39. Use your sign wisely.
Spend money and make
your shop look obvious
Many people regard the sign as an expensive afterthought, or worse,
an ego trip. But overlook the value of quality and clear signage at your
peril. Obviously for very long established sites in small communities it
is less important but for the rest of us our customers will always be a
mix of regular and new customers. Never underestimate how easy
your shop is to just walk past and how confusing a sign that only has
your business name on it is to passing customers.
It sounds daft, but we recently added the words “coffee shop”
under the name on the sign of a new site that had been struggling,
and placed a large image of a coffee cup on the window, and very
quickly we saw an appreciable change in the sales. Many new
customers told us that they simply didn’t realise what we were
selling and avoided the shop. To our eyes it was blindingly obvious
that it was a café, but your view of your business is always
dramatically different to your customers. Never forget that.
So be prepared to spend money on good clear signagewith a
clear indication of what you do on it. If you operate in the evening
then it needs to be as bright as possible too. A golden rule is to
make it twice as bright as your signage maker suggests.
Another little rule to be aware of with signage is the length of
message that a customer can read. When driving past a sign a
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