October 10, 2023 • 28 mins
Do you struggle with navigating Saturday staffing and hours for your lighting showroom? Dive into the evolution of my own lighting showroom and our journey with Saturday hours. We'll also delve into the challenges and rewards that come with managing a showroom in the residential lighting & fan industry. From the strategic decisions that led to my merchandising changes to the ever-evolving landscape of staff engagement, there is always something new to learn.
Are you aware of the numerous networking platforms available for those in the lighting industry? I'll introduce you to invaluable resources like the Fixture Finder group, the Residential Lighting Industry Job Board, and even our LWL Lighting Showrooms group, all on Facebook. These platforms offer a wealth of knowledge and connections to enhance your growth in the industry. Here are the links, please join us!
Fixture Finder
Lighting Jobs
LWL - Lighting Showrooms
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello and welcome fellow lighting nerds and
friends to Lighting with Lisa atthe podcast.
Here we are again, episode two.
I'm so excited y'all.
I have been just really beingre-energized by conversations
and getting the podcast backgoing.
(00:23):
So I'm happy to be here, happyyou're here.
Thank you for listening.
I am happy to report that thereare a few sponsors lined up for
upcoming episodes, so that'sexciting.
That means the podcast cancontinue for as long as we're
able to keep that going.
So if you know of somebody thatyou'd love to hear featured on
(00:45):
this podcast, there'll be onesponsor and episode so that we
can share whatever they havegoing on with the lighting
industry.
Again, you won't find a moretargeted audience than the one
we have here with the Lightingwith Lisa podcast.
So if you want to reachlighting industry professionals,
this is the place to do it.
(01:07):
Reach out to me via any of thesocial media or email Lisa at
lightingwithlisacom and we'll gofrom there.
But I'm super excited aboutsome of the upcoming sponsors
and, yeah, stay tuned.
So there's more and more tocome with the podcast.
I also wanted to plug at the topof the podcast the several
(01:32):
Facebook groups that exist, notall lighting with Lisa branded,
but just groups for theresidential lighting industry
that I want to make sure you'reaware of, if you're just not
already.
The most valuable for many ofus, I would say, is the fixture
finder group.
If you're not a part of thatand you're in the industry, well
(01:54):
you need to join it.
Just search lighting fixturehelp.
It's a group, it's a privategroup on Facebook and all we do
there is post pictures of thingswe can't identify or things
we're looking for a differentversion of or discontinued items
that somebody might have instock or a display or something.
(02:17):
It is super, super useful.
We started this group as a partof the lighting show
association and the board of theLSA decided to kind of keep it
going and I'm going to stay onas the administrator so that we
can keep this going.
We don't do any advertisingthere.
I kind of it's just not whatthe space is for.
(02:41):
But if you're not a part of thatgroup, highly recommend there's
also a residential lightingindustry job board, so that one
is also a private Facebook groupand just search for lighting
jobs.
So if you have a position, justpost it out there and it's all.
Listings are going to like gothrough my approval before they
(03:05):
get posted, just to make surethere isn't somebody doing
something kind of sketch.
But you can post open positionsand then ask applicants to
contact you directly.
Again, we're just with thelighting, with Lisa community.
I have my consumer facingcontent.
So if you follow that Instagramaccount, that's part of what
(03:28):
this is, and then part of it isto also create a space for the
lighting industry for day to dayengagement in any way or shape.
That makes sense for ourindustry.
And so hiring and finding greatlighting industry professional
professionals is always a topicthat comes up.
(03:49):
It came up Somebody emailed mejust this week about how I hire.
Where can I find good lightingindustry talent?
So I really recommend that youhop on over to this job board or
have a key member of staff getin the job board so that you can
(04:09):
post out direct to lightingindustry professionals.
Maybe the person seeing thelisting isn't looking for the
position, but they might know ofsomebody who would be
interested.
So please post them out there.
And again, it's just that youpost the listing, no comment.
You know like nothing needs tobe public other than we have
(04:29):
this job contact me at, and thenpeople can reach out to you
directly from there, so it canstill be pretty, whatever.
Anonymous isn't the right word,but private.
And then, of course, the lastFacebook group to join, if
you're not already a member, isthe one in support of this
podcast and where I'm going toreally be getting a lot of the
(04:52):
content that's going to feedinto these podcasts.
So if you want an early scoopon that or you want to propose a
topic and get other people'sfeedback, that's the LWL
lighting showrooms groups.
So just search for lightingshowrooms on Facebook.
Again, another private group.
It is for all members of theindustry, so it's not showroom
(05:14):
exclusive.
It is for manufacturers,manufacturers, agents, whatever.
If you're in the lightingindustry residential lighting
and fan industry you're welcometo join the group.
So I just always recommendpeople be mindful of that.
But it is a very positive,encouraging space for looking
for solutions, not justcomplaining.
(05:34):
But it is the group that existsto be like in cooperation with
this podcast.
Because, quite honestly, whileI have lots of ideas and lots of
opinions about lots of things,I don't have all of them by any
stretch, and it's really, reallyhelpful to engage with y'all in
(05:57):
this community and it helpsinform, like upcoming topics and
episodes and things that wemight want to discuss further,
or an idea that I was like well,that's great, let's share that
out with the world, whatever itmay be.
