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| Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | Views: 1641 |
| Jan 20, 2009 9:14 pm | | Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | I've recently joined a "20 Group", a group of dealers in the same business but not in competing markets (territories). The group members agree to share financial data and ideas on a monthly basis, with the goal of improving everyone's business.
One of the first things emphasized is the need to track "door swings" which are counts of every time the door to the shop is opened. The typical way to do this is to put an "electric eye" that projects a beam of light across the entrance and counts every time that beam is broken.
It's quite obvious that the counter will count everyone who comes in, whether that person is a customer, an employee, the mailman, or whatever. In addition it will count every time someone LEAVES as well (it's not very good at differentiating between entrances and exits).
Although the door swing counter is not a great way to count customer visits, it does give you a general idea, and used over time it's very good at detecting and quantifying trends.
I suppose if your shop was on the Web (instead of being "real") you could thing of door swings as being equivalent to unique visits. Same basic idea and similar caveats.
The first statistic we're directed to determine is Capture Rate, which is defined as:
Capture Rate = Door Swings / (Vehicle Sales + Repair Invoices + Parts Invoices)
i.e.
Capture Rate = Door Swings / Number of Transactions
This tells you what percentage of your Door Swings result in sales.
The next statistic is Cost per Door Swing, which is defined as:
Cost per Door Swing = (Selling Cost + Personnel Cost + Admin Cost + Facility Cost) / Door Swings
i.e.
Cost per Door Swing = Total Expenses / Door Swings
This tells you the cost of getting someone to walk into your store.
These three numbers (Door Swings, Capture Rate, and Cost per Door Swing) give you measures of how well your business is doing. Obviously if Door Swings is increasing month-to-month or year-to-year, the amount of traffic is increasing. Likewise if your Capture Rate is increasing, the effectiveness of your sales force is improving (they are turning a higher percentage of visitors into sales). And if your Cost per Door Swing is DECREASING the profitability of your business is improving.
It's pretty obvious that this is NOT a complete picture of your store. For one thing, sales that do not require a customer to visit the shop are not included (i.e. phone and Internet sales). It also does not say anything about the dollar value of those transactions.
But if you're looking for a place to start analyzing and improving your business, these are good numbers to track.
Do you think this can be adapted to YOUR business?
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village ScootersPrivate Reply to Kurt Schweitzer |
| Jan 20, 2009 9:41 pm | | re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Murray Farrell | | There are door counters that only count entries by using two detectors. They are located side by side so that the beams are broken in sequence as a body passes them. That way they can differentiate between entries and exits. Private Reply to Murray Farrell |
| Jan 20, 2009 11:33 pm | | re: re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Scott Wolpow | | It is silliness. It can not tell if two people come in together or if a person is just the UPS driver.
If you were a large box store, that may make sense.Private Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Jan 20, 2009 11:53 pm | | re: re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | Murray,
I'm familiar with those, however they can be easily confused when people arrive in groups, and still can't differentiate between a customer and an employee.
As long as you recognize that a door swing is not equal to a customer coming in (or leaving) either style of counter is adequate. If you want really accurate counts you'd better put in a turnstile.
Oh, please don't confuse a door swing counter with a chime. While a chime will let you know that someone has entered the shop, a counter will also count them.
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village ScootersPrivate Reply to Kurt Schweitzer |
| Jan 21, 2009 12:05 am | | re: re: re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Lindy Asimus | | Measuring traffic is really the only way to deterime conversion rate over time. This is very useful to know, and even more so if you have staff in attendance.
There are some very good people-counters available at a price.
LindyPrivate Reply to Lindy Asimus |
| Jan 21, 2009 2:51 am | | Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Teddy Towncrier | |
I like this concept & could become excited watching the revenue per swing edge upwards over the months.
In impressing upon my daughters the importance of recording incoming phone calls in a book rather than saying "Somebody called yesterday"; We did the math to-gether and established how much each call was worth.
