Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

Some people call it “taking a survey.” Some call it interviewing your consignment, thrift or resale shop customers. Since it’s face-to-face (even though a bunch of interviews will yield survey-like results) I like to think of it as

a structured chat with willing customers.

If your shop is in its slow season, you might consider doing this.

Just a few, VERY few, open-ended questions to sit down and ask your customers. Record the answers on a pad, or, with their express permission, on a voice recording for later transcription and analysis. Questions like:

What brought you in today?

Think back to your last couple of visits… what motivated you then?

What do we do well?

What could we do better, that you think would help us be an even better shopping source for you?

That’s it. Of course, if you are talking to suppliers (consignors, sellers, donors) you’d vary these questions, but you’re still asking, basically, the same stuff. What brings your shop to mind to them; why they make a trip; what they LIKE about your business and what they’d CHANGE.

If you’re intrigued by the idea of surveying your customers but would rather do a written survey, our Customer Opinion Survey Kit  at Too Good to be Threw will save you hours of designing one. (And it has great tips, too, with what to DO with your results.)

And Jurek, as always, has brilliant insights here: A Hidden Benefit of Customer Surveys (#5 is SO important, now that it’s slow and you have some time…)

Save