift of time.

With work and family commitments, many consumers find they have less time to browse the clothing aisles at malls and standalone stores. Online, they can browse at their leisure, with great photos and fitting instructions just clicks away. Some even offer live chat with a store associate. Clothes shopping on the Web is today’s equivalent of our grandparent’s perusing the Sears or JC Penney catalog. In fact, the JC Penny’s online catalog is currently one of the most successful on the Web.

Many of my store-design clients are brick-and-mortar clothing shops, so you might think I’d look at online apparel sales as a threat to their businesses and mine. To the contrary. As I’ve mentioned several times in this blog, I see e-commerce and brick-and-mortar complementing each other as a permanent long-term strategy. Each one drives traffic to the other.

At some point, a given retailer’s physical sales might give way to the virtual, or vice versa. The former happened with TRIO Display five years ago. But as I mentioned recently, we’re considering complementing our WaveridersGallery.net site with a physical presence so potential clients can see and touch the artwork.

Online clothing’s dominance can only spell increasing acceptance for all kinds of e-commerce merchandise. If I can sell mannequins and display cases on the Web, you can sell high-touch, high -color clothing–and if you’re not, someone else is.

“You love working in retail or you wouldn’t be in it.”

That’s a phrase we’ve all heard over the years. Margo Andros is proof that it’s true. Who would’ve thought someone would be selling $20 designer panties, bras and bustiers at Grand Central Terminal in New York? Andros did. So she begged, borrowed and stole (an investor’s heart) to open her tiny boutique, which now boasts annual sales approaching $1 million.

Andros combined her passion for finding funky, closeout clothing with her desire to sell it in her own retail store. After a successful holiday sales fair at Grand Central, she convinced the Metropolitan Transit Authority to lease her a tiny spot there. It’s called Pink Slip.

The story didn’t mention that Andros now has a Pink Slip website. By looking at it, you’d think her shop is a major player in the lingerie world. But it’s really a bedroom-sized store wedged in among the name-brand shops at Grand Central.

I like her reply when asked what surprised her most about her success: “That I could follow (my instincts) and, if I followed it, it would work out OK.”

Many of us who’ve stuck it out in retail feel the same way. I can relate to Andros because, like her, I had to reinvent my company to fuel my desire to stay in retail as a designer and supplier.

Andros isn’t slowing down. She wants to set up shop in airports. After initial rejections, she’s going to try again. You have to admire that kind of persistence. And emulate it. Otherwise, you might give yourself a pink slip back to the non-retail world.