So please do join all three ofthose Facebook groups as you see
fit, because it's just a greatway to keep the conversations
(06:19):
going day to day.
So thank you for that.
So this episode I wanted totalk a little bit about my own
showroom happenings over thepast several months.
Nothing terribly earthshattering, but I did want to
talk about a few like changeswe've made and what I see
(06:43):
happening from that.
In the event that this ishelpful to other lighting
showrooms, and also jumping backinto those Facebook groups, if
you listen to this and have agreat idea that's working in
your showroom, please post itthere, because that makes us all
a little smarter and moreengaged, and I always love
learning of other showrooms andhow they're finding success in
(07:07):
maybe even non-traditional ways,because it can always be a
challenge.
So I've mentioned before Ibelieve that my showroom is not
in a like highly traveledshopping corridor of my area.
So we're just not.
(07:28):
Savannah is a decent sized city.
It's not a huge one, you know.
I think at any given time.
Like half of the population istourists, but that's an
exaggeration, but it's stilljust a very tourist driven city,
especially the downtown areaand where our showroom is.
(07:48):
It's in a good geographicallocation in terms of people
being able to get to us for alot of from a lot of different
areas, but it's just not like inthe middle of like the shopping
.
So for retail shopping we'rekind of in an oddball location.
So because of that, about threeyears ago it was actually just
(08:11):
pre COVID I must have had ainkling of what was to come.
No, I had no idea.
But pre COVID we had rolledback our Saturday hours.
We had traditionally been open.
You know, as long as I'veworked in the business on
Saturdays, from 10 to four.
We are in the southern BibleBelt, united States, so we've
(08:33):
never been open on Sundays andthere's not really any call for
us to be open on Sundays.
So the hours were alwaysSaturday, 10 to four and this
was like mid to late 2019 andthings were just like not
happening on Saturdays.
The growth in my area, like themetropolitan area, was really
(08:57):
stagnant at that time andthey're just and, like I said,
we're not in a retail corridor,so I just was like, all right
for expense saving and thehappiness of my staff, we're
just going to, we're going topull back on the Saturday hours.
And so we did that.
And then, like shortly and Idon't know if it would have
(09:20):
stuck as long for it as long asit did if it hadn't been for
COVID.
But then COVID happened andthere was really just kind of no
expectation from anybody thatwe'd be open on Saturday because
for a while everything was byappointment Anyway.
So we and then everything waslike unusually successful during
(09:40):
COVID times and then some ofthese big there started to be a
bunch of like industry moving toSavannah, there's this big
Hyundai plant being built here,there's all kinds of happenings
going on in the metropolitanarea and it's starting to grow
again.
And we really had been stagnantfor many, many years.
So last Saturday, as I record,this was our first return to
(10:05):
official Saturday hours.
So when I removed the Saturdayhours originally, I said if I
ever hear anybody say we'reclosed on Saturdays, we're just
going to open.
So that my rule was that we hadto say Saturdays were by
appointment only.
And it did work.
You know, a few people likeindustry colleagues pointed out
(10:26):
to me that, like if that was me,it would be kind of off putting
like I wouldn't want to have tofeel like I'm forcing somebody
to come in on their day off towork with me.
And I totally get it.
And what ended up happening onthose Saturdays was often just
like standard builderappointments with homeowners
that just couldn't make it inMonday through Friday or just,
(10:47):
quite frankly, didn't want toleave work and then go sit in a
lighting showroom for a couplehours to make fixture selections
.
So then they come in on aSaturday to do that.
So we still had regularSaturday activity, but we just
weren't officially open.
So last Saturday we returned, Idid shrink the hours.
This was kind of a concessionto my staff because, again, it's
(11:09):
been three years since we'vehad regular Saturday hours and
so everyone not everyone, butseveral members of my staff and
including some key members neverworked for me during the
Saturday hours era.
So I wanted to make sure thatthis was something we could all
do, and so the hour we reopenedwith hours of 10 am to 2 pm, and
(11:37):
first week out it turned outway better than I imagined we
have.
If you follow this my store onsocial media, you'll see that we
did promote it pretty regularlyfor the month leading up to.
You know it's worked out aswell as a return to hour when
you're not in a retail trafficarea.
(11:57):
Like it worked out as well asit possibly could.
And I am happy that I onlyselected that limited hours, not
only for my staff and theirhappiness, but it did seem to be
like just the right amount.
Like we still had anappointment and they were able
to come in.
We had browsers and a lot of thereason for this ties in like
(12:22):
redoing the Saturday hours,bringing that back.
It ties into a couple things,one being like the current
economy in my little area, but Ithink there's, you know, broad
strokes for a lot of us and ithas to do with how we've been
re-merchandising and buying forthe store itself.
(12:43):
So I have some, you know,really great team members.
Like I love them all to pieces.
They all do amazing work inlike their unique specialties
and I've got a few people rightnow, one in particular who acts
as our showroom creativedirector and she's really good
(13:03):
at merchandising.
She can turn, take componentsand make it something magical.
So because of her expertise inthis area, we've been really
leaning into buying moreaccessories and gift products
for the showroom and because wedidn't have these Saturday hours
(13:26):
, we were kind of missing out onpeople that might just be out
running errands on a Saturday.
