I am looking for idea's to help my local dive shop in these tough economic times. The owner is a close friend and she looks to me for advice. We plan trips, set up charters, teach many classes, and hold a meeting once a month to bring people in and we speak about a different topic each week. We are also in the process of setting up an online store. One current problem is we have many customers who come in ask many questions and then show up a week later and show us the gear they bought online, per our advice. Its kind of frustrating, so not sure how to prevent this or at least lessen it. So what I am asking is what are you looking for in a dive shop?
Price match online stores plus a small amount (i.e. 10%) for your service. Most reasonable people will prefer to buy locally than online if the difference is small. If your customers are buying online it implies to me that there is a significant price difference and them shopping online is because they don't want to pay such a big difference. Nearly everyone I know does not shop on price alone but service to me is really only worth 10% extra approx on top of online prices.
List all of your prices online on your online store. None of that 'call us for prices' guff. I hate calling for quotes as I often get different prices than what other people get.
Have diving more often than once a month. The club I am in has people out diving most weeks. Keep following up with new students and make them feel welcome to come diving with you. This helps people get confidence early on.
Have a website with lots of local resources such as tips to pick sites based on weather, site descriptions (incl local area information - me and a buddy have put together really detailed guides and include facilities, and detailed maps of dive sites), list all of your service and fill prices as well. I much prefer to be able to check out a shop like this in advance and avoid shops who don't put their pricing online. If things are priced fairly why would they not put this stuff online?
Have cheap fills. My favourite LDS has the cheapest fills around, this is what got me in intially. It doesn't keep people around in itself, just attracts people but if you back that up with good service and stock, they'll stay around.
Don't get annoyed if people shop elsewhere. No one shop is going to stock all of the brands that I like so I will buy things from various stores. It is amazing how many dive shops take it personally when you buy from other stores. It is really bothersome and annoying as a customer to be at the end of some eejit store owner ranting about how you got ripped off and the brand is going to kill me blah blah f-ing blah
Have lots of stock in your store. So many dive shops are really barren and you have to ask for things to be ordered. Leisurepro usually gets things to me much faster than a dive store can.
At least one week night where you are open late so people can get fills after work. Fills while you wait. This is normal for here so often I don't have to wait long for fills but apparently it is not like this everywhere.
Have a lounge type area where people can hang out. The shop I go to the most has this setup and often people will hang out there and have beers after dives. I've met a lot of people that way.
If one of your customers would be better off buying from another store because the gear is better for them, tell them this. I really respect stores who say 'well, I think this brand/type of gear will be better. I don't stock it but you can get it from here'. They lose that sale but I respect their honesty and am much more likely to go back there in the future.
Anyway, that is what I want in an LDS
And to a large degree I do get this from a select few shops.
. . . Staff must be Chippendales!!!!! :rofl4:
