With the convention fast approaching, we ask that you come ready to share ideas, trends, successes and failures. I once had a member tell me why should he bother to get up and attend membership meetings or the same old tired educational seminars or see the same old people. It is frustrating sometimes to hear these kinds of statements, when the networking time can be the greatest value of the trip. Every party is what you make it! If you expect nothing, you get exactly that! Maybe that guy should come this year armed with questions and answers. Maybe that guy could walk away with a promotion idea he had not thought of before. Maybe he could be alerted by fellow operators about trends in their stores that may be headed his direction. Maybe he could ask how others approach selling more career apparel, or should he offer wedding invitations, or upgrade jewelry?? No one area in particular but EVERY aspect of this industry!

Use this opportunity to react kind of like John F. Kennedy’s statement to not ask what can be done for you, but what you can do for others. Come to Vegas with something to offer! I remember the first time I was brave enough to introduce myself to groups with IFA badges whom I had never met. I was not a store owner just an employee and never felt right about approaching some of these big players; I could not have been more wrong everyone was gracious and very informative. I have met so many great people from every size operation each year I am afraid not to walk up and talk to tuxedo strangers now! Surprise yourself, and use this couple of day investment in your business to look beyond the obvious! Make sure to stop by the IFA booth and introduce yourself.

With the convention fast approaching, we ask that you come ready to share ideas, trends, successes and failures. I once had a member tell me why should he bother to get up and attend membership meetings or the same old tired educational seminars or see the same old people. It is frustrating sometimes to hear these kinds of statements, when the networking time can be the greatest value of the trip. Every party is what you make it! If you expect nothing, you get exactly that! Maybe that guy should come this year armed with questions and answers. Maybe that guy could walk away with a promotion idea he had not thought of before. Maybe he could be alerted by fellow operators about trends in their stores that may be headed his direction. Maybe he could ask how others approach selling more career apparel, or should he offer wedding invitations, or upgrade jewelry?? No one area in particular but EVERY aspect of this industry!

Use this opportunity to react kind of like John F. Kennedy’s statement to not ask what can be done for you, but what you can do for others. Come to Vegas with something to offer! I remember the first time I was brave enough to introduce myself to groups with IFA badges whom I had never met. I was not a store owner just an employee and never felt right about approaching some of these big players; I could not have been more wrong everyone was gracious and very informative. I have met so many great people from every size operation each year I am afraid not to walk up and talk to tuxedo strangers now! Surprise yourself, and use this couple of day investment in your business to look beyond the obvious! Make sure to stop by the IFA booth and introduce yourself.

Good Customer Service Made Simple

Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, business won’t be profitable for long.

Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away happy – happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others.

If you're a good salesperson, you can sell anything to anyone once. But it will be your approach to customer service that determines whether or not you'll ever be able to sell that person anything else. The essence of good customer service is forming a relationship with customers – a relationship that an individual customer feels he would like to pursue.

1. Answer your phone. Make sure that someone with a pleasant voice is picking up the phone.
2. Don't make promises unless you "WILL" keep them. Reliability is one of the keys to any good relationship, and good customer service is no exception.
3. Listen to your customers. Let your customer talk and show him that you are listening by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting certain merchandise or how to solve the problem.
4. Deal with complaints. Give the complaint your attention, you may be able to please this one person this one time – and position your business to reap the benefits of good customer service.
5. Be helpful - even if there’s no immediate profit in it. The other day Jane popped into a local watch shop because she had lost the small piece that clips the pieces of her watchband together. When she explained the problem, the proprietor said that he thought he might have one lying around. He found it, attached it to her watchband –- and charged her nothing! Where do you think Jane will go when she needs a new watchband or even a new watch? And how many people do you think she has told this story to?
6. Train your staff to be ALWAYS helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable. Give every member of your staff enough information and power to make those small customer-pleasing decisions, so he never has to say, "I don’t know."
7. Take the extra step. Lead the customer to the item they asked about. Better yet, wait and see if he has questions about it, or further needs. Whatever the extra step may be, if you want to provide good customer service, take it.
8. Throw in something extra. Whether it's a coupon for a future discount, additional information on how to use the product, or a genuine smile -- people love to get more than they expect.
If you apply these eight simple rules consistently, your business will become known for its good service.

