Submitted by: Jim Bennington

A smoke shop, or any retail operation for that matter, should not only be about the products it offers. If it is, it becomes sterile, an innocuous relationship, where customers will not be able to relate, much less refer the business to friends and family.

A demonstration of how a relationship with its customers can become warmer is by making available services related to the products they carry; in the case of a smoke shop they would offer pipe repairs and lighter repairs. Teach customers how to best care for their humidors, briar pipes and cigars. Consult on cigar bugs infestation and guide them on how to best organize a cigar party or dinner. Hire a cigar roller for an event or how to set up a booth for a trade show.

A neighborhood smoke shop has the same personal vibe as the hairdresser around the corner or barbershop, which still do exist! It s always warm and inviting to walk into one of these establishments. Savor some freshly brewed coffee and watch your child have a hair cut, or walk in a smoke shop that will remind us of uncle Steve s pipe smoking or grandad s cigar puffing. Some how we do look for connections lost long ago. We look to spark the aromas, visual memories and taste buds from our childhood. If we are able to do that we will hang on to that establishment just because of a memory tucked away in our recessed past. We like to relive what gave us pleasure that is why we repeatedly eat, drink and visit places over and over again. Trying desperately to recapture the first experience, the first bite, the first smoke and so on

Any retail business that understands that side of human need, along with all the rest of the high tech marketing that is available today will be able to stay strong in an economy that apparently, only apparently demands for constant change.

As a tangible demonstration of a smoke shop s relationship with its customers, the smoke shop can create a Pipe Club, creating activities to attract customers other than during promotions or sales. Thus the shop starts to integrate society and starts to give back to its environment. Great sales are intimately linked with the relationship of shop owner and its customer base. It is the small and medium businesses that people relate to the most. Big shopping malls do not offer the same kind of relationship, personal. Its not to say that one is better than the other, but that one has a warmer personality than the other. And that is what people attach themselves to. A sense of neighborhood, family, friendship.

People want more than just make a purchase, they want to create relationships and experience them. And if you have an old lighter sitting in your drawer for some years, take it to your local smoke shop and you just might get more than you bargained for

About the Author: Jim Bennington has been catering and supporting the cigar and pipe smoker for over 30 years. For more information contact Jim at: jim@bocabenn9ingtons.com /

bocabenningtons.com

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