Again, we're not in super highretail area so it still makes
sense to me for hours to be morelimited.
But if we're going to have allof this like grab and go you
know, gift basket, decor,hostess, host, gift items well
(13:51):
then I need to be open whenpeople are out on the weekend
shopping for whatever upcomingevent they have or the party
they're going to that night oron Saturday or whatever the case
may be.
So that was also part of thereason for bringing back the
Saturday hours is just to givemore retail shopping opportunity
to support this new buying.
(14:12):
We've done so, I think, well.
I know from our numbers it hasbeen moderately successful and
it's definitely been like a hitor miss proposition, like some
things have done surprisinglywell in the decor gift area for
us and some things I thought, oh, this is great, I would see
(14:36):
this in a store and totally wantto buy it and it's kind of been
a dud.
So definitely, if you're notalready bringing in like gifts
and merchandise and that kind ofaccessories.
If you're not already doing it,really look into it, expect
some things are going to fail.
But I would try a wide varietyof things and this is where I
(14:58):
would absolutely lean on all ofyour staff members for things
that they're interested in, like.
If you know it's the same withselecting light fixtures for
display to some degree, that youwant to select things that you
know your staff loves, becausethat's what they're going to
point it out to all the clientsthat come in.
But it also helps, especiallywith like the gift and accents
(15:23):
and that kind of thing too, thatthere's some manner of product
that they have brought into thestore and that they really like
and just love to have on displayand show customers.
So it's been working prettywell.
Ups and downs.
There are some things we'vetried that will sell through or
(15:44):
put on clearance or never gonnabring them back again, and
there's some things that we'vealready re repurchased for the
store.
I was actually kind ofsurprised at some of the success
we've had with merchandisethat's branded like with my
company's logo.
I would never would havethought, but it there's been a
few things that have been prettypopular.
(16:05):
So I highly recommend some ofthat where it makes sense.
And if you want a specificsuggestion, reach out to me
directly, since we are headinginto a sponsored format of the
podcast, not going to drop toomany brand names unless they're
intentional, so but if you wantsome suggestions, I'm happy to
(16:28):
give them to you one on one.
So we have the merchandising,the Saturday hours and all of
this kind of revolves in asomewhat tangential way and very
related way to my staff andtheir engagement.
So Saturday hours in theFacebook group, the lighting
(16:49):
showroom Facebook group LWL dashlighting showrooms.
I had made a poll aboutSaturday hours just out of
curiosity and it did appear.
So the results of the poll werethat 72% our showroom is open
ever Saturday and always hasbeen.
There's just 6%, like me, thatour showroom is open every
(17:12):
Saturday but hasn't always been.
And then there are 22% ofrespondents to the poll said our
showroom is not open onSaturdays but we used to be.
So lots of people are optingout of Saturday hours and there
was an option that, no, ourshowroom is not open on
Saturdays and never has been.
There were no takers on thatoption.
(17:33):
So the Saturday hours is realtricky with staff and, again.
That's partly why I just didthat 10 to two hours.
If I was in, if I was directlyacross from the shopping mall, I
would be open 10 to four orsomething more reasonable like a
longer time frame on a Saturday.
(17:53):
But since we're not, I opted tokeep it small a shorter window,
and part of that is just for mystaff like I'm already asking
this change of them, and I wantit to be as accommodating as
possible to their schedules.
Because here's the thing withstaff and lighting.
(18:13):
This isn't the gap, right?
Oh, I just dropped an e-brandbut they're not in the lighting
industry, doesn't matter.
But this is, this isn't like alow stakes job at the mall where
you just kind of show up, youdo your, your task list for the
day, you interact with customers, but it's not, not doesn't have
(18:34):
to be like highly, highlyskilled.
Lighting.
Sales is a skilled job, notjust on the sales part of it,
but on the lighting knowledge,if people come in with all kinds
of random questions and issuesand problems and you have to be
able to troubleshoot and thinkthrough them and you don't just
(18:56):
drop in on day one having neverworked in a lighting showroom
before and can do all of thethings that are required of you.
It is a slow, long learningprocess and to be really good at
it you have to do it for yearsand years to really get the full
background needed.
(19:16):
So it's a super professional,highly skilled job to work as a
salesperson in a lighting andfan showroom and that person
doesn't really wanna work onSaturdays.
Usually, like that person thatis so good at that is more of a
you know, nine to five office,remote work, flexible work Kind
(19:40):
of employee.
But when you have a retailshowroom you have showroom hours
and somebody needs to be thereand there is this expectation in
the showroom that any clientcould walk in and they maybe
just want to see what you havein stock and pick up a five
light shine and chandelier andtake it home with them.
(20:00):
But they might come in and havea real issue with their recess
lighting and want to really amor want to swap out for some LED
trim and they want to reallyget into the nitty gritty
details about like their recesslighting.
And then you would need to knowthat there's different kinds of
recess lighting.
Is a low voltage?
Is it line voltage?
(20:20):
Is it halo style?
Is it Juno style?
Is it Light a layer?
Is it progress?
Because they're different workswith the different housings
that might already exist in theceiling, and so it's just not a.
