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Business lessons learnt from Build a Bear

Lessons all business owners can learn from Build a Bear

Complete Accounting-Business lessons learnt from Build a Bear

You can learn valuable business lessons in some unusual places, take this scenario as an example.

My lovely daughter dragged our family to a toy-store called Build a Bear. She had a significant amount of birthday money and was ready to spend!

Build a Bear is your one stop shop to create a  teddy bear customised with its own clothing and accessories.

The first thing you notice upon entry to the store, is that Build a Bear is no ordinary toy-store. You find yourself immersed a fully interactive and personalised experience of creating your bear from start to finish, as though you are in Santa’s toy factory!

Facing my daughter was an abundance of product choices; how does a cashed up 6-year-old make all these choices? Meeting my daughter was a helpful team-member, who guided her through each option, step-by-step.  Not only was my daughter spoken to in a respectful manner and her responses were quickly actioned, she was actively involved in every aspect of the bear making process.

Once my daughter had finished stuffing, dressing and accessorizing, Build a Bear further enhanced the customer experience by providing a ceremony to include her new bear into our family.  Finally, my daughter received a birth certificate for her bear that was placed into a special box, prominently displaying the company’s logo.

Here are the lessons a business owner can learn from Build a Bear

  1. Create a positive impression on your customers/clients the moment they enter your premise.

  2. Help the customer buy more of what you are selling by;

    • Creating add-ons to your core product, and making it easy to bundle together

    • Displaying your offerings in a way your customer can easily see the increased value they receive by purchasing additional items

    • Price the add-ons so that you make a profit margin, but the customer feels they have received good value.

  3. Create an experience! Engagement with the customers helps them learn about your products/services, which increases the likelihood of purchasing both the core product and the addons.

  4. Capture your customer’s vital details. As cute as birth certificate process was, it is also a practical way for Build-A-Bear to obtain customer information. Now, as a result, build-a-bear now have valuable customer information so they can  gain useful insights about their customers and target advertising.

  5. Capture other potential customers. I didn’t just take my daughter to Build a Bear, I also took her two brothers. The Build a Bear experience and processes also engaged my two sons, who added an additional 45% to the original sale. Imagine what your business could do if its processes could add an additional 45% to sales this easily.

The point of this story is clear. A business owner can learn lessons from a diversity of places, people and situations.  They just need to be willing to learn the lessons, whether the lessons are coming from a Build a Bear business, or from the guy who has just finished  unclogging your drain.

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