The numerous stores available to consumers have intensified competition. To stand out, a store must outdo its competition in terms of the customer experience and satisfaction. Efficient checkout counters, good merchandise selection, attractive pricing, and a well-designed store layout can help any retailer outshine competition.

All the elements of a store contribute to the customer’s perception of a service; however, the biggest impact could perhaps be at the point-of-sale. It is the make or break point in closing a deal. It is usually in waiting in line at the checkout counter that most customers complain about bad customer service.

To keep this from happening, checkout counters must be designed to be efficient and ergonomic. A good design is characterized by the system’s ability to provide maximum productivity while promoting ease in handling merchandise.

The dimensions of a checkout counter are essential and should fit just perfectly for the kind of store. Supermarkets, for instance, are expected to have larger counters to be able to carry more merchandise, speeding up the entire process.

Conveyor belts and bar code scanners are always ideal to have especially for high-traffic stores. These make it convenient for the customer and the cashier staff. It also doubles the transaction time.

Studies show that faster transactions at the counter result to overall cost reduction. Speed of service is always one of the criteria a customer looks at in choosing a store and fast service never fails to impress. This can only happen if checkout counters and the overall layout of the store was designed to make the whole shopping process smooth and fluid.

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Pan-Oston is a leader in creating efficient designs for store checkout counters, grocery checkout lanes, counter parts, merchandising displays, racks and shelving, and many more. It also offers numerous other store accessories and fixtures. Learn more about the capabilities and product portfolio of the company by visiting PanOston.com. For inquiries, call 1-800-210-2302.

The wedding business will be a big part of your income. There is money to be made in wedding business. The one thing you must remember when meeting with your prospective wedding client is emotions could be running high. Be sure to use a very calm demeanor and a soft casual voice. Make sure you have set aside plenty of time so you are not rushed. You may set the consultation for after hours. As her florist, reassure her, will do everything you can to make sure she gets the flowers she wants. You are there to help your clients through this biggest day of their lives.

Remember, it is their wedding and as a florist you are there to make sure they get their dream flowers. Talk, talk, talk; until you both feel like you understand what is being ordered and created. You will feel it when you are both on the same page. Show the bride floral books or your own wedding portfolio of your work. That is a good place to start to get ideas flowing. You will also have an order sheet and check list that you will want to go over with the bride. It will list every possible flower needed for her wedding. Go over each item and see if the bride will need that design. Once the flowers have been decided let the bride sleep on her selections for a couple of days. Tell her it would be nice to schedule a second meeting to go over things thus far in a couple of days. When your client commits, there needs to be a deposit paid for the wedding flowers. It is usually anywhere from 20%-50%, and that is usually paid as soon as the bride hires you to be her wedding florist, and then the balance must be paid before the wedding. A deposit will help with your costs of ordering flowers and supplies.

You will need to get her to commit you to her date and put down the deposit; especially, if it is a busy wedding month such as June. You can only be available so many days for so many clients, unless you want to start delegating the design process to your employees. This is perfectly okay if you feel comfortable with someone else designing the work. Make sure your employees understand the types of flowers ordered and exactly how the bride wants her special flowers to be designed. A bad wedding job done by your shop can cause major damage to your reputation. Besides if your shop gets big, or you open multiple locations, you will have to get used to your employees designing the booked wedding. Just make sure you or a selected person is quality control, because your shop reputation is on the line with every wedding you do.

In addition, you will want to be available, if the bride has requested this be a part of the service you provide to her, is being with the wedding party to make sure the flowers are properly dispersed and adorned. Will you decorate the place of ceremony and or the reception hall? Sometimes you may just drop off the flowers as a delivery, or your customer will pick up their flowers from your shop and let the family take it from there. During the wedding consultation do not forget to talk about reception flowers. Do they want you to decorate a reception location? Will they need centerpieces, bows, floral garlands, floral decorations for the cake, balloons, etc? Will they need going away flowers such a bride’s corsage or a bouquet to throw? Try to up-sell the reception flowers as they are a nice addition to your sale.

Your prospective wedding client will appreciate your attention to details, your unstressed demeanor, and your ability to communicate with her to get the bride the flowers she has maybe dreamed of since she was a little girl. You will be able to feel if your client is satisfied. If you feel she is not, keep talking until you can find a mutual solution so your shop does not suffer from negative publicity. Be sure to take lots of photos. They will become part of the value of your store. These are jobs in which you have successfully accomplished. Use them to sell other weddings or for ideas for your customers. Use them to create a press release for your business. Make sure you have all the signed releases needed from you customers if your do this.

Debra is a professional florist and consultant. She loves to design flowers, jewelry, and home interiors. She is an avid floral design instructor. Debra aspires to use the art of designing flowers in conjunction with healing from abuse and domestic violence. If anyone has any specific questions on floral topics they may email me at moabflowers@live.com. I will be glad to begin an initial consultation on the floral business. Debra also has a blog Floral Design and would love to hear from all.

I know a non-profit organization (NPO) who wants to save money by switching telephone carriers. They are looking at ways of cutting costs so they concentrated some of their effort on telephony. By reviewing the itemized bills, they calculated they could save up to 25% by switching.

While investigating this, it was determined that this NPO still had one year left on their service agreement. You see, 2 years ago, the NPO signed a three-year service agreement with this telephony provider with a heavy penalty for early termination.

Apparently, 2 years ago, the telephony provider dangled the 10% cost savings to this NPO in order to secure a contract for 3 years. If you were a telecommunications provider, how motivated would your company be if you could secure a new 3-year contract by offering your clients a 10% discount? Especially in an industry where innovation will continue to drive down provider operational costs. Even if the client decides to terminate the service agreement after 2 years, the provider would recoup a year’s worth of fees. It appears the provider has done their homework including the early termination fee into this new contract.

Hence, as a NPO, you are essentially stuck for 1 more year of service; otherwise, pay a year’s worth of fees. In retrospect for the NPO, things might now be clearer why your provider was so anxious to renegotiate. They may have framed this negotiation as a win-win although in may become clear the win was in the direction of the provider. At the time of signing this agreement, I’m sure the client (NPO) felt good about renegotiating to save about 10% on their monthly fee. What they didn’t fully consider or anticipate was the high cost of cancelling during the 3 years.

Moving forward, knowing what the client knows, even if their current telephony provider offered a 25% or 40% discount instead of the original 10%, do you think this client will sign another service agreement with this provider? What about recommending this vendor to other NPOs? How will they express their brand if asked about their value proposition with telephony?