It's just not straightforward,and the expectation of any
customer walking into myshowroom, or any of anyone else
(20:41):
listening to this podcast, isthat whoever greets them in that
showroom is going to be able toanswer those questions or get
them to a person present in thestore that can.
So even if you have somebodythat works like part time is a
greeter or assistant, they mightnot know the answer to the
question, but they know how toget you to the person who does.
There's just an expectationthat you're going to come in and
(21:01):
get this knowledge.
So you can't really like shortchange it on a Saturday or
weekend or early morning or lateafternoon hours by like
removing all of the expertisefrom the building.
So it is just a challengeabsolutely with Saturday hours
and having a professional staff,and that's why 22% of the
respondents in this poll saidthat they're not open on
(21:24):
Saturdays, and they used to be.
I guarantee 100% of thosedecisions maybe happened or
started during COVID, but thencontinued, because it does make
this professional staff happierto have their weekends off.
It is just like this tug of warbetween, like the kind of
business and then the kind ofwork that we primarily do.
(21:46):
If you're leaning in more toretail sales, like I'm trying to
, with the merchandising and thegift, well then you do have to
have availability when peoplearen't also at work, and
flexible and for a while alsoflexible work schedules were
kind of allowing more regularweekday traffic.
But, as we all know, whilethere is still flexibility in
(22:10):
work schedules, it's not quiteas flexible as it used to be and
people are required to be backin the office, and so we really
were seeing that every day,monday through Friday, traffic
kind of slow down for a varietyof reasons.
Also economy at large,recession fears, all of that but
we also know that people's workschedules aren't quite as
(22:32):
flexible as they were at onetime a couple years ago, even a
year ago so my business has hadto adjust to that and so we're
going to see how it goes.
But I think these Saturdayhours are going to be with us
For a while.
It is just a real challenge todo this and keep staff engaged
(22:52):
and not have them be frustrated,and this isn't just Saturday
hours, this is kind of theindustry at large right now.
While everything was so busyand like popping off, like my
staff was engaged almost all day, every day, there was plenty
going on.
As things have tailored off tolike tapered off a bit, we have
(23:16):
days and times in the showroomwhere I feel like everyone's
just kind of like sitting aroundstaring at each other.
Yes, we have downtime tasks and, yes, by and large, people stay
on task and stay busy, but theenergy is just different.
You know, like it's not quiteas like high energy go, go, go
as it was, and that isdefinitely leading to like peaks
and valleys and employeeperformance as well.
(23:39):
It's just a thing, it happens,but I'm trying to find ways to
keep encouragement andengagement up during those peaks
and valleys.
It really has been such smoothsailing for a few years that
this is kind of like oh, what'sgoing on?
Now?
This is all just a little bitharder than it used to be, and I
(24:02):
came into the industry at thegreat recession, so like for me,
everything seems easy comparedto like those times.
Like what are you talking about?
This is nothing.
But for someone who didn't workin the showroom during those
times, it does feel like thingshave like dried up and pulled
back a bit and then theirengagement declines because it
(24:23):
was like I had appointment afterappointment and retail customer
and this and that, and now it'slike that same thing, but less.
Like somebody turned the volumedown and it is hard to stay
energized in your job when youwere like on volume 10 and now
you're on volume six and you'relike, nah, it's just not as
(24:44):
engaging as it was once was.
So we're really trying to workon that in my showroom and how
we, in the absence of those likehigh highs that we used to have
, how do we keep everybodyengaged and learning and growing
in their jobs and excited tocome to work every day and not
like drudgery I've mentioned itbefore on the podcast like I
(25:10):
totally get it, because before Ifound my passion in my career,
I absolutely had jobs that I didnot love before this, and so
like I see these memes andthey're, like you know, like
making fun of bosses ormanagement or shady comments,
and like they drive me nuts, butit's like I'm just triggered by
(25:32):
them.
You know, I used to have thatperception of some of my jobs.
I left jobs because of a badwork environment in my younger
years and I just don't ever wantanybody to experience that as
much as I can prevent it fromleadership position down.
It's just such a challenge.
(25:53):
And then I make things harderfor myself by doing something
like adding Saturday hours backon when they weren't there.
When this person was hired, Iwas very clear in all job
interviews that Saturday hourswere a thing that could happen.
So it's not like no one hadforewarning, even from the very
first moment they had aconversation with me.
(26:13):
But that's just a thing thatwe're working on, or I'm trying
to really finesse how we keepeverybody engaged and happy and
growing in their jobs, becausethere still is opportunity.
There's always something tolearn, there's always a new
problem to solve, always a newclient to reach out to.
(26:33):
The area we live in is actuallyluckily having growth right now
due to this industry moving in,so there is still opportunity
for us.
It's just a little bit harderto find.
You know it isn't knocking onthe door the way it was two
years ago.
We have to go and grab it a bitmore.
But here we are.
So that's a little update onwhat's been going on in my
(26:56):
showroom world.
I have another big projectunderway that I'm going to
discuss in a future episode, butthose are just some of the ups
and downs that we've been havingin my lighting showroom.
So get in that Facebook group.
Lighting showrooms,lwl-lighting showrooms Just
search lighting showrooms inFacebook groups.
Join that group.
