PADI Islands

Have you ever had a customer walk through a door and want to buy something for a friend or relative who is a SCUBA diver?

You ask them what they would like to buy and they say they don’t know but they do know that the person is a SCUBA diver and has some equipment already. So the customer standing in front of you wants to give you some money but they don’t know what they want to buy. So the next question to try and narrow down their choices is usually the amount they are willing to spend so you can at least see what price bracket they are going to be in and you can offer the appropriate items (this doesn’t mean you can’t up sell though!).

Now depending on the price you could be offering to sell them equipment (from clips to regulators), courses, trips or even vouchers. Gift vouchers can be a great idea as this means that the recipient can at least come in and purchase exactly what they want and may even spend more by upgrading to the next model or package. This needs to be clearly advertised in your dive centre and on your web site. Be prepared with plenty of time for Christmas as there are many people who are already starting to buy things for their friends or family.

If you do sell the friend or relative an item that the diver already has or it doesn’t fit, is the wrong colour or they don’t like it, whilst it means that you are going to get the diver back in with the chance of possibly up-selling them a different item this will play havoc with your stock and cash flow. One solution to this problem is a ‘Wish List’.

Personal wish lists are created by people, when they compile a list of items they want. The person then distributes the copies of this list to family and friends that are likely to purchase gifts for him or her. The goal of a wish list is to facilitate communication between the gift receiver (who gets exactly what they want) and the gift giver (increased satisfaction as they know they haven’t purchased an unwanted gift).

Wish lists often contain items that a gift purchaser can obtain from a variety of retailers. However you will want to employ a type of wish list which is known as a ‘Gift Registry’. This is a wish list where all the items they have complied come from one retailer – YOU. You will maintain this list for the customer and make sure that the items are removed from the list as they are bought.

One of the most successfully UK run gift registry wish lists is the John Lewis Gift List which is used by many people as a wedding gift list as well. To set up a gift list with John Lewis you first need to register the event you are planning (birthday, wedding, anniversary etc) and the number of list holders (who has access to the wish list). Once you have completed this you then fill out your personal contact details (this is the perfect opportunity for some permission marketing – for example putting them onto your monthly newsletter).

The next step of the wish list process is to then select items online or come in to a John Lewis store to choose items in person. For a dive centre this offers a great opportunity to invite the diver into your centre so that they can be professionally advised and fitted on what items would suit their diving styles and experience.

We all talk about customer service – imagine offering yourself as their very own ‘personal shopping assistant’. This option means that you can offer more than a competing online store and therefore not have to offer any discounts (meaning more money for you!).

To add value to the ‘personal shopper’ experience – you could make it into an appointment only service. This will allow you to book it a time when you are quiet or even out of normal business hours and this will make the customer feel special as they are getting your undivided attention and a truly bespoke experience.

So once you have worked out how you are going to advertise and market your gift list you need to think of the mechanics of the process. You already have small items (clips etc) all they way up to high end items such as computers and even foreign trips. Make sure you have the option of selling gift vouchers as this will allow several people to club together to purchase more expensive items for the diver.

When a customer has come in to choose their items have some way of recording the items/services and a way of checking off the items and recording who bought them. There are many different ways to do this and using EVE you could create a sales quote for the customer and as their friends and family call in to buy things of the list they can be sold and then removed from the quote. You may even want to include a ‘gift wrapping’ service as well! Make sure you keep a list of who has bought what so the diver can respond and say thank you once they have received their gifts.

You also need some way of informing the diver’s friends and relatives that they have a wish list with you. You could have a template email you design which you personalise (put in the divers name) that you send to the diver who sends this email to all their family and friends or you give the diver cards advertising their list to post to them. Remember social networking is all the rage so the diver could Tweet or Facebook their friends to tell them (this and the email option will cost you nothing to set up!).

Make sure your dive centre staff (including your all Divemaster trainees right up to Instructor and Course Director) all know about the wish list and that they understand the process so that they can promote it to all your customers, student divers and club members. If you are going to use your staff to do the personal shopper experience spend some time with them making sure they know your products and how to promote and up-sell them.

Organise your calendar to ensure you can offer the personal shopper appointments. Factor in at least an hour if not more and make sure you have the staff rotas changed so that you are not taking telephone calls or answering questions during the personal shopping experience. This is the best opportunity you will ever have to really sit down with your customer to develop that relationship and trust bond and sell your products and services.

Have posters around the dive centre to advertise the wish list and an email to send to everyone on your customer database with a wish list form attached – we have included some template posters and a wish list form to get you started. Remember many people surf the internet and they bounce in and out of web sites so it is a good idea to get a specific wish list web site page designed and even include links from the front page.

Be catchy with your promotion – you could use lines such ‘if you want to avoid the socks and shower gel presents this Christmas pop in and create your wish list now’. If you launch this idea properly this will be a concept and marketing tool that is used all year round, not just for Christmas but for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries and even leaving do’s – be inventive. Remember you are offering something that a competing online store vying for your customers pennies can’t offer.

What are you waiting for?

Supporting media and posters (including a wish-list template) can be provided by your regional manager.