TAKING CHARGE

Lockdown has given us the time – and incentive – to review how we do things and examine if there is a better way. Maria Musgrove has come down in favour of paid-for appointments

When life gives you known quote “To be or not to be” this is We need to ensure that every bride lemons, make a question of life or death. counts and that we have the maximum lemonade is a The questions should be: “To have chance of selling to her. proverbial phrase used our time wasted or not?” and “To value BC shopping for a wedding gown to encourage optimism and a positive our expertise or not?” If ever there is a was a recreational hobby for many can-do attitude in the face of adversity time to introduce a charge it is NOW! brides with comments like: “I’m going or misfortune. Lemons suggest everywhere with everyone sourness or difficulty in life; making lemonade is turning In the first week of re-opening, I to try on everything and then I’ll make a shortlist of my them into something positive or took 11 appointments at £35 (£385 favourites and go back to all of desirable. I’m sure that we would all almost paid for my PPE, infrared those shops again”. Even Randi Fenoli himself would have zero agree that Covid-19 falls into thermometer, LED ring etc) and eight chance of a “Yes to the Dress” the category of both sourness to this bride with her FOMO and difficulty so how to turn this out of 11 brides bought (Fear of Missing Out) mindset. around to something positive? I had two other catalysts

BC (Before Covid) many boutiques Why now and how to do it? With a that helped my decision to charge for wanted to charge for appointments robust risk assessment of quarantining all appointments and not just Saturday but were too scared to, fearing it dresses, a cleaning protocol that rivals appointments. One happened BC and could be the kiss of death to their that of Mrs Hinch and a stockpile of the other was DL (During Lockdown). business. Five years ago I was filled PPE and hand sanitiser, it inevitably At my Go Bridal boutique I didn’t with fear when I started charging £25 means that our cost of sales will charge for Saturday appointments for Saturday appointments as the first increase and the number of brides and our no shows and last minute few requests were met with refusals to we can see will decrease. I’ve already cancellations in January and February pay! To charge or not to charge? That spent £1,000 across two boutiques were at an all-time high. So I started is the Question. Like Hamlet’s welland I’m reordering masks already. charging a £20 booking fee refundable

upon ordering a gown. The first Saturday in March when everyone paid I had the best Saturday I’ve ever had with four new bridal orders, two samples sold, two bridesmaid orders and two prom orders – a 100% conversion rate. And nothing had changed apart from the charge.

My next example doesn’t have such a happy ending. During lockdown, a bride who had been back to the boutique in July 2019 contacted me saying her wedding was now in October and she wanted to re-try her favourite dress. She had a new baby, lived 20 minutes away so I said I’d do a mini virtual appointment and take over three dresses – her favourite and others. I flirted with the thought of charging her £150 for my time and as a deposit but, big mistake, I didn’t.

The good news is she said “Yes to the dress” but the bad news is that it wasn’t with me. What she did was choose the dress she wanted (courtesy of my concierge dress deliveroo) and went online and bought it from a competitor at half the price. This gown, from a 2020 collection, was so new that I still hadn’t paid the invoice – I’m not sure I’ve even paid it now!

I spent a fair bit of time analysing what had happened. Had I charged for that appointment and she was ‘into me’ for £150, I know that we could have worked out a deal. I naively thought that being kind to a new hormonal mother living locally during lockdown would have guaranteed me the sale. What I learned was that the rule of reciprocity is much more effective if there is some financial commitment.

Who was at fault? Not her… but me for not charging. I felt well and truly ‘mugged’ and vowed that I need to either ‘Earn or Learn’.

So learning from that (still slightly raw) experience I made a decision that all appointments both weekend and during the week would be chargeable at £35 at Pantiles bride and £20 at Go Bridal, refundable upon ordering a new gown (not on purchase of a sample gown or with any other discounts or designer day offers). The result is that from reopening on 15 June in the first week I took 11 appointments at £35 (£385 almost paid for my PPE, infrared thermometer, LED ring etc) and eight out 11 brides

bought. Boom!

Learning from the experienced

The other way I’ve been making lemonade out of my ‘lockdown lemons’ is to further develop the new Get Savvy membership group. Most days have seen me on a Zoom call with my co-founder Christine Skilton designing and delivering new learning modules from Instagram to Ideal Customer, Pinterest to Partner 100, Mailchimp to Making Money. And our specially-created Get Savvy War Room has been dedicated to reopening with confidence.

The main Get Savvy group was created with the aim of unlocking the secrets of successful bridal boutiques. It is a members’-only group that offers online training and networking accessible any time, any place anywhere – with or without a martini.

Whether you’re starting up, selling up, fed up, or somewhere in between, this group could be the answer to your problems. Get Savvy is the 2020 way of working on your business rather than in your business.

To find out more and get on the waiting list for when membership re-opens, go to https://boutiquepulse.com/ getsavvy-waitinglist37026079%20 %20 or email Christine or Maria on getsavvy@boutiquepulse.com