Hello 2010 - Are You A Child Friendly Year?

No, no, no . . . it can't be true. February already? Now listen 2010, you're messing with me. Slow down a bit. I need time to write this blog and send e-newsletters and twitter and sell play equipment to savvy retailers and clever doctors and it's impossible to do all that when you insist on marching on so quickly!

If you're like me, the year is racing past and your to-do list is already longer than the queue outside the Myer stocktaking sale a few weeks ago.

Fortunately, the Child Friendly Solutions customers are an organised bunch and we have shipped Play Panels to a lovely long list of shopping centres and medical practices and even a trotting club! I know! Apparently going to the trots is a great day/night out for the family and now you can cheer on your favourite filly at the Bankstown Trotting Club, knowing your toddler is happily and safely occupied with a Child Friendly Play Panel. Giddy up!

New Clients
The latest 'child friendly' gang include:

• Shepparton Medical Centre
  
• Mount Barker Central
  
• Dalyellup Family Medical Centre
  
• Monkey Mania, Chippendale
  
• Stockland Wallsend
  
• Stockland Glendale
  
• Stockland Bateau Bay
  
• Ark Vet, Lindfield
  
• Harbour Town West Beach
  
• Centro Toombul
  
• Sunshine Centre, Greenacres
  
• Alice Plaza, Alice Springs
  
• Westfield Bondi Junction
  
• Onslow Library
  
• Union Street Medical Centre, Maclean
  
• Frenchville Foodstore
  

Are you a twit?
Yes, we finally 'tweet'. You can find us at www.twitter.com/childsolutions. We are tweeting (hopefully!) interesting stuff every day, including retail information, parenting tips, play equipment ideas, inspirational business events I'm attending and sometimes really interesting stuff like what I'm planning to have for lunch (today it'll be tomato & onion tuna on country cheese crackers with a leftover-from-Christmas-shortbread chaser - scintillating huh?)


THE OCCASIONAL TIP - The mess-free way to keep play equipment clean & hygienic
An easy way to keep play equipment clean & hygienic is to use baby wipes! Keep a pack of wipes on hand to quickly wipe down toys or play panels after the child with the chocolate ice-cream cone has left. Quick, mess-free, disposable - love it.

If you're really serious and want the hospital grade variety, Tuffie Wipes, we just happen to sell them. These are the wipes hospitals use to get rid of germs from any and all surfaces. Click here to learn more.

And if you're really, really serious about preventing cross-infection, you should know that hospitals no longer use anti-bacterial sprays on surfaces because apparently the sprays just make the germs airborne. A simple soap-wipe gets rid of them all in one quick swoop. No fancy pants chemicals required. Good to know for home too huh?

You can find Child Friendly Solutions Play Panels, Play Tables and other play equipment at www.childfriendly.com.au

How to take customers from your competitors (nicely!)

Uh oh! Here comes another pram. Yikes - and a toddler too! It's yet another parent battling to do their shopping with kids in tow.

Do your staff know how to deal with an incoming mother and her tired kids? She wants to spend. She NEEDS to spend.

So how do you and your staff ensure she spends her budget in YOUR store, rather than walking out in frustration and going up the road to your competitor.

When a customer comes in to the store with children, it is often difficult to engage them in the sales process because they are distracted by their kids. Because some sales staff believe they won’t get a sale from a customer with kids in tow, parents can sometimes feel ignored or unwelcome.

Here are a few tips you and your staff can use to make it easier for everyone when children visit the store.

1. Greeting

A friendly greeting to both parent and child goes a long way towards creating a favourable first impression with the parent and doesn’t take much effort.

When you or your staff greet a child, get down to their level and say hi with a big smile, without getting too close. Children respond to a smile but shy away or get upset if you get “in their face”.

2. Get a play solution and use it as a sales tool

Having a safe play solution in-store gives your sales team the opportunity to open a dialogue with the customer whilst simultaneously offering a greatly appreciated customer service. A good introduction might be:

“Hello, how are you. I just want to let you know we have a play panel over here which the children may like to play with while you browse.”