(27:17):
Let's get conversations goingand we'll be talking about them
even more on future episodes.
Hey, I'm so glad you all arehere.
I appreciate it so much.
If you know a great sponsor forthis podcast, spend them my way
.
We're going to make this greatcontent that you're going to
want to tune into every week.
Say subscribe, leave five stars, kind words.
(27:37):
I appreciate you all so much.
Have a great day.
Until next time, take care.
Hello and welcome fellow lighting nerds and
friends to Lighting with Lisa atthe podcast.
Here we are again, episode two.
I'm so excited y'all.
I have been just really beingre-energized by conversations
and getting the podcast backgoing.
(00:23):
So I'm happy to be here, happyyou're here.
Thank you for listening.
I am happy to report that thereare a few sponsors lined up for
upcoming episodes, so that'sexciting.
That means the podcast cancontinue for as long as we're
able to keep that going.
So if you know of somebody thatyou'd love to hear featured on
(00:45):
this podcast, there'll be onesponsor and episode so that we
can share whatever they havegoing on with the lighting
industry.
Again, you won't find a moretargeted audience than the one
we have here with the Lightingwith Lisa podcast.
So if you want to reachlighting industry professionals,
this is the place to do it.
(01:07):
Reach out to me via any of thesocial media or email Lisa at
lightingwithlisacom and we'll gofrom there.
But I'm super excited aboutsome of the upcoming sponsors
and, yeah, stay tuned.
So there's more and more tocome with the podcast.
I also wanted to plug at the topof the podcast the several
(01:32):
Facebook groups that exist, notall lighting with Lisa branded,
but just groups for theresidential lighting industry
that I want to make sure you'reaware of, if you're just not
already.
The most valuable for many ofus, I would say, is the fixture
finder group.
If you're not a part of thatand you're in the industry, well
(01:54):
you need to join it.
Just search lighting fixturehelp.
It's a group, it's a privategroup on Facebook and all we do
there is post pictures of thingswe can't identify or things
we're looking for a differentversion of or discontinued items
that somebody might have instock or a display or something.
(02:17):
It is super, super useful.
We started this group as a partof the lighting show
association and the board of theLSA decided to kind of keep it
going and I'm going to stay onas the administrator so that we
can keep this going.
We don't do any advertisingthere.
I kind of it's just not whatthe space is for.
(02:41):
But if you're not a part of thatgroup, highly recommend there's
also a residential lightingindustry job board, so that one
is also a private Facebook groupand just search for lighting
jobs.
So if you have a position, justpost it out there and it's all.
Listings are going to like gothrough my approval before they
(03:05):
get posted, just to make surethere isn't somebody doing
something kind of sketch.
But you can post open positionsand then ask applicants to
contact you directly.
Again, we're just with thelighting, with Lisa community.
I have my consumer facingcontent.
So if you follow that Instagramaccount, that's part of what
(03:28):
this is, and then part of it isto also create a space for the
lighting industry for day to dayengagement in any way or shape.
That makes sense for ourindustry.
And so hiring and finding greatlighting industry professional
professionals is always a topicthat comes up.
(03:49):
It came up Somebody emailed mejust this week about how I hire.
Where can I find good lightingindustry talent?
So I really recommend that youhop on over to this job board or
have a key member of staff getin the job board so that you can
(04:09):
post out direct to lightingindustry professionals.
Maybe the person seeing thelisting isn't looking for the
position, but they might know ofsomebody who would be
interested.
So please post them out there.
And again, it's just that youpost the listing, no comment.
You know like nothing needs tobe public other than we have
(04:29):
this job contact me at, and thenpeople can reach out to you
directly from there, so it canstill be pretty, whatever.
Anonymous isn't the right word,but private.
And then, of course, the lastFacebook group to join, if
you're not already a member, isthe one in support of this
podcast and where I'm going toreally be getting a lot of the
(04:52):
content that's going to feedinto these podcasts.
So if you want an early scoopon that or you want to propose a
topic and get other people'sfeedback, that's the LWL
lighting showrooms groups.
So just search for lightingshowrooms on Facebook.
Again, another private group.
It is for all members of theindustry, so it's not showroom
(05:14):
exclusive.
It is for manufacturers,manufacturers, agents, whatever.
If you're in the lightingindustry residential lighting
and fan industry you're welcometo join the group.
So I just always recommendpeople be mindful of that.
But it is a very positive,encouraging space for looking
for solutions, not justcomplaining.
(05:34):
But it is the group that existsto be like in cooperation with
this podcast.
Because, quite honestly, whileI have lots of ideas and lots of
opinions about lots of things,I don't have all of them by any
stretch, and it's really, reallyhelpful to engage with y'all in
(05:57):
this community and it helpsinform, like upcoming topics and
episodes and things that wemight want to discuss further,
or an idea that I was like well,that's great, let's share that
out with the world, whatever itmay be.
So please do join all three ofthose Facebook groups as you see
fit, because it's just a greatway to keep the conversations
(06:19):
going day to day.
So thank you for that.
So this episode I wanted totalk a little bit about my own
showroom happenings over thepast several months.
Nothing terribly earthshattering, but I did want to
talk about a few like changeswe've made and what I see
(06:43):
happening from that.
