My relatively new (and definitely under warranty) 2430DL died…rather spectacularly… (There was a stomach churning THUNK and then a *FATAL ERROR CODE*!

This was, of course, on a weekend! I went to the K-M site and left a Service request with the error message. Within about 12-18 hours, I had an email reply telling me that they were *escalating my call*. Note, this was still during the weekend!

First thing Monday AM, I get a nice telephone call from a REAL person. Now due to circumstances at my end, I wasn’t able to connect up with the K-M representative (henceforth referred to as the K-M Printer Elf) until Wednesday. The ELf and I discuss the problem, try one quick fix and my wonderful K-M Printer Elf, declare Minnie #1 officially dead. ;-(

The K-M Printer Elf IMMEDITATELY ships me a new printer and it arrives on Friday AM!

There is a mix-up while I am transferring the toner cartridges and I end up having to wait until Monday to get detailed help from the Elf…

Due to a variety of circumstances, the new Minnie was unable to recognize the half used toner cartirdges I had installed. I called the Elf (who was endlessly patient, btw) and he told me that he’d send out NEW, high capacity cartridges OVERNIGHT Mail…

He suggests I call either him or their service center when the new cartridges arrive and they will talk me thru that installation since there may be a need to tweak setttings…

The new cartridges arrive, the Elf takes 30 minutes to talk me thru everything…patiently, as I said… and VIOLA, I have a new, wonderful printer!

I will be shipping back the old one and don’t plan to buy anything BUT K-M Printers from now on!

I use the printer to print the covers for my books and to create other products that I sell, so believe me, this is a BIG issue for me! Service like this is a rare, rare thing and worth its weight in Marketing Gold!

Thank you, K-M Printer Elf and Konica-Minolta!

Tink

Recent statistics indicate that more and more often people are turning to the Internet — instead of the yellow pages — to find local businesses like yours that are close to home. Check out these stats from the Kelsey Group…

• 74% of households now use the Internet as an information source when shopping locally!
• Approximately 45% of people searching locally intended to buy!
• Respondents who used traditional Yellow Pages decreased from 75% to 62%

As a local business owner, it’s crucial to realize that the Internet is now — more than ever — an extremely important tool for attracting customers.

This issue is just one of those that we’ll be discussing at the Marketing Edge for Retailers site!

Keep watching. I hope/plan to go live in the next week…

I’ll announce it here and in the Groups.
Tink

http://www.gitomer.com/index.cfm

Today he was talking about how the internet is affecting the sales process and discussing buying an automobile. The couple of points that I found were significant are:

*quote*

Because an automobile is so personal, most customers want to see it, touch it, and drive it before they purchase it.

*end quote*

*quote*

10 years ago, the average consumer visited 4.1 dealers before making a purchase. Today, they visit 1.7. The customer shows up ready to buy. It’s up to the salesperson to create an atmosphere where the sale can take place.

*end quote*

The bold italics are mine!

Granted, a car is a BIG purchase, but the issues I mention here are issues that Needlework and Quilt Retailers face everyday. Are you and your employees *creating an atmosphere where the sale can take place*?

Here is a LINK to the FULL article.

Tink

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TRAVEL/06/19/trend.fishing.ap/index.html

First off, who can NOT love the idea of Pink Waders and fishing equipment. Way back when, I was a union stagehand in IATSE. I spray painted ALL of my tools pink, and let me tell you… if any of the guys borrowed them, they were quick to return them! *VeryBigGrin*

But, ignoring everything else… this is the paragraph that most got my attrention:

*quote*

Outdoor marketers have found it makes good business sense to reach out to women, said Monica Pelletier, spokeswoman for the national Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation.

“The thinking used to be that the man is the one who goes fishing and he’s going to decide whether to take the family along, but really it’s the woman who decides where to take the family. She determines the activities,” Pelletier said.

*end quote*

The bold, italics are my own and sure give me something to think about! Are we in Needlework and Quilting giving ANY thought to this significant fact? Hmmmmm……

I have some specific ideas that I intend to share with my Gold member Retailers!

Tink

Now, clearly, you’ll get NO argument from me about what a great movie it is! However, I did get a tingle… a marketing tingle…

The significant phrease for me was *the group’s annual top-100 TV special*

So here is the plan… (rubbing hands together, gleefully)

Choose one of your shop’s Hot Spots… put together a display of the Top 10 New Designs… This could be done just once a year… but my inclination is to do it monthly. Make it a regular feature of the shop… include Employee choices to maximize the branding potential.

If some of the designs are from new designers, include information about the designer… remember, Needlework and Quilting are personality driven industries! Use this to your advantage!

Scheming in KY,

Tink

The response to the Marketing Edge has been fantastic… beyond my wildest dreams, in fact.

I have always been confident about its usefulness and I feel strongly that it could be the key to survival for many of us in these challenging times. I was immensly gratified that many of the retailers saw the potential immediately.

I am setting the Retailers site up as a two tier membership site. The software is being installed even as I type. I hope to have the site go live by the end of this week.

Membership will be vetted, since I don’t want non-professionals involved.

The timing on all of this has been remarkable. I explained about the importance of using a double-optin email system on Friday. On Saturday, one of the retailers who had taken my class stopped by the booth to tell me that AOL is blocking her show report emails!

I had been going to put up the info quickly but now I realize that the problem has started so this will some of the initial info I put up.

I want to get the Retailers site up and running and then I will start on the Designers site, probably at the end of the summer.

Tink