This is a great example of how to turn a browser into a buyer. Without the play solution, that opportunity wouldn’t exist.

A play solution keeps the parent in the store and we all know the longer a customer stays in the store, the more likely they are to make a purchase.

3. Change room antics

If the parent is trying something on, ensure the child is in the change room with him or her. Whilst it is not advisable to offer to look after the child whilst mum or dad is changing, let the parent know that you’ll cover the exits, just in case there’s an escape attempt! It’ll give them peace of mind just knowing you’re keeping an eye out.

4. Bratty behaviour

If a child starts to create havoc in your store, politely let the parent know and ask them to take the child’s hand. Unfortunately, if someone is injured in your store because of the actions of an unruly child, the liability rests with you – the store owner – so it’s in your interests to ensure the parent controls the child. Never touch a child yourself unless the parent has given you permission.

5. Fifty cent gifts for a $50 sale?

Keep a jar of little gifts you can give away to kids. Remember, they are your customers of the future so you want them to associate your store with pleasant memories. Lollies aren’t always appreciated by parents and can be controversial, but fun stickers are a good idea – kids love them and they’re inexpensive. Just make sure to get the parent’s permission as the child might be younger than you think and put them straight in their mouth!

6. A great reason to contact your customers

Do you have an email database of customers that you correspond with infrequently? Here’s a great reason to get in touch with them. Let all your customers know your store is now child friendly.

Trust me, when a parent knows they will be able to shop in your store knowing their child is going to be occupied by something (anything!), they will flock to your door.

Go on, try it. Implement some or all of these tips this week in your store. The edge you gain might just transform your retail revenues from good to great!

Michelle Barraclough is a director of Child Friendly Solutions Pty Ltd which specialises in in-store play solutions – http://www.childfriendly.com.au/
(02) 9984 0769.

New Parents Room For Centro Warriewood

Child Friendly Solutions is going gung-ho on the whole parent's room thing. Loving it!

We've just helped Centro Warriewood with a mini-makeover of their two parent's rooms - new carpet, stylish furniture, a Play Panel and some funky wall art with a space theme has turned a fairly cold, clinical room into a nice little haven for parents to feed a baby while older children play safely.

Here are the before and after shots . . .

BEFORE:

Cold lino, hard plastic chairs . . . management made the wise

decision to soften the edges a little.

AFTER:

It doesn't take much to create a more welcoming look and feel.

And of course giving parents a nice environment to feed and

change little ones keeps them in the centre longer, spending,

instead of heading home.

You can find Child Friendly Solutions Play Panels, Play Tables and other play equipment at www.childfriendly.com.au

Retail Doctoring

This morning found me up and about at what felt like the middle of the night but was actually 5.30am, getting ready for a business breakfast in North Sydney.

When day actually did break and I could see sufficiently to ensure I hadn't substituted eyeliner for lipstick and didn't have my dress tucked into the back of my pantyhose, I choofed off to the Harbour View Hotel to listen to some fabulous speakers on the topic of Retail Trends.

First up was Dr Sean Sands from the Australian Centre for Retail Studies, talking about the key trends that will impact the retail industry over the next ten years. You can find out more here.

The key point seemed to boil down to that ol' chestnut - LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS. Amazingly, some major retailers still don't do that.

This frustrates me no end. I often walk into stores where the manager has seen a need to occupy children so that she can keep her customers who shop with kids in the store longer. She has brought in the box of broken Lego and a few dog-eared books from home.

Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a gorgeous refit when the thing that's really getting the customers in and keeping them there spending, is a box of one-armed Barbies and one-legged Buzz Lightyears?

Really, is that how head office wants to project their brand? Apparently so, judging by the number of frustrated sales staff and store managers who say that head office refuses to consider a safe, branded, space-effective play solution.

Brian Walker, the Retail Doctor, elaborated on this point by highlighting the disconnect between head office and the coal face of the retail business. Brian's a bit of a guru in the retail space, teaching retailers how to implement retail strategies that work. You can learn more about him here.