It was a double edged sword, since if I'd let the service take a few calls and then later announced that "No you can't have slick running shoes because I don't have the money" ... They quickly reminded me of the number of calls I'd allowed to slip by and exactly how much money we would have if I'd taken those calls.
There's a cost to getting each inquiry and I see Kurt's plan as simple and easily quantifiable. .... I like it.
Bestest.
Teddy Towncrier CPP Towncrier-Media.com Supercharging Your Visions.
 
Private Reply to Teddy Towncrier |
| Jan 21, 2009 4:14 am | | re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Kurt,
Question: The electric eye can distinguish between each person who comes through the door entrance? It does not matter how far behind the first person the second person is? If two people come into your shop together - no matter how quickly - the electric eye is always going to count two people - not one?
You know that not everyone who enters your store is a coming in as a potential customer. Yet, your electric eye is going to count them as such. You know that some folks who are not potential customers are going to come in repeatedly (like the postman for example). Yet, once again, your electric eye is going to count them.
While I hope this does indeed work for you, it looks to me like you are going to have to factor out a lot of things to make the data you end up with useful.
Lamar Morgan
CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing
707-709-8605
Attract more customers! Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 |
| Jan 21, 2009 4:27 am | | re: re: re: re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Reg Charie | | I would think it could be as precise as you are willing to make it.
If you combined dual systems to separate incoming from outgoing and combined that with RDIF indicators to eliminate staff counts, it would give a fairly accurate count of total visitors.
I would think that if you had 2 people breaking the beams at almost the same time, the chances would be that they are together. The heuristics could be setup to count these entries as 1.
You could also tie in the time of entry to the cash register's POS to further track sales/service.
I just released a new product with a demo and am doing similar tracking on the website for downloads and sales.
I find it fascinating. We have also been doing minor changes to the pages to see what we can do to increase downloads.
Reg - NEW!! Turn photos into paintings http://FantasticMachines.com
All You Need is Dotcom-Productions and a Dream. http://dotcom-productions.com
0Grief http://0grief.com/special_hosting_accounts_for_my_ryze_friends.htm
CRELoaded websites http://RegCharie.com - SBTT http://thinktank-network.ryze.comPrivate Reply to Reg Charie |
| Jan 21, 2009 4:29 am | | re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Scott Wolpow | | The electric eye can only determine a break in the light. It has no idea how many people are passing. An infrared camera can count bodies by the difference in temperature patterns.
If you use face recognition software with a camera you can tell repeat visitors.
Some open source versions
http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~hanlen/vision/facelinks.htmlPrivate Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Jan 21, 2009 6:31 am | | re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Scott,
This sounds expensive. Is it? Is it really worth the expense to even test out this equipment? Infrared cameras sound like a more accurate way to go than an electronic eye. But, what kind of expense are we talking about here just to be able to do this? How do infrared cameras record the data? Does it use a flash drive, require special film or something else?
Lamar Morgan
CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing
707-709-8605
Attract more customers! Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 |
| Jan 21, 2009 2:05 pm | | re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | Guys! There's a reason it's called "Door Swings" and not "Visitors"!
While Door Swings are INDICATIVE of the number of visitors to the store, they do not EQUAL the number of visitors.
Are there other ways to get more accurate counts? Of course! But all of those approaches cost money. A door swing counter is the most cost effective way to get a reasonable approximation of the number of visitors.
Scott's tech approach is intriguing, but seems rather expensive to me. First I'd need to purchase the IR camera, then I'd need to position it with a good view of the door (and where it won't be washed out by outside heat sources), then I'd need to wire it to a computer, install the software, create the database of known faces, and set up the equipment to add new customers to that database. I'd probably have to hire someone from the FBI just to maintain the system the way they do on TV.
Reg's RFID system is interesting, but I anticipate a challenge integrating RFID with a door swing counter. Then there's the employee training issue - if they come to work without their card, should I even let them in the building?
