Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 7, 1991 TAG: 9104060011
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: John Levin
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Coulter, in fact, is the boss at Roanoke's Coulter Construction Co. But the question came up recently as he poured his morning coffee, with two creams, into a paper cup with a big red "No" printed across the side.
Crystal King manages the 7-Eleven store in South Roanoke where Coulter arrives every morning like clockwork. She knows it doesn't take gimmicks to keep her regulars like Coulter.
For the past six weeks it has asked its coffee and soft drink customers to register their opinions.
On such weighty issues as: "Did you learn the facts of life from your parents?" "Would you marry for money?" and whether women sportswriters should be allowed in men's locker rooms. Pouring your beverage into a blue cup registers a yes vote, a red one means a no when the 7-Eleven clerks count the cups.
The real point of the six-week promotion, which ended last week, was to boost sales and build customer loyalty. Dallas-based Southland Corp., which last year did $8.4 billion in sales at its 13,000 convenience stores, is like many retailers looking for ways to keep customers coming back.
"Repeat business is more important, especially right now," said James Boone, market sales manager for 7-Eleven stores in the Roanoke, New River Valley and Lynchburg areas.
Southland already sells 1 million cups of coffee and 850,000 fountain soft drinks a day. Nationally, the company saw sales of those two items rise by more than 10 percent in the last two weeks of February. March figures are not yet available.
Boone estimated still-untallied figures will show coffee and soft drink sales rose by 8 percent to 10 percent percent in his 31-store region during the promotion.
And that was without offering discounts or giveaways, just a little clean fun.
"Once you get a customer in here and they have a good time, they'll come back," said Barbara Mullins, manager of the 7-Eleven store on Cove Road in Northwest Roanoke.
"They'd come in and vote and then come back at the end of the week to see the results," she said. "I see more people coming in more regularly, every morning."
Another national company concerned with customer loyalty is Hallmark Cards Inc., which has been encouraging its retailers to earn repeat business.
About 4,800 of its 11,000 card and gift shops, including several in Western Virginia, have been designated Gold Crown stores where operators look for ways to personalize service.
One of the more successful attempts is a small card that gets punched every time the customer makes a purchase at that particular shop. After $50 worth of purchases, the customer gets $5 credit.
"Usually after the card is punched, they redeem it, and then they get another card and keep going," said Rachael Bolton, spokeswoman for the Kansas City, Mo.,company.
Hallmark, a private company, declined to say what kind of impact the promotion has had on sales. But Bolton said a half-million customers are participating, about 500 per store.
Retailers have faced a rough period since before Christmas. Consumers have been reluctant to spend and generally parted with their money only when merchants offered steep discounts or other incentives.
Judy Tullius, manager of Roanoke's Tanglewood Mall, said she saw tough times coming. But it was competition more than the economy that prompted her to launch a loyalty-building program, the Super Shopper.
Until five years ago, Tanglewood was the valley's dominant shopping center. Since then it has lost points to newer Valley View Mall, Tullius said. The Super Shopper program, launched last June, has helped Tanglewood rebuild its share of the market, she said.
In nine months of the promotional program, Tanglewood Mall has signed up 26,000 households, a quarter of its estimated trade area. Those customers get one entry in a monthly drawing for prizes for each dollar they spend at the mall.
Tullius said she has no plans to discontinue the promotion anytime soon, even if the economy improves and area purse strings get looser.
"People realize customer loyalty is important," she said. "Retailing is just too competitive."
\ John Levin is executive business editor of the Roanoke Times & World-News.
by CNB