-By Dr. Kenneth C. Herbst and Harold Lloyd

Skip Caray, the longtime Voice of the Atlanta Braves (along with Pete Van Weiren), always starts his broadcasts by saying in his very distinctive voice, "Hello once again everybody, Skip Caray here, welcoming you to another night of Atlanta Braves baseball!" I love Skip and the Braves a great deal -- too much, perhaps, at least according to my wife. Today, I am reminded of Skip's engaging "welcome back" because it has been several months (the May issue) since Harold and I last wrote a column in print on creating an impression in your store that matches the perception you are trying to create in the mind of your customers. So (please read this in an engaged tone), "Hello once again everybody, along with Harold Lloyd, this is Kenny Herbst, welcoming you back to our column!" How is that for engaging? I guess there is a reason that the engaging Skip Caray is Skip Caray. We are happy to be back providing ideas and stimulating e-mail conversations between our readers and us.

Often, Harold and I walk into stores to examine innovative merchandising practices to produce research ideas. While doing this, we also note extraordinary service practices as well as other promotional in-store activities that help us better understand what various food retailers are attempting to accomplish. Here, in our September column (Happy Football Season, by the way!), we want to discuss three fun and exciting ways that you can engage your customers, hopefully in a manner that will engender loyalty and positive word-of-mouth (I love the return on investment of word-of-mouth promotion!).

Our first engagement idea is, well, to connect with the customer. We encourage you to ask employees to wear name tags stating their first name, their hometown or years of service at the store. I like to establish a relationship with my students the first day we meet by having them state their name and hometown. Because many of my students are also from North Carolina, I can then ask them about their high school and college, and the mascots associated with both (for some reason, many of my neurons are committed to high school and college mascots). By playing the Hometown Mascot Game, the world becomes much more intimate, and I have found a point of similarity between my students and me (much like you can between the customer and the employee's hometown). This is a great way to have a fun and memorable conversation, and it also is a way to show you care about them in a way that goes deeper than their signature on the credit card receipt. We even would encourage you to go as far as having employees wear a pin that says, "Ask me about my _________ (insert an interest or hobby which the employee enjoys chatting about)." Pins with interesting questions and clear information about your employees lead to insightful conversations, and they will likely make your customers feel as though they are special, appreciated and more familiar.

We also encourage store managers to move about the store and, at least once per day, hand out their business cards to a customer. When handing the business card to a shopping customer, the store managers can make clear that if there is anything on which they can improve or ever fall short of expectations, then please call or e-mail at the number or e-mail address on the business card. Doing this one time a day may not seem like enough to make a big difference, but if you did this daily for two years, you would have touched 730 of your customers. Engaging 730 customers over two years with a relatively quick and easy (but caring) technique sounds like a smart business practice to us.

Lastly, consider offering a monetary incentive to employees for capturing issues with which they (or shoppers they have witnessed) are less than satisfied. Harold and I ask that you hand out a pen and pad to your employees. We would instruct employees to have eagle eyes and open ears, and capture any customer issues or problems on paper. Reward the employee with your recognition and appreciation with a $5-off reward. Is a complaint worth $5-off to your company? We hope so, and we certainly think so. You have shown that you care about the problem, you want to change to become better, and you have rewarded the employee for making you aware. This is like a Gretzky hat trick, and we hope the sense of connection yielded by this engagement-driven behavior will lead to enhanced loyalty, satisfied customers and greater sales.

Our shopper traffic research will unveil some quick and manageable tactics that could have a profound impact on your top line as well as customer satisfaction and loyalty. For more information on how we can conduct research for you or speak at an upcoming conference, please e-mail me at Kenny.Herbst@mba.wfu.edu. Alternatively, feel free to visit my Wake Forest University Web site at www.mba.wfu.edu/herbst. I can also be reached via phone at 336-758-4215.

Dr. Kenneth C. Herbst is an Assistant Professor of Marketing in the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. He earned a Masters and Ph.D. from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition, Dr. Herbst earned a B.A. from Wake Forest University.

Dr. Herbst has been interviewed about his food research and industry expertise by, among others, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Ottawa Citizen, the Montreal Gazette, the San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, and Woman's Day. In July 2007, he gave a keynote presentation on his in-store food shopper research at Shopper Insights in Action. He has also recently spoken at FMI and IDDBA. In April, he presented his top tactics for retailing and merchandising at the 2008 NARMS Spring Conference and Annual Meeting in Williamsburg, Va.

Harold Lloyd was the President and CEO of a 14-unit retail organization for 10 years. His practical, exciting ideas and dynamic presentation style have combined to earn him a highly regarded reputation reflected in his top ratings at numerous appearances at such prestigious events as the annual FMI and IDDBA conventions.

For almost two decades, Harold has worked very closely with small and large businesses to provide a "powerful push in the right direction!" His mission is to provide qualified, executive-level assistance to companies on a "temporary basis," eliminating the need to add permanent top management overhead. To further assist his clients, Harold authored the book It's About Time, focusing on time management.