RETAILING


about 4,800 over-60s cards out there, which offers the user 10% off every day. It is the best thing I’ve ever done. We started it about four or five years ago with 10% off on a Wednesday to match B&Q but one customer asked, ‘why Wednesday? Where do you go the other six days of the week? What if you don’t want it on a Wednesday?’ It was a very good point, so we extended it. We see the same people up to 10 times a week sometimes. People come from Paulton and Radstock, where there’s a Wickes now. We are pushing out on a 10-mile radius now!” All Right Price has to worry about now is making sure deliveries are on time to keep up with demand, Mark jokes.


The loyalty scheme is particularly popular, as Mark says very few younger consumers in the local area have the desire or skills to undertake their own


home improvement


projects and will usually rope in the older generation to tackle the job for them. “It’s their fathers and grandfathers who come in,” Mark explains. “Youngsters are buying their own houses now but they can’t afford the labour and don’t know how to do it themselves.” The retailer also offers 15% off to trade card holders, which are also popular amongst its client base. As well as driving footfall, the loyalty schemes help Right Price maintain a competitive edge. “Our prices are competitive anyway and then you add the discount, so we are now able to undercut the likes of Wickes.” However, it’s not all about price. Customers visit Right Price DIY because they want and expect a certain level of service. And, Mark and his team are only too happy to provide that. “Not everybody likes being left alone to wander the store with no one approaching them,” says Mark. “They like the personal touch. Often our customers will walk straight in and go up to the counter to talk to our staff, and make no attempt to find the item themselves. This is our main strength and survival.”


He continues: “In the yard everything is priced up but. if a customer wants five or 10 of something, they might haggle on price and ask ‘what can you do for me?’ – and we always try and accommodate them. With the big shops, you walk in and could spend your entire time there not talking to or being helped by anybody. We might be 10p dearer here and there but we offer that service. There’s no rocket science to it at all, it’s just good service!” And, with a broad customer base,


www.diyweek.net


from professional tradespeople to novice DIYers, Right Price DIY works hard to keep its service levels consistent across the business and provide the right advice and help, whatever the query – even if that requires a large amount of patience. Mark explains: “A lot of the older customers can get confused by the adverts on TV and the huge amount of choice available, so they just come in and ask ‘what do I need?’ You have to be confident that what you just sold them is the right stuff and advise them on how to use it, otherwise you won’t build up that level of trust and they won’t come back in. We also have people come in and say ‘this is broken’ and you have a look and say, ‘no, you’ve just got it upside down’! The amount of time I’ve had that one.” Laughs Mark. “You do get some very silly queries and enquiries but that’s just part and parcel of it and you deal with them, without making those customers feel stupid.”


Growing range


The business carries 12,500 lines across the shop and its yard, and Mark says is constantly reviewing the offer, recently expanding a number of ranges. “If something is not selling, I swap it out,” he says. “We do Bowland stone slabs now and we’re still pretty strong on Calor Gas – we get through a hell of a lot of that. Plus, we’ve got Glastonbury soon, so we’ll sell a whole lot more then!”


Right Price has changed its pre-


mixed paints over from Crown to Dulux and also introduced Bird Brand. “It’s brand new, so we thought we’d dip our toe in the water with that,” says Mark. “We like to offer our customers a choice, with Cuprinol’s Garden Shades, Ronseal, and now Bird Brand. If you don’t try anything new, you stand still.” Tools is a strong category for Right Price, with key brands including Draper, Bulldog and Silverline. “Tools are going really well,” says Mark, adding that the business has between two and three deliveries a week from Silverline. Timber and sheet materials continues to be a strong performer for the shop and is where it “competes with the likes of Screwfix”, adds Mark.


The shop has scaled down its camping offer slightly in response to major retailers like Halfords and Argos expanding into the category. It has also made changes to its small hardware


offer, as the previous


arrangement, which involved pricing up stock, was proving too time consuming. “We now carry small bags of Murpak hardware,”


says Mark. “We got away from small hardware because it was getting to be a lot of work. We had to price every packet and I’m not trying to create work for my team. We need to be as efficient as possible.” Efficiency has also been improved by becoming a member of the National Merchant Buying Society (NMBS), with paperwork already significantly reduced, as invoices now go through the buying group. “It’s great,” Mark enthuses, “and we also get a rebate from some companies now.” Mark has observed a consumer behaviour,


in


change with


customers now more cautious in their purchasing decisions, thanks to ongoing political and economic uncertainty. “Everyone is holding on to their money, that’s for sure. When they come in, they’re not browsing or looking at any special offers. People are being really sensible.” Which is why the value Right Price


places on quality, personal service is so important, as customers look for reasons to visit bricks-and-mortar stores and an added incentive to


part with their hard-earned cash. To make sure his team are up to the task, Mark puts a lot of focus on training and believes there is nothing more effective than learning on the job alongside the store’s many experienced employees. “I’m a firm believe that there is no better experience than hands-on,” he says. “Our team listens and learns on the job and, over time, they are then able to walk the customer to the fixture and right product.”


He continues: “I’m fortunate to


have a number of long-serving staff, with employees who have been with me for 25, 20, 19 and 12 years.” Despite tough


conditions for


many retailers, Right Price DIY’s formula and its line-up of familiar friendly faces, armed with expert knowledge, is clearly still proving a success, as the business finished 2018 up on the previous year and is currently trading level with that figure this year. Here’s hoping some much-needed summer weather gets consumers thinking about garden projects to give Right Price an even bigger boost.


14 JUNE 2019 DIY WEEK 19


“We’ve got 4,800 ‘over-60s’ cards out there, offering 10% off... People come from Paulton and Radstock... We are pushing out on a 10-mile radius now.”


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