COOPER & ELMS Retailer Profile
Those relationships work both ways. Cooper & Elms can recommend somebody it
trusts
when a repair is needed, while an engineer might send a customer back to the retailer when an old appliance is beyond saving. The service continues when somebody does need a replacement. Cooper & Elms offers free delivery within a 25-mile radius, with customers also able to pay for installation and recycling. The delivery team can remove the old appliance, install the replacement and run through how it works.
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And if the customer has forgotten something by the following morning, the shop is still there. “We’re always here on the end of the line,” Mr Cooper says. For Mr Cooper, that is where an independent
can offer something different from an online- only retailer. He is realistic about the challenges. Internet
retailers can undercut on price, while business rates, increasing operating costs and occasional supply chain problems all add pressure. “It doesn’t get any easier,” he says. “But I still enjoy the challenge.” There are also times when the personal
nature of running a family company makes things harder. “When things go wrong, you take it to heart because it is your baby in a way,” he says. On the other hand, the positive feedback means more too. “You get that sense of pride when something goes right or somebody rings you up and says, ‘You did a really great job, thank you so much.’”
Part of the town Mr Cooper’s involvement with King’s Lynn extends beyond the walls of Cooper & Elms. He sits on the board of the town’s Business
Improvement District, working with other businesses, the council and local stakeholders to promote the area. Projects have included food and drink events, markets, outdoor cinema screenings and a Summer of Sport event. The Discover King’s Lynn app, launched last year, also gives businesses a place to promote offers while highlighting what is happening locally. Cooper & Elms still uses traditional marketing methods too. Mr Cooper advertises in a free local newspaper around once a month and is planning a leaflet drop around Heacham.
“It’s just keeping the name out there, keeping
it fresh in people’s minds,” he explains. “When they do need something, they can think of you.” Social media is becoming a bigger part of that mix, with Facebook and Instagram already being used, although Mr Cooper admits fellow Euronics retailers keep telling him he needs to get onto TikTok. For Mr Cooper, some of the biggest rewards of running the business remain considerably more personal.
“Seeing generations of the same families coming through is one of the positives,” he says. “You think, ‘I knew your mum and dad’, or their grandparents. “You build relationships with customers. I class a lot of customers as friends.”
What comes next? For the next three to five years, Mr Cooper’s ambitions are fairly straightforward - well... He wants to establish Heacham as Cooper &
Elms, potentially expand the showroom there, increase the product offering where appropriate and continue growing the business. “Hopefully we can continue what we’re doing and improve on what we’re doing if we can,” he says. “Just keep growing the business and keep making the right profit.” There could even be another generation of Coopers behind the counter one day. Mr Cooper has two children, aged 10 and eight. “It’s too early to say whether they’ll take it on,”
he says. “But it would be nice for it to go into a third generation.” Before I left Cooper & Elms, however, something happened that summed up
the business better than another question probably could. During our interview, customers had been coming through the door with queries. Some wanted advice about products, while others needed help with something they already owned. Our conversation would stop, Mr Cooper would deal with whoever had walked in, and then we would carry on. There was no hard sell and, importantly, his
attitude did not change when it became apparent there was unlikely to be a sale at the end of the conversation. He was simply happy to help. At one point during the interview, Mr Cooper had told me: “Treat customers how you’d like to be treated yourself.”
It is the sort of phrase you hear quite often
when talking about customer service. Sitting in his shop and watching him deal with the people who came through the door, though, it did not feel like something Mr Cooper was saying because the Editor of ERT happened to be sitting opposite him.
Cooper & Elms has changed enormously
since Mr Cooper’s father opened the business as a Tandy dealer in 1984. Brown goods have given way to white goods, 21-inch televisions have become 50-inch televisions, customers can research almost anything online before entering a shop and the business now has a second location to its name. But perhaps the reason people have continued coming through its doors for 42 years is much less complicated. They know that when they do, somebody will
be there who is willing to help – whether there is a sale in it or not.
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