If I truly want a more accurate customer count I should take the Wal-Mart approach - hire a greeter! He or she could have one of those mechanical clickers to count everyone they say "Hello!" to. I'd get facial recognition thrown it, too!
No, I think I'll stick with a $150 door swing counter. I think that will be a worthwhile investment. How I get the data, and even how accurate the data is, is less important than getting the data in the first place.
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village ScootersPrivate Reply to Kurt Schweitzer |
| Jan 21, 2009 2:42 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Scott Wolpow | | I think the data has no real value. Do you have foot traffic in front of the store or is it drive by?
The trouble with door swings is that it is skewed very easily and until you get thousands of visitors a day it will not matter.Private Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Jan 21, 2009 3:02 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Lindy Asimus | | The value is more in the trends by day and over time. Particularly if you have sales staff and you want to know if enquiries are being converted to sales as per usual, or up or down.
Lindy
Private Reply to Lindy Asimus |
| Jan 21, 2009 3:23 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Scott Wolpow | | I Think Lindy is on point. Have your sales people count their ups and the results. Private Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Jan 21, 2009 7:20 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | Door swings are a check on the sales staff (usually me!) Sales staff (again me!) are usually pretty good at recording sales, but are likely to "forget" recording all the people who come into the store but don't buy anything.
If your door swings are going up but sales are holding flat, you (the manager/owner) need to start asking questions. Are the swings going up because someone brought their kids with them and they were going in and out and running around? Were your people too busy having fun at the event you hosted to actually sell anything? Questions like that.
I agree that a particular day's count isn't really important unless it's REALLY high or low. Otherwise you're just looking at the day-to-day trends.
How do you analyze your sales? I've gone through mine and discovered that Friday is the day with the biggest income, while Monday is the worst. I suspect, however, that Saturday is the day with the most traffic, even though it's #5 in terms of sales.
If I were tracking Door Swings I'd be able to tell if my gut feel (more traffic on Saturdays) was reality or just my subjective impression.
I came across one Door Swing Counter that's pretty fancy. For around $500 it includes a webserver so you can access it from any browser (via the Internet if your firewall allows that) and records counts by the hour. Talk about a detailed view of your traffic! (I could use it to see if it's worth hiring someone to watch my store while I'm out to lunch. I mean eating, not mentally!)
I agree that Door Swing counts aren't always necessary. For example, McDonalds doesn't need them, simply because people don't "shop" at Micky-D's. In nearly every case people have made their purchase decision before they enter the store. About the entire sales effort is "Do you want fries with that?"
Likewise, my shop doesn't need them right now (in January). When the snow is knee high or higher my traffic is very close to zero. On the other hand, I believe knowing what my traffic is during the summer will help me make my sales targets. At a minimum it will help me figure out if my marketing is effective at bringing more people into the store.
The numbers aren't nearly as important as knowing the trends!
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village ScootersPrivate Reply to Kurt Schweitzer |
| Jan 21, 2009 8:19 pm | | Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Scott Wolpow | | I think you place to much importance on the traffic in your store. Your gut tells you enough. Stores like CVS want to know how many people come in. McD's also wants to knwo the traffic for sales per seat per minute. Vital to them.
I would use a hand clicker to measure people walking in, asking a related questions and sales.
I knwo one store that is by a bus stop. On rainy and cold days lots of people 'looking'. Nothing he will do will change that traffic.Private Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Jan 21, 2009 8:37 pm | | re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Lindy Asimus | | Scott I promise you, if you depending on staff to count numbers for you, there will never be any reliable numbers to hand.
LindyPrivate Reply to Lindy Asimus |
| Jan 21, 2009 9:38 pm | | re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Scott Wolpow | | If you beat them enough they will. :) Private Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Jan 21, 2009 9:54 pm | | re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Lindy Asimus | | hehe.
That doesn't work either.