In the event that this ishelpful to other lighting
showrooms, and also jumping backinto those Facebook groups, if
you listen to this and have agreat idea that's working in
your showroom, please post itthere, because that makes us all
a little smarter and moreengaged, and I always love
learning of other showrooms andhow they're finding success in
(07:07):
maybe even non-traditional ways,because it can always be a
challenge.
So I've mentioned before Ibelieve that my showroom is not
in a like highly traveledshopping corridor of my area.
So we're just not.
(07:28):
Savannah is a decent sized city.
It's not a huge one, you know.
I think at any given time.
Like half of the population istourists, but that's an
exaggeration, but it's stilljust a very tourist driven city,
especially the downtown areaand where our showroom is.
(07:48):
It's in a good geographicallocation in terms of people
being able to get to us for alot of from a lot of different
areas, but it's just not like inthe middle of like the shopping
.
So for retail shopping we'rekind of in an oddball location.
So because of that, about threeyears ago it was actually just
(08:11):
pre COVID I must have had ainkling of what was to come.
No, I had no idea.
But pre COVID we had rolledback our Saturday hours.
We had traditionally been open.
You know, as long as I'veworked in the business on
Saturdays, from 10 to four.
We are in the southern BibleBelt, united States, so we've
(08:33):
never been open on Sundays andthere's not really any call for
us to be open on Sundays.
So the hours were alwaysSaturday, 10 to four and this
was like mid to late 2019 andthings were just like not
happening on Saturdays.
The growth in my area, like themetropolitan area, was really
(08:57):
stagnant at that time andthey're just and, like I said,
we're not in a retail corridor,so I just was like, all right
for expense saving and thehappiness of my staff, we're
just going to, we're going topull back on the Saturday hours.
And so we did that.
And then, like shortly and Idon't know if it would have
(09:20):
stuck as long for it as long asit did if it hadn't been for
COVID.
But then COVID happened andthere was really just kind of no
expectation from anybody thatwe'd be open on Saturday because
for a while everything was byappointment Anyway.
So we and then everything waslike unusually successful during
(09:40):
COVID times and then some ofthese big there started to be a
bunch of like industry moving toSavannah, there's this big
Hyundai plant being built here,there's all kinds of happenings
going on in the metropolitanarea and it's starting to grow
again.
And we really had been stagnantfor many, many years.
So last Saturday, as I record,this was our first return to
(10:05):
official Saturday hours.
So when I removed the Saturdayhours originally, I said if I
ever hear anybody say we'reclosed on Saturdays, we're just
going to open.
So that my rule was that we hadto say Saturdays were by
appointment only.
And it did work.
You know, a few people likeindustry colleagues pointed out
(10:26):
to me that, like if that was me,it would be kind of off putting
like I wouldn't want to have tofeel like I'm forcing somebody
to come in on their day off towork with me.
And I totally get it.
And what ended up happening onthose Saturdays was often just
like standard builderappointments with homeowners
that just couldn't make it inMonday through Friday or just,
(10:47):
quite frankly, didn't want toleave work and then go sit in a
lighting showroom for a couplehours to make fixture selections
.
So then they come in on aSaturday to do that.
So we still had regularSaturday activity, but we just
weren't officially open.
So last Saturday we returned, Idid shrink the hours.
This was kind of a concessionto my staff because, again, it's
(11:09):
been three years since we'vehad regular Saturday hours and
so everyone not everyone, butseveral members of my staff and
including some key members neverworked for me during the
Saturday hours era.
So I wanted to make sure thatthis was something we could all
do, and so the hour we reopenedwith hours of 10 am to 2 pm, and
(11:37):
first week out it turned outway better than I imagined we
have.
If you follow this my store onsocial media, you'll see that we
did promote it pretty regularlyfor the month leading up to.
You know it's worked out aswell as a return to hour when
you're not in a retail trafficarea.
(11:57):
Like it worked out as well asit possibly could.
And I am happy that I onlyselected that limited hours, not
only for my staff and theirhappiness, but it did seem to be
like just the right amount.
Like we still had anappointment and they were able
to come in.
We had browsers and a lot of thereason for this ties in like
(12:22):
redoing the Saturday hours,bringing that back.
It ties into a couple things,one being like the current
economy in my little area, but Ithink there's, you know, broad
strokes for a lot of us and ithas to do with how we've been
re-merchandising and buying forthe store itself.
(12:43):
So I have some, you know,really great team members.
Like I love them all to pieces.
They all do amazing work inlike their unique specialties
and I've got a few people rightnow, one in particular who acts
as our showroom creativedirector and she's really good
(13:03):
at merchandising.
She can turn, take componentsand make it something magical.
So because of her expertise inthis area, we've been really
leaning into buying moreaccessories and gift products
for the showroom and because wedidn't have these Saturday hours
(13:26):
, we were kind of missing out onpeople that might just be out
running errands on a Saturday.
Again, we're not in super highretail area so it still makes
sense to me for hours to be morelimited.
But if we're going to have allof this like grab and go you
know, gift basket, decor,hostess, host, gift items well
(13:51):
then I need to be open whenpeople are out on the weekend
shopping for whatever upcomingevent they have or the party
they're going to that night oron Saturday or whatever the case
may be.
