Changes
in retailing have brought us many new ways of interacting with customers but we
found this one at our back door.
Trader
Mino has found success by posting photos of himself with customers on social media.
We have posted articles before about the new trend, particularly in the younger
generation, to take photos while they are shopping and then sending them to
their friends via social exchanges like Facebook and Twitter. The old practise
of traders banning photos is no longer appropriate, unless you want your
customers to stop advertising your products.
Mino has
taken the process a step further and actively encourages customers to take
photos or takes his own photo with the customer and then posts it on online. If
he comes across a customer taking a photo he hands them a business card and
asks them to email him a copy of the photo. Mino estimates that 80% of those
customers oblige. When the photos end up on the QVM Facebook page with its
17,000 friends, the exposure takes off.
Getting
your customers involved, and showing others, seems a smart thing to do.