LindyPrivate Reply to Lindy Asimus |
| Jan 21, 2009 11:52 pm | | re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | Scott said "I think you place to much importance on the traffic in your store. Your gut tells you enough. Stores like CVS want to know how many people come in."
I don't know why traffic count would be important to CVS but not to Urban Village Scooters.
I'm trying to get my store past the $1 million per year mark. My average sales transaction is currently around $400. To hit that sales target I need around 2,500 transactions, or about 7 sales per day. More since I'm not open every day of the year.
Total Sales is a function of marketing reach (the number of people who see your message), traffic, conversion rate, and average transaction value. Increasing any of these will increase your sales.
At this point the only figures I have a firm handle on are number of transactions (traffic * conversion rate) and average transaction value. While I know my conversion rate is fairly high, it is NOT 100%.
I also know that the conversion rate of the help I have hired in the past is probably not as high as my own, but I don't know what the difference is, so I don't know how much I should be investing in attempting to increase it.
Now if I were sitting on a big pool of money, sales training costs wouldn't matter. But since I'm not, it does.
How effective is my advertising? I had a holiday event in December. I know how effective that promotion was, because I was able to count the people who came into the shop that day (when we were otherwise closed). I know how many invitations were sent out, (how many the post office sent back!), how much that advertising cost, and how much was sold that day. The process (and the tracking) made me decide to do another one next month.
Yes, I could use a hand clicker. However, I do many other things in the shop during the day besides counting the number of customers, so chances are the clicker would get set down (and lost!) when a customer comes in. I don't consider it a very good solution.
I regard a Door Swing counter as one step toward automating the important "back room" functions of my business.
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village Scooters
P.S. Scott, you also said "I knwo one store that is by a bus stop. On rainy and cold days lots of people 'looking'. Nothing he will do will change that traffic." Did you mean to say that this store CAN'T change its traffic? Is there anything it can do to change its conversion rate (maybe sell hot coffee)?Private Reply to Kurt Schweitzer |
| Jan 22, 2009 12:25 am | | re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Scott Wolpow | | CVS wants to make X per person that walks in. That was 2.35 back in 1989 I think. They know people will come in to buy. Same thing for Dylan's Candy Store in NYC, though it still loses money, but her dad is rich.
Grocery stores also. They need volume, you need quality.
Kurt, your traffic is almost 100% destination based. What is the traffic patterns? Do people walk by and browse? Are you in the shopping area. Try and bring up your averages per sale. Do you upsell? Place your scooters by brand and by cost. Advertise the lower cost and when they come in sell the higher margin items.
The store was not allowed to sell Coffee, there was a convenience store in the same block and same landlord. They sold stationary, 99 cents and Bollywood fair. Theft also went up on cold days. He eventually just locked his door on bad weather days with a buzzer.
Just get people into the store, the rest will come.Private Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Jan 22, 2009 12:48 am | | Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Teddy Towncrier | |
This idea is starting to sound like a Federally Funded project.
All the guy wants to do is count the number times his door opens.
$20 at the hardware store plus a piece of string and he has his answer.
The way this is shaping up he'll need to attend NASA's next yard sale for the necessary hardware & systems.
Bestest.
Teddy Towncrier CPP Towncrier-Media.com Supercharging Your Visions.
Private Reply to Teddy Towncrier |
| Jan 22, 2009 1:10 am | | re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Scott Wolpow | | Hey I am a tech If I can't over complicate it then what good am I? Private Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Jan 22, 2009 1:18 am | | re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Reg Charie | | Teddy, you have no adventure in your soul..
Just counting people is no fun.. You need to study their patterns then direct them.
Reg - NEW!! Turn photos into paintings http://FantasticMachines.com
All You Need is Dotcom-Productions and a Dream. http://dotcom-productions.com
0Grief http://0grief.com/special_hosting_accounts_for_my_ryze_friends.htm
CRELoaded websites http://RegCharie.com - SBTT http://thinktank-network.ryze.comPrivate Reply to Reg Charie |
| Jan 22, 2009 1:32 am | | Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Teddy Towncrier | |
Thanks for the laugh lads.
