Joe Capillo, long time contributing editor at FURNITURE WORLD Magazine, and 30-year industry veteran has launched Top Line Strategies, a consultancy targeted at helping home furnishings retailers deal with the unique challenges of the new retail reality that has emerged from the current economic crisis.
“If change was ever more important than now, I’ve not seen it in my career," said Joe Capillo. "It has to be obvious to every furniture retailer that continuing to perform in the same old ways is not going to get you through these troubled times. My fear for many retailers is that they will dig-in and become even more entrenched in the thinking of the past, and not be prepared for what is the new reality. Everything has changed in a flash. The old marketing methods won’t work, old thinking about how business should be conducted won’t work, and the way you engage and interact with your customers needs to change.
"But change how?" he continuted, "How can you make sure the changes you make are the right ones? How can you keep people employed who depend on you for their livelihood? How can you change the deeply-rooted thinking and feelings of your people to be more effective with customers starting immediately?
"The key issues of becoming more customer-centric in your actions and retaining customers over the long term are critical to every retailer’s future success, and by 'future' I mean now. Are you ready for selling through your website? Do you recognize that your website is the first place you meet prospective buyers? Are you still using the same engagement strategy when they finally come to your store?"
About Joe Capillo: As one of the industry’s most gifted writers, motivational speakers, management and sales trainers, Joe Capillo offers retailers the kind of current approaches pressing problems at home furnishings retail.
Joe brings three decades of retail management and consulting with some of our industry’s major players to his consulting, plus strong relationships with other consultancies that specialize in areas such as strategic web development, power systems for front-end and back-end management, marketing, and advertising.
For more information, visit Joe’s website at www.joecapillo.com to read current blogs, and join a discussion group.