The typical apparel vendor understands this dilemma and tailors their line accordingly. They carry basic cotton twill and micro-fiber slacks precut to three inseams, an array of shorts in season including some fancies and seersucker and an occasional dress slack in meat sizes to spruce up a collection. There are a few vendors like ‘Greg Norman’ that will allow you to send back what you don’t sell for credit.
The member/regular customer has also been programmed accordingly to not expect too much of a selection and is probably buying the majority of their ‘bottoms’ at the local men’s haberdashery or Department Store. This is a programming that needs to be reversed. The ‘neglected bottom’ needs to become the category we service above and beyond – cutting edge.
There are a number of vendors who are appropriate partners for attacking this project. I am going to talk about the Corbin program because it’s the one I’m the most familiar with and also I believe the brand name, quality and price have the best chance of making this effort resonate with your clientele
Corbin provides a catalog with a full array of tailored clothing including sport coats, suits and all the selection of slacks that one could ever need or dream of that can be ordered in stock sizes, cut and cuffed to needed lengths. They also provide partnering shops with a counter-size swatch box that holds about 120 swatches from which one can order custom-made slacks. Ah, the plot thickens.
Once properly fit and the specs are put into a database all a member/customer has to do to order slacks is pick the swatch of fabric and color he’s interested in and wait twelve days for the slacks to be made and delivered. This saves him the initial shopping trip and the subsequent pick-up trip to wherever he has been buying his slacks and having them tailored. This process, if handled correctly, should also provide him with a better fit.
The only real issue is the proper fit. Some suggestions to insure this is not a problem would be:
- Have the vendor provide a training seminar to which all staff and better customers are invited where everything one needs to know about measuring pants will be explained and everyone that attends will be fit by another attendee and be the first customers put in the database. An afternoon or evening seminar like this is fun, sends an incredible message about the the cutting edge service we keep mentioning and will definetly create interest and orders.
- Take a member/member tournament or an IBM-like outing where there is a big enough favor budget to give away a pair of custom-made slacks and have everyone show up an hour before their tee-time to be properly fit and put into the system. Their slacks can be picked up later at the shop or drop-shipped, but the point is they are in the database. They are a future customer.
- Make sure that the your vendor partner allows you to actually send a pair of slacks from which to take a measurement - then the sales pitch in the shop becomes – ‘Just bring me the slacks that fit you the best and we will build the order from those.’
- The vendor also needs to understand that any mistakes must be handled as reasonably as possible and that the customer is never wrong. The shop staff cannot be made to fear this effort; in fact it only will be successful if it is perceived as the new fun thing to do. Implementing this program properly and exciting your staff about it can turn the ‘neglected bottom’ category into a huge new source of revenue given the perceived service, the selection and the savings in time and effort to the customer.
Corbin is in Booth 5395 in Orlando, talk to Mark Thiele. Tell him Craig said Hi.
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