OH! We don't need a government involvement to complicate things?
Seems all that's needed is a couple of Ryzers.
Good luck Kurt. ... Don't think there's any turning back, now.
Teddy Towncrier CPP Towncrier-Media.com Supercharging Your Visions.
Private Reply to Teddy Towncrier |
| Jan 22, 2009 7:00 am | | re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Reg,
You said something interesting. You said, "You need to study their patterns and then direct them." Given that Kurt operates a storefront that sells scooters, what advice do you have for Kurt regarding "patterns" and "directing them"?
Lamar Morgan
CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing
707-709-8605
Attract more customers! Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 |
| Jan 22, 2009 4:01 pm | | re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | I'm currently trying to influence their patterns. I'm trying to change the wintertime plaid patterns into summertime Hawaiian shirt patterns! ;-)
I'm starting to put together my "I'm Sick of Winter!" party. Wanna come?
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village ScootersPrivate Reply to Kurt Schweitzer |
| Jan 22, 2009 6:53 pm | | re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Reg Charie | | Kurt sells three categories of merchandise.
Scooters
After Sales - Helmets, clothing, and add ons.
Parts.
I would guess that his parts dept would be the busiest and if it is the customer should be made to walk past the scooters and through the after market displays.
Reg - NEW!! Turn photos into paintings http://FantasticMachines.com
All You Need is Dotcom-Productions and a Dream. http://dotcom-productions.com
0Grief http://0grief.com/special_hosting_accounts_for_my_ryze_friends.htm
CRELoaded websites http://RegCharie.com - SBTT http://thinktank-network.ryze.comPrivate Reply to Reg Charie |
| Jan 23, 2009 5:27 am | | re: re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Kurt,
From Reg's comment, I would think your layout of the store is a major factor in whether or not someone coming into it ends up making a purchase. It's not simply a matter of content, but layout. Do you have any pictures of your store you could share with us? Perhaps we can see something in the layout that can be improved and entice more visitors to make a purchase. This is a good venue for that sort of thing? Why not take advantage of it?
Lamar Morgan
CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing
707-709-8605
Attract more customers! Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 |
| Jan 23, 2009 1:45 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | Reg,
According to the PCSAS (Profit Center Standardized Accounting System) my shop has five categories of merchandise - New Vehicles, Used Vehicles, Service, Parts & Accessories, and Finance & Insurance. I suppose you can argue that Service and F&I aren't really "merchandise", but they ARE supposed to be sources of income.
Actually the distinction between "Parts" and what you refer to as "After Sales" has given me grief from the beginning. My shop is a rather long, narrow space. The main entrance is near the middle of the long side. There is also a firewall cutting across it, separating the front "sales" portion from the rear "service" portion.
Someone at the entrance is immediately faced with a choice - do I turn right to go into the sales area, or left to go into the service area?
My dilemma is what do I stock near the service area (where it can be used for repairs) and what do I stock in the showroom (where the customer will see it)? I carry close to 1,000 different parts - 1,000 part numbers in the database - most of which are NOT packaged for resale. As a result most of my parts sales are to the service department and are used to make repairs.
As another challenge, the service area is roughly three times the size of the sales area. We make use of that space to store crated vehicles, customer vehicles, and parts as well as having the actual service workspace there.
Fortunately the showroom is reasonably open to the main entrance, so most people get the idea and head that way. Unfortunately if they look into the service area they will usually see more vehicles there than are in the showroom. I work hard at reducing that visual confusion to try to guide them into the showroom.
A while back I visited one of the top dealers in the country who happens to be located about 60 miles from here. I was quite impressed! His place was huge! Step through the front doors into an enormous showroom. Wind your way through vehicle displays to get to riding gear on one side and hard parts in the middle. The back wall of the showroom was a parts counter.