The irony of good customer service is that over time it will bring in more new customers than promotions and price slashing ever did!

Reprinted with permission from Barbara Wold's Retail & Consumer Tips.
Barbara Wold is a street-smart, down-to-earth business speaker, presenting topics from sales and marketing to customer service and tourism. She is an international speaker who has "WOWED" over 450,000 people from all 50 of the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, Canada, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, India and the United Arab Emirates.

Good Customer Service Made Simple

Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, business won’t be profitable for long.

Good customer service is all about bringing customers back. And about sending them away happy – happy enough to pass positive feedback about your business along to others.

If you're a good salesperson, you can sell anything to anyone once. But it will be your approach to customer service that determines whether or not you'll ever be able to sell that person anything else. The essence of good customer service is forming a relationship with customers – a relationship that an individual customer feels he would like to pursue.

1. Answer your phone. Make sure that someone with a pleasant voice is picking up the phone.
2. Don't make promises unless you "WILL" keep them. Reliability is one of the keys to any good relationship, and good customer service is no exception.
3. Listen to your customers. Let your customer talk and show him that you are listening by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting certain merchandise or how to solve the problem.
4. Deal with complaints. Give the complaint your attention, you may be able to please this one person this one time – and position your business to reap the benefits of good customer service.
5. Be helpful - even if there’s no immediate profit in it. The other day Jane popped into a local watch shop because she had lost the small piece that clips the pieces of her watchband together. When she explained the problem, the proprietor said that he thought he might have one lying around. He found it, attached it to her watchband –- and charged her nothing! Where do you think Jane will go when she needs a new watchband or even a new watch? And how many people do you think she has told this story to?
6. Train your staff to be ALWAYS helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable. Give every member of your staff enough information and power to make those small customer-pleasing decisions, so he never has to say, "I don’t know."
7. Take the extra step. Lead the customer to the item they asked about. Better yet, wait and see if he has questions about it, or further needs. Whatever the extra step may be, if you want to provide good customer service, take it.
8. Throw in something extra. Whether it's a coupon for a future discount, additional information on how to use the product, or a genuine smile -- people love to get more than they expect.
If you apply these eight simple rules consistently, your business will become known for its good service.

The irony of good customer service is that over time it will bring in more new customers than promotions and price slashing ever did!

Reprinted with permission from Barbara Wold's Retail & Consumer Tips.
Barbara Wold is a street-smart, down-to-earth business speaker, presenting topics from sales and marketing to customer service and tourism. She is an international speaker who has "WOWED" over 450,000 people from all 50 of the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, Canada, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, India and the United Arab Emirates.

Attracting the local bride and groom in an era of Internet window shopping

The day-to-day of owning a tuxedo rental business creates a challenge to dedicating time to big picture thinking. In the last ten years the picture has changed. The picture in the minds of many brides and grooms, as to how she should go about looking for a tuxedo rental business, starts with a computer screen.

So the challenge for the local tuxedo rental business is to be found online by brides in his/her target geographical area, who use the Internet to do research. A tuxedo rental business that is recommended by caterers, has a longstanding reputation and has prominent retail exposure will likely be on the radar screen of many local brides and grooms. However, if a bride or groom finds your competitor online and sees images and pricing that captures her interest and doesn’t see you there, she may overlook your business. Also, it’s important to get the attention of brides and grooms who live close enough to do business with you, but far enough away that they haven’t heard of you.

Here we are in 2009, and the Internet is the dominant forum for marketing. So many brick and mortar retailers are faced with the dilemma of feeling that they have to learn a whole new science or be left behind.
To start being found online, visit Google.com and Yahoo.com. These two leading search engines offer free directory services for businesses and enhanced listings for a modest fee. A bride for example who searches for “Tuxedos, Wichita, Kansas” on Google will find a list of formal wear stores and maps of any retailer who signs up for the service at no charge.
That still puts you in competition with other locals. However, most brides do not include geographic information in their searches. If that is the case, your studio has almost no chance of being directly found by a local bride who types “white tuxedoes” into search engines.

