35 Ways to Your Customer's Heart

How to help them say, "I love you," on Valentine's Day

By Sarah Krall -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 11/1/2000

For three millennia now, February 14 has been a day for romantic love. Legend says that a third-century Roman priest named Valentine had been marrying people in defiance of the emperor's decree that young men could not marry since they were needed as warriors. While awaiting his fate in prison, the love saint himself fell for the jail keeper's daughter. He signed his final letter to her, "Love from your Valentine." He was martyred on February 14, 269.

For centuries, the Roman fertility festival, Lupercalia, had been observed on the ides of February. In that celebration, the names of young men and women were picked from a box, and for the next year each young man served as the lady's "gallant." Marriages often resulted.

Eventually, celebrating Saint Valentine's Day every February 14 came to overshadow the Lupercalia ritual. During the Middle Ages, February 14 was also believed to be the start of the mating season for birds. The first Valentine was most likely penned in 1415 by the imprisoned Charles, Duke of Orleans. He sent his Valentine to his wife.

Manufactured Valentine cards appeared near the end of the 18th century, and these soon became theway to declare one's love. Miniature works of art, they were decorated with laces, ribbon, spun glass, dried flowers, feathers, glass filigrees, gold-leaf, and even perfumed sachets.

Since then, Valentine's Day has become the second-biggest card-sending occasion, during which an estimated one billion Valentines are sent. Meanwhile, about a third of both men and women spend from $20 to $59 on their significant other.

For many, it's a holiday of stressful obligation, since something is expected of them. But by getting excited about it yourself, and letting lackluster displays and listless staffers be things of the past, customers can share your enthusiasm and pass it along to their loved ones.

So here are 35 ideas to get your creative juices-and the romantic fires-burning.

1. 1.As soon as possible, hold a staff meeting to discuss the holiday, giving everyone a forum for their ideas.
2. 2.Start putting out merchandise about a month before the holiday. Try debuting it in a post-Christmas sale, but remember that peak shopping occurs the week before the holiday.
3. 3.Beginning in mid-January, stuff bags with flyers reminding customers of your selections for the holiday. Postcards could also go out to your mailing lists.
4. 4.Focus on slower times to model, demonstrate, and sample.
5. 5.Every purchase should leave your store in a special wrap.
6. 6.Flowers set the mood and stimulate the senses; you may want to provide employees with corsages. Every vase in the store should be filled with fresh or artificial flowers.
7. 7.Not all your holiday merchandise should say "Valentine's Day." You will want some of it to cross over to other spring events.
8. 8.Make sure at least a third of your Valentine's merchandise has not been out on the floor.
9. 9.Buy a flat of flowers and give one to every customer in a plastic bag tied with a red bow. Donate the leftover plants to a local retirement home or school.
10. 10.Reward every purchase above a certain amount with a chocolate truffle wrapped with a little bow.
11. 11.Design gift certificates just for the holiday. An eye-grabbing display will entice last-minute shoppers.
12. 12.Don't limit gift ideas to significant others. Try to celebrate all human relationships with suggestions for friends, family, even secretaries and teachers.
13. 13.A red ribbon tied around otherwise unthemed merchandise lends it a Valentine's feel.
14. 14.Take chocolate out of original boxes and put it in more upscale ones.
15. 15.To move both jewelry and plush, display teddy bears wearing necklaces, pins, and even earrings as gifts in and of themselves.
16. 16.Sell pet merchandise with a display filled with treats and other accoutrements.
17. 17.Use a bookmark to mark romantic poems in opened gift books.
18. 18.Fill hand-painted flowerpots with plants to sell.
19. 19.Hold a promotion where customers buy a certain amount of Valentine cards and get one free.
20. 20.Provide free postage.
21. 21.Put out books of love poetry and quotes for writing out cards.
22. 22.Don't forget Dump Your Significant Jerk day on February 6. Be ready for the rush with a supply of insult cards.
23. 23.On the holiday itself, hold a procrastinator's sale and take 20 percent off all merchandise.
24. 24.Have a special kids-only afternoon with merchandise for parents and puppy loves. Bring in a photographer, pick up the expense of photos, and sell the kids inexpensive frames.
25. 25.Have someone come in and read love poems. Or consider sponsoring an "open mike" evening for local wordsmiths. Encourage them to read a special missive to their loved one.
26. 26.Strew rose petals about and light candles for added ambience.
27. 27.Try putting real wedding and family photographs in frames for a more intimate feel. Collect them all year, color-copying ones you can't keep.
28. 28.Include a table of $20.01 gifts.
29. 29.Make sure there's a plate of conversation hearts and other seasonal goodies out to get customers in the mood! Have plenty for sale.
30. 30.Look through crafts magazines for an easy gift project; make several variations, and conduct a demonstration.
31. 31.Hold an early open house or tea for favorite customers, with an across-the-board store discount.
32. 32.February is American Heart, Creative Romance, and National Weddings month, lending itself to a "customer thank-you" promotion centered around Valentine's Day. You can even team up with other stores for a cross-promotion.
33. 33.For more expensive or complex items, use appropriately decorated signs (think Restoration Hardware) as silent salespeople.
34. 34. Save old Valentines you've received for use in displays. Keep under glass, for example, by a Waterford vase, to lend it a seasonal air.
35. 35.Train your employees to defuse aggravated customers. You can even instruct them to say, "What kind of Valentine can we give you?"