If you wanted service you went in a separate entrance. The service department was in the rear of the building and had its own parts window into the parts department.
As for actually buying anything, there wasn't a "checkout" anywhere other than the parts windows. Instead there were desks scattered around, with computers, where you could sit down with a sales person and write up a deal.
I didn't buy anything so I don't know how their F&I sales work, but I suspect that they sold F&I on the floor rather than the "back room" approach used by many car dealerships.
I'd love to be able to set up a shop this way. When I can afford it!
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village ScootersPrivate Reply to Kurt Schweitzer |
| Jan 23, 2009 1:52 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Lindy Asimus | | Kurt can (do) people order parts from you online?
LindyPrivate Reply to Lindy Asimus |
| Jan 23, 2009 4:08 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 | | Kurt,
Do you have any pictures of your store you can share with us? What does it look like from the street? What does the front entrance look like from the inside where your door swing counter is located?
Lamar Morgan
CDMM - Synergistic Business Marketing
707-709-8605
Attract more customers! Private Reply to Lamar Morgan 954-603-7901 |
| Jan 23, 2009 4:30 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Scott Wolpow | | Kurt, can you change where your doorway is located?
I would place it closer to the showroom area.
What is the first visual impact when people enter the store?Private Reply to Scott Wolpow |
| Jan 23, 2009 6:30 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Reg Charie | | Kurt, here is a drawing of the cycle shop..
The blue things are motorcycles and the scale may be off but the area is pretty much as drawn. There was storage over the lounge, service manager's office and parts storage area.
We sold Ducatti, Honda, Kawasaki, BMW, Triumph, Suzuki, Yamaha, and a Russian make I cannot remember the name of.
Reg - NEW!! Turn photos into paintings http://FantasticMachines.com
All You Need is Dotcom-Productions and a Dream. http://dotcom-productions.com
0Grief http://0grief.com/special_hosting_accounts_for_my_ryze_friends.htm
CRELoaded websites http://RegCharie.com - SBTT http://thinktank-network.ryze.comPrivate Reply to Reg Charie |
| Jan 23, 2009 9:21 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Murray Farrell | | Do I see a problem? Where do their eyes focus when they walk in the door?
What is at the distant focal point when they walk in the door.
What is immediately behind them to occupy their eyes and hands while waiting for parts? The aftermarket area seems to be closed off with a barrier to entry. Is that so? Private Reply to Murray Farrell |
| Jan 23, 2009 10:00 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | Murray,
That layout is Reg's old motorcycle shop. Here's mine:
To give you some sense of scale, the main entrance (on the left) is six feet wide. The doorway into the Service Area is four feet. Each of those ovals represents the footprint of one scooter, roughly three feet by six feet.
This layout is not the most space efficient, but represents a good display of 12 scooters in the sales area. Customers can get to each one (except the one in the very middle) without moving a vehicle.
The service area is actually more crowded than shown. The two rectangles are vehicle lifts. Not shown are the workbenches and tables around them, some of which are on wheels. I only showed a fraction of the vehicles that can be stored there at any one time. I figure I have room for about 25.
The parts room is full of shelves, and customers are not allowed into that space. There is a small "parts counter" that I had built into one doorway, but since I don't have anyone dedicated to that department the counter doesn't get used.
It's amazing how far from the original topic this thread has wandered!
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village Scooters Private Reply to Kurt Schweitzer |
| Jan 24, 2009 12:11 am | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Reg Charie | | In my diagram the green of the aftermarket is glass display cases. the walls on the 3 sides of the aftermarket section were used to display things like exhaust systems, Corbin seats, and larger accessories that would not fit into the counter space.
The aftermarket was directly behind people standing at the parts counter.