Instead of your company, your potential local customer will find the first page of search results dominated by wedding planning resource sites, such as The Knot who may then find local tuxedo stores on their site but with more effort that if they saw your local listing prominently displayed in the search engine results.
The good news is that you can be found by brides living or working near you with the marketing program, Google Adwords. Google actually knows the location of the computer, on which the bride conducts the search. To target your ad campaign most effectively, the parameters of the geographic areas must be set to so your listing appears on the right hand side as a “sponsor”. Then a separate bid must be placed on each phrase the bride might enter, such as “grooms tuxedos”. You are competing against web site owners who bid quite high on all national searches. When your listing shows up, you pay much less for brides in your target area and only if the bride clicks your ad to reach your site. You can control your ad spending by setting a budget each month to limit the amount of clicks. This way you can test how many of the brides, who click through to your site, actually end up coming to your store. You can change your budget depending on the time of the year and stop and start again.

Any tuxedo rental business can set up this program on their own, but a professional Google Search Marketer will be able to offer the development and monitoring of a program that is more cost effective and get better results. The time to create effective ads that grab a bride’s attention, monitor the results and adjust the bids take up more time and concentration than the average retailer would have to expend.

The educational process of embracing all the online strategies available is absolutely overwhelming. Once you are generating local traffic to your website, you’re job isn’t done. it is important to have a web site that impresses brides enough to pick up the phone to make an appointment or just visit. The web site should be the front door to your company. It should paint a picture of quality, service, reliability and expert alterations so that the bride and groom is more likely to contact you with an intention to book. Have vivid and close up shots of the tuxedos. Building the most effective online marketing campaigns will drive quality traffic to your site and ultimately your store.

Brian Lawrence is the author of “The Wedding Expert’s Guide To Sales and Marketing”, a book about offline marketing, which can be downloaded at www.localtrafficbuilder.com/weddingmanual . A wedding retailer for 15 years in the ‘80s and ‘90, he has since served the wedding industry as a writer and speaker and formed a company called Local Traffic Builder www.localtrafficbuilder.com, which provides web design, enhancement and knowledge with industry insight. He can be contacted at info@localtrafficbuilder.com    or at 201 244 - 5969.

Attracting the local bride and groom in an era of Internet window shopping

The day-to-day of owning a tuxedo rental business creates a challenge to dedicating time to big picture thinking. In the last ten years the picture has changed. The picture in the minds of many brides and grooms, as to how she should go about looking for a tuxedo rental business, starts with a computer screen.

So the challenge for the local tuxedo rental business is to be found online by brides in his/her target geographical area, who use the Internet to do research. A tuxedo rental business that is recommended by caterers, has a longstanding reputation and has prominent retail exposure will likely be on the radar screen of many local brides and grooms. However, if a bride or groom finds your competitor online and sees images and pricing that captures her interest and doesn’t see you there, she may overlook your business. Also, it’s important to get the attention of brides and grooms who live close enough to do business with you, but far enough away that they haven’t heard of you.

Here we are in 2009, and the Internet is the dominant forum for marketing. So many brick and mortar retailers are faced with the dilemma of feeling that they have to learn a whole new science or be left behind.
To start being found online, visit Google.com and Yahoo.com. These two leading search engines offer free directory services for businesses and enhanced listings for a modest fee. A bride for example who searches for “Tuxedos, Wichita, Kansas” on Google will find a list of formal wear stores and maps of any retailer who signs up for the service at no charge.
That still puts you in competition with other locals. However, most brides do not include geographic information in their searches. If that is the case, your studio has almost no chance of being directly found by a local bride who types “white tuxedoes” into search engines.

