CASE STUDIES
How properly analyzing metrics helped improve business

New client vs. repeat clients
A beauty salon client did not track their new vs. existing clients or client retention KPI. Once they began tracking and analyzing their numbers, it was clear they were getting plenty of new clients, they just weren’t retaining them. By understanding they had a client retention issue, we were able to implement a two-fold strategy that included customer service training for the stylists to insure greater satisfaction as well as a new customer welcome program that offered new clients discounts for pre-booking their next appointment.

Sales by employee
One clothing store’s sales had been steadily declining over a year’s time. The owner was frequently absent and left the store in the hands of her manager who was also the primary salesperson. In researching the sales decline, she pulled the sales-by-employee report.  Her manager’s sales had gone down 47 percent year-over-year! Frighteningly, the owner didn’t know this. Clearly the manager had become complacent and lost interest. The owner was able to fix the situation by better motivating and training her manager, giving her goals and incentives to sell more and keeping a closer eye on her. The manager’s sales rose 25 percent in just 90 days.  

Sales by category
A pancake house offered an extensive breakfast menu. They knew that pancakes were, by far, their most profitable item; meats generated the least profit. They had never pulled an itemized sales report and upon doing so, made an amazing discovery. Guess what they sold least? Pancakes! The most? Meats! That made it easy for us to create pancake-focused promotions and samplings. We also raised prices on sides of bacon, sausage and ham to keep in line with escalating costs. In no time at all, pancake sales were soaring – as was net profitability.

A clothing store’s sales declined by over 40 percent. The owner had never pulled a sales- by- category report and when she did, it revealed most of the decline was in sales of dresses.  It was like a lightning bolt hit! She had dropped two dress lines the previous quarter and never checked to see how that impacted her sales.

Sales by time of day and day of week
A pizza restaurant was offering a daily lunch discount on weekdays. Upon analyzing the numbers, we found that Thursday and Friday lunches were triple the volume of Monday through Wednesday. There was no need to offer the discount on those days. By eliminating discounts on Thursday and Friday, sales stayed the same but the owner realized increased profitability.

A clothing store, upon tracking sales by time of day, realized the restaurant next door was throwing off great after-dinner traffic. They began opening later to avoid labor costs during virtually non-productive morning hours and staying open later to benefit from restaurant traffic. Sales, of course, went up.

By knowing exactly what and when you’re selling – or not selling – you can create strategies to improve business during non-peak times, know when to run promotions and when to schedule employees – resulting in better service, better profitability and potentially decreased labor costs.

Until next time remember,
You can do this!