Where your eyes focused depended on which way you looked upon entry. To the right was a double line of bikes with a couple of featured cycle on raised stands. Straight ahead was the aftermarket display and parts counter.
To the left was a line of outboard motors and shelves filled with pumps and generator sets. ON the floor to the left were lawnmowers, roto tillers, etc.
It worked pretty well.
Reg - NEW DEMO!! Turn photos into paintings http://FantasticMachines.com
All You Need is Dotcom-Productions and a Dream. http://dotcom-productions.com
0Grief http://0grief.com/special_hosting_accounts_for_my_ryze_friends.htm
CRELoaded websites http://RegCharie.com - SBTT http://thinktank-network.ryze.comPrivate Reply to Reg Charie |
| Jan 24, 2009 12:28 am | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Reg Charie | | Interesting Kurt.
Looks like you have utilized your space pretty well.
Our parts dept was so busy we had a parts manager and 2 assistants on duty full time. We had 2 bike sales people, an aftermarket person and a power equipment manager.
We had 3 mechanics on full time plus the service manager.
In the office was the owner and the accountant.
It was a busy shop.
Reg - NEW DEMO!! Turn photos into paintings http://FantasticMachines.com
All You Need is Dotcom-Productions and a Dream. http://dotcom-productions.com
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CRELoaded websites http://RegCharie.com - SBTT http://thinktank-network.ryze.comPrivate Reply to Reg Charie |
| Jan 24, 2009 3:57 am | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Ashish Belagali | | Kurt,
The layout of your shop looks excellent, really. I was wondering if you would just want to use full-length mirrors on the walls of the showroom. It might just work on the 'visual confusion' that you talked about.
Having a coupon system could be a way of assessing a promotion. I wonder if you have explored it and what your experience has been.
/Ashish
Private Reply to Ashish Belagali |
| Jan 29, 2009 6:07 pm | | re: Kurt's Layout | # |
Althea Conklin | | Just jumping into the fray here...
Couple of questions, are you trying to increase new traffic, after-market sales or service? I know it's ideally all of these...
I'm just wondering if you couldn't increase your street presence by utilizing all your window space (which you probably are). It's just that the diagram didn't show the window availability, and you have a lot of unused, potential street space. If that one wall is all windows, you could consider breaking up your after-market merchandise to the two opposing walls...in other words, reworking your layout to utilize some of that street wall space in the storage area to extend your floor space and give the feeling of a bigger showroom, more freedom and pulling the eye across the area and thus enticing your customers to check out more of your offerings both inside and outside the building.
Flipping your storage and office while utilizing some of the gained space for the showroom would give you the added benefit of being more accessible to the sales floor and in a better position to see/hear what is really going on there. It would also be helpful when closing the deal for those after-market extras.
Make sure you are making the "break room" area comfortable for your waiting clients. A lot of sales begin with two enthusiasts discussing their current pursuits.
I'm sure you are already implementing all this, but just wanted to add it in case it might bring some inspiration on something...you never know.Private Reply to Althea Conklin |
| Jan 29, 2009 7:28 pm | | re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Althea Conklin | | BTW, when is NASA having that garage sale again??? LOL!!! Private Reply to Althea Conklin |
| Jan 29, 2009 7:47 pm | | re: re: Kurt's Layout | # |
Reg Charie | | Good questions Althea.
I like the idea of swapping the storage and office.
Reg - NEW DEMO!! Turn photos into paintings http://FantasticMachines.com
All You Need is Dotcom-Productions and a Dream. http://dotcom-productions.com
0Grief http://0grief.com/special_hosting_accounts_for_my_ryze_friends.htm
CRELoaded websites http://RegCharie.com - SBTT http://thinktank-network.ryze.comPrivate Reply to Reg Charie |
| Jan 29, 2009 9:04 pm | | re: re: Kurt's Layout | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | Althea,
The purpose of a door swing counter isn't to increase traffic, but rather to have another factor for analysis.
