Sears Hometown Shop Talk – Take a Little Raford with You

Sep

30

2009

Most people will read this title and think to themselves, what could “take a little Raford with you” possibly mean? To me, it is personal reminder of how important the customer is in retail.  It is easy to get caught up in the daily activities or running a retail store or working for a large corporation and forget about the most important asset that any retailer has.  It is not the inventory, the store location, the land or even the brand image, it is the customer.

 

On my first trip to Northern California with my wife some years ago, we were stumbling through the Russian River valley with no real plan.  It was a fly by the seat of your pants vacation, no plans, we will figure out as we go along.   Looking for a place to stay one night, we stumbled upon a bed & breakfast with a couple of palm tress in the front yard and I said “we have to go in here”.

 

Well, needless to say,   that was my first Raford House experience and now I cannot go to California without a stay there.  The inn is always neatly kept and clean, not fancy, but not shabby by any means.   The difference that this inn has over any other in the area is the innkeepers, Rita and Dane.  Both go out of their way to make sure every guest in their home is comfortable.  They make you feel as though you are one of the family and not simply a patron who is paying to stay there.

In the morning, Rita makes one of the best breakfasts that you will have and Dane is always there to greet the guests and to talk about what plans they may have for the day before he heads off to work.   He makes sure everyone has directions to where they are going and points out the best place to stop for lunch, wine or if you want to canoe on the Russian River.  The thing that stands out the most to me is this: Before Dane leaves and the guests head out on their daily adventures, Dane gathers Rita in front of the fireplace, thanks everyone for spending part of their vacation with them, wishes everyone a great day full of fun and exploration, and for those who have to leave and go home to make sure and “take a little Raford with you” wherever you go.

 

All departing guests are given a special gift when they leave. It is not a 10% off coupon for your next stay or a bottle of wine; it is a large bear hug from Dane.  Many people have probably read Jack Mitchell’s book, “Hug Your Customer”.  I would venture to say that Dane has not read Jack’s book nor did he go to business school to learn the theories of customer satisfaction and the best methods for customer retention.   It is the simply the theory of making a personal connection with every customer and making them feel special.  It is as simple as thanking every customer who decides to walk through your door, even if they are not buying, and make them feel as though they are the most important asset that you have. Help all of your customers “take a little Raford with them” as they leave your store.

 

I would like to hear about a customer service experience that was above and beyond what you expected.  Please reply to this blog post and let me know about your experience

About Me

 

My name is Jon Phillips. I am the Director of Field Business Development for the Sears Hometown Stores. I look forward to hearing about your great customer service experiences.

 

About Sears Hometown Stores

 

Sears Hometown Stores are two Sears store formats located away from shopping malls. Hometown Store is locally owned and operated Sears stores and Home Appliance Showroom is the leader in home appliance shopping. Our friendly and knowledgeable store owners and showroom managers proudly serve your local community and offer you largest selection of home appliances, tool and lawn and garden equipment, and home electronics, exceptional customer service, best price guaranteed plus credit, delivery, installation and protection agreements.

 

Sears Hometown Stores established in 1993

www.SearsHomeTownStores.com

 

Sears Home Appliance Showroom established in 2007

www.SearsHomeApplianceShowroom.com

 

Sears in Spanish

http://espanol.sears.com

    

Who said it’s not easy being green?

Apr

24

2009

Little Miss Practical

 

Hi! I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Little Miss Practical. And, my goal is to share practical tricks and tips to help you save – save money, save time, and save the environment, amongst other things.

In my quest to be “green,” I purchased a Kill-A-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor last winter, and I spent a happy winter weekend day learning how much electricity different “items” in my house were consuming.

What’d I learn?

• My desktop computer was using a lot more energy than I realized. Taking the 15 minutes to change the configuration on my computer to have it go into sleep mode was 15 minutes well spent.
• An old VCR that I never used was consuming energy even when it wasn’t being used. I put it on a power strip for a year and this past January I dropped it off at the recycling center.
• The refrigerator that came with the house was an energy hog. It was probably ~20 years old. How much of an energy hog? It was over 10% of my monthly electricity bill and used twice the energy of my new fridge! The new fridge was in the kitchen and I had been using the old one in the garage for extra storage.

Now, there’s no guarantee your results will match mine. But, it certainly was an eye opener, learning what was consuming a lot of the electricity in my home. If I hadn’t done the audit, I would have focused more on turning out the lights instead of unplugging the extra, older refrigerator.

After We Haul It Away… Then What?

Apr

18

2009

By Sterling

So your refrigerator is 20 years old and sort of leaking fluids the color of Play-Doh – obviously, it’s time to get a new one, but how environmentally friendly is throwing that old fridge away?  

I ran the same question through some people (responses ranged from helpful to “What are you doing with a 20-year-old fridge in the first place?”), and found out that, rest assured, Sears does a good job with recycling your old appliances after we deliver the new ones.  In fact, we’re the only retailer who has joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's voluntary Responsible Appliance Disposal (RAD) Program.  That means that we’re committed to disposing refrigerators, freezers, dehumidifiers and window air conditioners in an environmentally friendly way.  However, those are just sound bites, and I’m a numbers person.  What is the real impact here?

According to the EPA, an average refrigerator manufactured before 1995 (the average lifespan being around 10-11 years) contains the following:

• Metal, plastic and glass casing/refrigerator shell:  159 lbs metal, 75 lbs plastic, 10 lbs glass
• Used oil (may be contaminated):  0.47 lbs
• PCBs (May be contained in capacitor): small quantities
• CFC-11 foam insulation:  1 lb
• CFC-12:  0.5 lb
• Mercury-containing components:  0.003 lb

Since roughly one out of three new refrigerators are purchased from Sears, that’s a whole lot of recycling!  Even better – here are the actual numbers from 2008:

• Refrigerant (including recovered from compressor oil) – 255,769 lbs. reclaimed and/or incinerated
• Foam Blowing Agent – 9,053 lbs. reclaimed and 90,530 lbs. destroyed
• Used Oil – 57,494 gal. reclaimed
• Metal (ferrous/non-ferrous) – 44,338,000 lbs. recycled
• Rubber – 831,339 lbs. recycled
• Plastic – 5,542,000 lbs. recycled

In case you’re wondering, that’s about the equivalent of recycling 100 million plastic bottles!  

P.S.   Yep, April’s still going on – that means an extra 5-10% off Energy Star-qualified Kenmore Elite appliances all month.  And yes, you can choose to have us haul away and recycle your old appliance for free. Check out our Live Greener area on Sears.com