So that was also part of thereason for bringing back the
Saturday hours is just to givemore retail shopping opportunity
to support this new buying.
(14:12):
We've done so, I think, well.
I know from our numbers it hasbeen moderately successful and
it's definitely been like a hitor miss proposition, like some
things have done surprisinglywell in the decor gift area for
us and some things I thought, oh, this is great, I would see
(14:36):
this in a store and totally wantto buy it and it's kind of been
a dud.
So definitely, if you're notalready bringing in like gifts
and merchandise and that kind ofaccessories.
If you're not already doing it,really look into it, expect
some things are going to fail.
But I would try a wide varietyof things and this is where I
(14:58):
would absolutely lean on all ofyour staff members for things
that they're interested in, like.
If you know it's the same withselecting light fixtures for
display to some degree, that youwant to select things that you
know your staff loves, becausethat's what they're going to
point it out to all the clientsthat come in.
But it also helps, especiallywith like the gift and accents
(15:23):
and that kind of thing too, thatthere's some manner of product
that they have brought into thestore and that they really like
and just love to have on displayand show customers.
So it's been working prettywell.
Ups and downs.
There are some things we'vetried that will sell through or
(15:44):
put on clearance or never gonnabring them back again, and
there's some things that we'vealready re repurchased for the
store.
I was actually kind ofsurprised at some of the success
we've had with merchandisethat's branded like with my
company's logo.
I would never would havethought, but it there's been a
few things that have been prettypopular.
(16:05):
So I highly recommend some ofthat where it makes sense.
And if you want a specificsuggestion, reach out to me
directly, since we are headinginto a sponsored format of the
podcast, not going to drop toomany brand names unless they're
intentional, so but if you wantsome suggestions, I'm happy to
(16:28):
give them to you one on one.
So we have the merchandising,the Saturday hours and all of
this kind of revolves in asomewhat tangential way and very
related way to my staff andtheir engagement.
So Saturday hours in theFacebook group, the lighting
(16:49):
showroom Facebook group LWL dashlighting showrooms.
I had made a poll aboutSaturday hours just out of
curiosity and it did appear.
So the results of the poll werethat 72% our showroom is open
ever Saturday and always hasbeen.
There's just 6%, like me, thatour showroom is open every
(17:12):
Saturday but hasn't always been.
And then there are 22% ofrespondents to the poll said our
showroom is not open onSaturdays but we used to be.
So lots of people are optingout of Saturday hours and there
was an option that, no, ourshowroom is not open on
Saturdays and never has been.
There were no takers on thatoption.
(17:33):
So the Saturday hours is realtricky with staff and, again.
That's partly why I just didthat 10 to two hours.
If I was in, if I was directlyacross from the shopping mall, I
would be open 10 to four orsomething more reasonable like a
longer time frame on a Saturday.
(17:53):
But since we're not, I opted tokeep it small a shorter window,
and part of that is just for mystaff like I'm already asking
this change of them, and I wantit to be as accommodating as
possible to their schedules.
Because here's the thing withstaff and lighting.
(18:13):
This isn't the gap, right?
Oh, I just dropped an e-brandbut they're not in the lighting
industry, doesn't matter.
But this is, this isn't like alow stakes job at the mall where
you just kind of show up, youdo your, your task list for the
day, you interact with customers, but it's not, not doesn't have
(18:34):
to be like highly, highlyskilled.
Lighting.
Sales is a skilled job, notjust on the sales part of it,
but on the lighting knowledge,if people come in with all kinds
of random questions and issuesand problems and you have to be
able to troubleshoot and thinkthrough them and you don't just
(18:56):
drop in on day one having neverworked in a lighting showroom
before and can do all of thethings that are required of you.
It is a slow, long learningprocess and to be really good at
it you have to do it for yearsand years to really get the full
background needed.
(19:16):
So it's a super professional,highly skilled job to work as a
salesperson in a lighting andfan showroom and that person
doesn't really wanna work onSaturdays.
Usually, like that person thatis so good at that is more of a
you know, nine to five office,remote work, flexible work Kind
(19:40):
of employee.
But when you have a retailshowroom you have showroom hours
and somebody needs to be thereand there is this expectation in
the showroom that any clientcould walk in and they maybe
just want to see what you havein stock and pick up a five
light shine and chandelier andtake it home with them.
(20:00):
But they might come in and havea real issue with their recess
lighting and want to really amor want to swap out for some LED
trim and they want to reallyget into the nitty gritty
details about like their recesslighting.
And then you would need to knowthat there's different kinds of
recess lighting.
Is a low voltage?
Is it line voltage?
(20:20):
Is it halo style?
Is it Juno style?
Is it Light a layer?
Is it progress?
Because they're different workswith the different housings
that might already exist in theceiling, and so it's just not a.
It's just not straightforward,and the expectation of any
customer walking into myshowroom, or any of anyone else
(20:41):
listening to this podcast, isthat whoever greets them in that
showroom is going to be able toanswer those questions or get
them to a person present in thestore that can.
So even if you have somebodythat works like part time is a
greeter or assistant, they mightnot know the answer to the
question, but they know how toget you to the person who does.
There's just an expectationthat you're going to come in and
(21:01):
get this knowledge.
