What can or does your LDS need to do to EARN your business?

[ptyx]

+1 on building the community. Beach clean-ups, pumpkin carving, site recommendations and local trips are good.

In case it hasn't been said yet (I skimmed through the thread, but can't pretend I read everything....):

For fills, convenience is a huge plus. Most shops can't afford giant compressors or banks the size of a bus. I don't have the time to wait hours waiting for my fills. However, if I can drop my tanks after work (late) and pick them up a couple days later it works really well for me. Bonaire's fill stations are perfect in that regard - although unpractical anywhere else. While I'm dreaming, I'd easily pay double for home delivered tanks (it works for pizza after all...).

 

[themagni]

Wow, you guys have jerks running your shops. The shops here must have realized that they split the money from the local diving community and sometimes someone will buy gear elsewhere. I have never heard anyone in a shop say anything bad about one of the other shops, or even with buying gear used. The closest we have is a local joke, wherein 2800 PSI is known as a "[LDS name] fill." Everyone uses the expression, including the divemasters that run out of that same shop. On a pre-check, you can say, "Standard [LDS name]" and they will write down 2800. I kid you not.

One shop, when I brought in a used BC I bought 2nd-hand from a tech diver for $40 (it was bubbling a little so he wanted to ditch it), had the attitude of "Wow, nice, you _stole_ it. We sell Aquaseal and Cotol, and here's how you patch a leak." I eventually traded that BC in at that same shop when Aqualung had a WTX trade-in special on a few years ago. (I got the Harness, WTX4, hoses, and weight pouches for $500 plus the old BC) The owner said, "Wait, this is that $40 BC, isn't it? Well, you got your money's worth!"

I get my tanks filled at whatever shop is closest. Nobody's ever given me grief about where I got a vis last time. I usually to go to the shop that charges $5 instead of the shop that charges $9, but I'm not going to drive all over town to save $4.

 

[Tropicalwolf]

Space is ahuge issue. I havebeen in several LDSs that have "offices" for the manager that rival sales floor space. Hey, manager/owner, guess what...your "office" isbehind the register or on the sales floor. Free up your "office" for more retail, or waiting space as others suggested.

And how about this...

Every dinky craft store my wife goes to has a "rewards" program or card. Something like a "punch" per dollar spent. How about every five air fills earns a free fill? But "free" is the ultimate four-letter word at an LDS.

Wow, novel business ideas like these could bring LDSs back from the brink...but will customers ever forgive the years of price gouging??? Not likely unless you step up your game.

 

[Kingpatzer]

What other things would you like to see or what would get you to come back to the shop?

Are you a CD or do you have access to one? One of the things my shop does is build an instructor core that is simply unparalleled by others. They get people with very diverse interests on-board so the owner doesn't have to do everything, and so there's a wide variety of offerings. Literally every weekend there's something being run by someone. It allows the owner to focus on the retail side of things, and the instructor core to provide the customer facing experiences. We also have a very long internship program for DMs and Instructors, to ensure the quality of the people and their ability to deal with a wide variety of students and customers.

If you're not able to train your own instructors, consider a long term target of getting to that point.

 

[lmorin]

Make deals with your patrons. Make it clear that if they stick with you, you will do for them. Then, do it. I took price quotes to my LDS and asked if they could match them and they did. Won me instantly.

Accept cash and give a discount.

Tell your customers how they can get a better deal from you.

Create a "best customer" category and give them discounts on everything.

Dispense equipment advice that is always truthful and helpful. You will become totally trusted. Then, do nothing to undermine that trust.

Give away small parts at no cost purely as a marketing device. Example, the oval yoke on my first stage got bent in a tank accident aboard a dive boat. As a result, the tank o-ring would not seal properly 50% of the time. My LDS owner took some convincing to believe there was a problem because it was very hard to see, but once he agreed, he took a good, spare yoke and swapped it for mine. He also gave my wife a free weight pouch for her BC after she lost one while diving.

Hold holiday parties. My LDS has a Christmas/winter party every year and the tank fill station is configured to deliver beer as well as air. Everybody brings something.

Have a few beers in the cooler for whoever happens to be around at the end of the day or weekend.

Encourage your customers, and those you'd like to be customers, to just drop by and gossip about where they've dived, are going to dive or want to dive. Maybe they'll bring the beer.

Create a locale in the shop where customers can show their photos.

Create locale in the shop for diving related notices placed by you or customers, e.g., announcements of trips, or condos for rent, etc.

 

[Tropicalwolf]

I sense Imorin likes beer

 

[Kingpatzer]

Hold holiday parties. My LDS has a Christmas/winter party every year and the tank fill station is configured to deliver beer as well as air. Everybody brings something.

Have a few beers in the cooler for whoever happens to be around at the end of the day or weekend.

I would be EXTREMELY leery of serving alcohol. Aside from inevitable questions of if you need a liquor license since you are a for-profit business, there is a very real liability issue you incur the instance you provide alcohol. It's just not a good risk/reward move. Parties are a great idea, but they need to be offsite and either held in a business that has a liquor license, or as a BYOB event.

 

[pnw_diver]

Well, I spend quite a bit of money at one of my local dive shops, and another lost my business. Why?

* Each employee has taken the effort to learn my name and greet me as I enter the store.
* Training is professional, competent, regularly scheduled in advance, plus can be scheduled on an as-needed basis provided that at least two students will attend.
* Orders go in promptly, and I get my stuff when it's promised.
* They stock a fair amount of stuff.
* They regularly schedule free "fun dives" as well a book charters and trips at competitive prices.

One of the things that really impressed me was this - I ordered a custom Bare drysuit, which arrived a few days before a dive that I really wanted to dive dry. The course director took me and another student out to do our dry suit class/cert on a weekday to accomodate both of our schedules.

I do have a few beefs with them - On one occasion I've gotten short fills (there's not much excuse for a short fill when they've had my tanks for 3 days), and prices are generally MSRP (though anyone enrolled in a class automatically gets a discount). They also don't service some of the gear that I use.

 

[cerich]

For sure! Coffee and a tank fill sounds like a great idea!

Another thing, sort of related, put some work into finding people buddies and providing info about local dive sites. Actually a great idea for an LDS might be a posted monthly calendar where customers can come in and write their name on a date they have available for diving and a phone number or something, other customers can then come in an do the same or just grab a phone number and make a call.

This would bring foot traffic into the store as well as keep people diving more which ultimately results in more tank fills, more gear repairs, more gear purchases etc etc.

they can also do this thru facebook as well, simple cheap and fits in with the lifestyles of the current consumer base.....

 

[Kingpatzer]

they can also do this thru facebook as well, simple cheap and fits in with the lifestyles of the current consumer base.....

An active, well-thought out net presence is a vital part of the modern retail operation. But the key is it has to be quality. It is often going to be the first impression your potential customers will get. A poor net presence can be very damaging. This is an area where most people need professional help to do it right.