Exact counts are less important than trends. If my sales go up, is it because more people are coming into the shop, or are they buying more things? What percentage boost in traffic does a sale or event generate? What days of the week do I have lots of "lookers" rather than buyers?
I just received and installed the Door Swing Counter today. It has some nice features (like a chime instead of a buzzer, and different sounds for entry and exit) but the big thing is that it counts. I'll be interested to see what numbers I get.
You also asked about my window space. The street end of my showroom has three windows, roughly 30" wide by six feet tall. The bottoms of the windows are all 30" off the floor, which puts them about five feet above the sidewalk outside.
Not shown (because it was easier to draw rectangles than other shapes) is a glass door in the corner of the showroom next to the street. It is 36" wide, and all glass. For safety reasons that entrance is blocked off, but that door is actually the best "showroom window" I have.
I do what I can to make use of those windows.
Finally, you had a suggestion about the Break Room. At the moment the Break Room is not intended for customer use. Instead I use it for eating lunch, fixing coffee, zapping stuff in the microwave, keeping food and drink in the refrigerator, etc. I have fire safety issues with allowing customers in there (only one exit, etc.) Employees are allowed in more "dangerous" locations than customers.
There is a table in the showroom, and I have lots of chairs floating around. I'm also setting up a "Scooter Club Corner" in the Apparel section of the showroom, with knickknacks (like rally patches) that appeal more to enthusiasts than to ordinary customers. Hopefully that will help bring in the hard-core scooterists.
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village ScootersPrivate Reply to Kurt Schweitzer |
| Jan 30, 2009 2:53 pm | | re: re: re: Kurt's Layout | # |
Althea Conklin | | Kurt,
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my queries.
I hope your door swings counter is of benefit to you. While I understand the theory behind the door counter, the way my mind works doesn't benefit from that type of information as much as it would from other avenues. A lot of additional information has to be added to the "swings" to get a true picture of what is going on, and, for me, I'd just end up with a migraine. :) (I detest math, and I'm a little OCD so I'd have to have every scrap of info or I'd go nuts trying to interpret it...sad, I know.)
I really like your rally patch idea and recognize there are limitations in what one can do.
I hope you will post your experience with the counter after you've had a chance to see what benefits you reap.
Private Reply to Althea Conklin |
| Jan 30, 2009 3:25 pm | | re: re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Kurt Schweitzer | | Ok, preliminary info: The thing actually counts. 8)
When I finally sat down this morning, the counter was showing '3' - one for coming in with my briefcase and stuff, one for coming in again with a couple gallons of ice tea (my alternative to guzzling Coke all the time), and one for coming in after sweeping the walk.
Yea.
This thing has separate entry and exit counters (it has two beams) so just for jollies I checked the exit count. It also said '3'. You'd think that since I'm still inside it should say '2', but it was reset before I left last night, so it also counted me leaving at that time.
Considering what a pain it was lining everything up just right so that it wasn't picking up reflections from any glass or mirrors and wouldn't be affected by late afternoon sunlight in the summer, I think it's working rather well. I had to take down my other door sensor because of interference, but that's all right. I was getting tired of the annoying buzzer anyway. This one has a nice, pleasant chime like a doorbell.
Next week is February. It will be good to see what a month's worth of use will reveal.
Kurt Schweitzer
Urban Village ScootersPrivate Reply to Kurt Schweitzer |
| Jan 30, 2009 3:40 pm | | re: re: re: Using Door Swings to Analyze Your Business | # |
Lindy Asimus | | Now the fun start Kurt. You'll be able to measure this Feb against Next Feb too!
And other stuff.
Lindy
PS. Off topic, but nerdily similar in a kpi kinda way is this twitter-science blog post on the top words being retweeted http://danzarrella.com/the-20-words-and-phrases-that-will-get-you-the-most-retweets.htmlPrivate Reply to Lindy Asimus |
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