So you can't really like shortchange it on a Saturday or
weekend or early morning or lateafternoon hours by like
removing all of the expertisefrom the building.
So it is just a challengeabsolutely with Saturday hours
and having a professional staff,and that's why 22% of the
respondents in this poll saidthat they're not open on
(21:24):
Saturdays, and they used to be.
I guarantee 100% of thosedecisions maybe happened or
started during COVID, but thencontinued, because it does make
this professional staff happierto have their weekends off.
It is just like this tug of warbetween, like the kind of
business and then the kind ofwork that we primarily do.
(21:46):
If you're leaning in more toretail sales, like I'm trying to
, with the merchandising and thegift, well then you do have to
have availability when peoplearen't also at work, and
flexible and for a while alsoflexible work schedules were
kind of allowing more regularweekday traffic.
But, as we all know, whilethere is still flexibility in
(22:10):
work schedules, it's not quiteas flexible as it used to be and
people are required to be backin the office, and so we really
were seeing that every day,monday through Friday, traffic
kind of slow down for a varietyof reasons.
Also economy at large,recession fears, all of that but
we also know that people's workschedules aren't quite as
(22:32):
flexible as they were at onetime a couple years ago, even a
year ago so my business has hadto adjust to that and so we're
going to see how it goes.
But I think these Saturdayhours are going to be with us
For a while.
It is just a real challenge todo this and keep staff engaged
(22:52):
and not have them be frustrated,and this isn't just Saturday
hours, this is kind of theindustry at large right now.
While everything was so busyand like popping off, like my
staff was engaged almost all day, every day, there was plenty
going on.
As things have tailored off tolike tapered off a bit, we have
(23:16):
days and times in the showroomwhere I feel like everyone's
just kind of like sitting aroundstaring at each other.
Yes, we have downtime tasks and, yes, by and large, people stay
on task and stay busy, but theenergy is just different.
You know, like it's not quiteas like high energy go, go, go
as it was, and that isdefinitely leading to like peaks
and valleys and employeeperformance as well.
(23:39):
It's just a thing, it happens,but I'm trying to find ways to
keep encouragement andengagement up during those peaks
and valleys.
It really has been such smoothsailing for a few years that
this is kind of like oh, what'sgoing on?
Now?
This is all just a little bitharder than it used to be, and I
(24:02):
came into the industry at thegreat recession, so like for me,
everything seems easy comparedto like those times.
Like what are you talking about?
This is nothing.
But for someone who didn't workin the showroom during those
times, it does feel like thingshave like dried up and pulled
back a bit and then theirengagement declines because it
(24:23):
was like I had appointment afterappointment and retail customer
and this and that, and now it'slike that same thing, but less.
Like somebody turned the volumedown and it is hard to stay
energized in your job when youwere like on volume 10 and now
you're on volume six and you'relike, nah, it's just not as
(24:44):
engaging as it was once was.
So we're really trying to workon that in my showroom and how
we, in the absence of those likehigh highs that we used to have
, how do we keep everybodyengaged and learning and growing
in their jobs and excited tocome to work every day and not
like drudgery I've mentioned itbefore on the podcast like I
(25:10):
totally get it, because before Ifound my passion in my career,
I absolutely had jobs that I didnot love before this, and so
like I see these memes andthey're, like you know, like
making fun of bosses ormanagement or shady comments,
and like they drive me nuts, butit's like I'm just triggered by
(25:32):
them.
You know, I used to have thatperception of some of my jobs.
I left jobs because of a badwork environment in my younger
years and I just don't ever wantanybody to experience that as
much as I can prevent it fromleadership position down.
It's just such a challenge.
(25:53):
And then I make things harderfor myself by doing something
like adding Saturday hours backon when they weren't there.
When this person was hired, Iwas very clear in all job
interviews that Saturday hourswere a thing that could happen.
So it's not like no one hadforewarning, even from the very
first moment they had aconversation with me.
(26:13):
But that's just a thing thatwe're working on, or I'm trying
to really finesse how we keepeverybody engaged and happy and
growing in their jobs, becausethere still is opportunity.
There's always something tolearn, there's always a new
problem to solve, always a newclient to reach out to.
(26:33):
The area we live in is actuallyluckily having growth right now
due to this industry moving in,so there is still opportunity
for us.
It's just a little bit harderto find.
You know it isn't knocking onthe door the way it was two
years ago.
We have to go and grab it a bitmore.
But here we are.
So that's a little update onwhat's been going on in my
(26:56):
showroom world.
I have another big projectunderway that I'm going to
discuss in a future episode, butthose are just some of the ups
and downs that we've been havingin my lighting showroom.
So get in that Facebook group.
Lighting showrooms,lwl-lighting showrooms Just
search lighting showrooms inFacebook groups.
Join that group.
(27:17):
Let's get conversations goingand we'll be talking about them
even more on future episodes.
Hey, I'm so glad you all arehere.
I appreciate it so much.
If you know a great sponsor forthis podcast, spend them my way
.
We're going to make this greatcontent that you're going to
want to tune into every week.
Say subscribe, leave five stars, kind words.
(27:37):
I appreciate you all so much.
Have a great day.
Until next time, take care.
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