Finally we heard from Roy Tavenor from Red Design Group. He has just come back from exotic Istanbul where retailers are ripping it up with fantastic store design and a 'green' approach to retailing. Roy talked about the growth of private brands (thanks for the Aldi wine tip!) and the downsizing of the mega-store, as well as the importance of going as 'green' as possible to reduce our carbon footprint.

All up, an interesting morning and I strongly recommend, if you are a retailer, stopping by the speaker's websites and asking them for their presentation notes.

Then, because there is not a hotel on this planet that can produce a decent coffee or tea from a pot that's been on a warmer for 2 hours, I topped off my virtuous educational morning with a skim chai latte from Greenwood in the recently-awol sunshine. Luvverly!

New Play Tables

That ol' saying "necessity breeds invention" has certainly been true for me this week.

I got a big order for the Ocean Maze Play Table earlier in the week from one of my corporate clients, followed a day later by an order for another 3 from another client.

But in typical Sod's Law fashion, my supplier informed me they are out of stock until mid to end of August.

After uttering a few things under my breath (like 'darn' and 'heck') I thought, rather than make my client wait, I would look for some other comparable products and found these:



Introducing the Space Maze Puzzle Table (top) and the Wire Beads Table.

Now, even though the Wire Beads Table is rather unimaginatively named (compared to the dazzling Space table) don't let the plain moniker fool you. It's a clever and funky little design. I mean, check out the multi-coloured legs for a start! Designed to attract children straight to it, and get them away from your lovely clean store displays.

Cute huh?

Now I just hope my clients think so too because (a) they're the same price as the ones I can't get and (b) they are waiting patiently in a warehouse not 5km from where I am sitting congratulating myself.

And if anyone else likes them, I'll get them on the website soon. Or if you're the type who needs instant gratification, you can contact me now and I'll give you my undivided attention!

You can find Child Friendly Solutions Play Panels, Play Tables and other play equipment at www.childfriendly.com.au

Goodbye May, Hello June

Oooh, it's getting chilly here in Sydney. We're back into our boot-shod, scarf-wrapped winter clothes and have dusted off the slow cooker!

May was a wonderful month for Child Friendly Solutions with lots of fabulous new clients coming on board including:

• K-Mart


• Dept of Community Services - Muswellbrook


• Dept of Immigration & Citizenship


• Erina Fair Medical Care


• Great Southern GP Network


• Icon Medical


• Ingle Farm Shopping Centre


• Redland Bay Early Education Centre


• White Retail Group


• Westfield Warrawong

And welcoming back some 'old' clients stocking up on 'new' child friendly products:

• Cockburn Gateway Shopping City


• Westfield Belconnen


• Westfield Hornsby


• GPT Casuarina Square


• Royal Children's Hospital Brisbane

It's funny, but we always thought with this business that we would be constantly seeking out new clients because our play equipment is the sort of thing clients would only buy as a 'one-off'.

Yet, we find that many clients come back to us for new products or because they've expanded and need new Play Panels.

And now that we've been in business for 10 years, we're delighted to find that when old Play Panels wear out from so much child-love, our clients return to us for new ones, so delighted have they been with the durability of the product over a long period of commercial use.

We were always a tiny bit scared that we'd run out of customers one day, but I'm proud as punch to see our existing clients returning.

You can find Child Friendly Solutions Play Panels and other play equipment at www.childfriendly.com.au

Moving

Is there a more hideous process than moving house?

Yes! Moving office as well.

And of course, in the middle of everything, Child Friendly Solutions experiences an unprecedented demand for play equipment. It's like some kind of twisted version of Murphy's Law, but bringing lots of good things all at the same time.

Obviously I'm not complaining. With the recession in full swing (or is it?) all new business is welcome.

Meanwhile, I've decided to create a little 'zen' corner in our office, in the hope that our good fortune continues and that pesky little recession scuttles off to wherever it came from.

My good friend Charle gave me this little stone goddess for my birthday two years ago. She also gave me an introduction to National Australia Bank and we have helped kit out several of their branches with Play Panels.

Now that's the kind of friend a girl in business needs! Spiritual inspiration and the slightly more 'earthly' inspiration of a flesh & blood client!