Instead of your company, your potential local customer will find the first page of search results dominated by wedding planning resource sites, such as The Knot who may then find local tuxedo stores on their site but with more effort that if they saw your local listing prominently displayed in the search engine results.
The good news is that you can be found by brides living or working near you with the marketing program, Google Adwords. Google actually knows the location of the computer, on which the bride conducts the search. To target your ad campaign most effectively, the parameters of the geographic areas must be set to so your listing appears on the right hand side as a “sponsor”. Then a separate bid must be placed on each phrase the bride might enter, such as “grooms tuxedos”. You are competing against web site owners who bid quite high on all national searches. When your listing shows up, you pay much less for brides in your target area and only if the bride clicks your ad to reach your site. You can control your ad spending by setting a budget each month to limit the amount of clicks. This way you can test how many of the brides, who click through to your site, actually end up coming to your store. You can change your budget depending on the time of the year and stop and start again.

Any tuxedo rental business can set up this program on their own, but a professional Google Search Marketer will be able to offer the development and monitoring of a program that is more cost effective and get better results. The time to create effective ads that grab a bride’s attention, monitor the results and adjust the bids take up more time and concentration than the average retailer would have to expend.

The educational process of embracing all the online strategies available is absolutely overwhelming. Once you are generating local traffic to your website, you’re job isn’t done. it is important to have a web site that impresses brides enough to pick up the phone to make an appointment or just visit. The web site should be the front door to your company. It should paint a picture of quality, service, reliability and expert alterations so that the bride and groom is more likely to contact you with an intention to book. Have vivid and close up shots of the tuxedos. Building the most effective online marketing campaigns will drive quality traffic to your site and ultimately your store.

Brian Lawrence is the author of “The Wedding Expert’s Guide To Sales and Marketing”, a book about offline marketing, which can be downloaded at www.localtrafficbuilder.com/weddingmanual . A wedding retailer for 15 years in the ‘80s and ‘90, he has since served the wedding industry as a writer and speaker and formed a company called Local Traffic Builder www.localtrafficbuilder.com, which provides web design, enhancement and knowledge with industry insight. He can be contacted at info@localtrafficbuilder.com    or at 201 244 - 5969.

  After Six is pleased to announce the acquisition of Ascot, LLC. As the leader of microfiber shirts in the formal wear industry, Ascot’s Luxe Microfiber® shirts will complement and enhance the product mix of After Six further establishing After Six as the primary distributor to the formalwear industry. Bob Milam, formally with Ascot, will be the Sales Manager for the After Six shirt division. You can reach Bob at 615-373-2040 or 615-400-4202 (cell) to answer any questions you might have regarding the combining of our two companies.

We appreciate your understanding for any inconvenience that might arise as After Six and Ascot combine their inventories and systems over the next few weeks. The customer service phone number for all After Six products, including previously Chaplin and now Ascot’s Luxe Microfiber® shirts is: 800-554-8212

Please note that After Six has a new address:

After Six LLC
420 Thornton Rd. #109
Lithia Springs, GA 30122

Plesae feel free to contact me with any questions.

Thanks again,

Samuel Kim

CEO
After Six LLC

The International Formalwear Association has lost two industry members. The first is Gene Fetters of The Tux Shop/ Sanitary Cleaners in St. Joseph’s MI who served as president of the association in 1983& 84. The second is Jean Julius of The Dealer’s Room Las Vegas NV. The association extends its deepest sympathy to the families, friends and employees of both of these members.

Obituary for Eugene Robert Fetters
Born on the 9th of December, 1923 in Benton Harbor, Michigan to Edith Marie and Clyde Travis Fetters, Gene graduated from Benton Harbor High School in 1942. He attended Michigan State University for a year and a half before he was called to serve in the South Pacific during World War II. Prior to being inducted into the military he met Mildred Lucile Klepser who he fell in love with and married. Returning from his military duty he joined his fathers business as a second generation family member in their business of Sanitary Cleaners located in St. Joseph, Michigan. Gene was an avid golfer all of his life and was a member of the Berrien Hills Country Club, Point of Woods Country Club, and Pinacle Peak Country Club in Scottsdale Arizona. He was also very involved in Rotary Club for many years, past president of the Easter Seal Society, member and past president of the International Formalwear Association, a member of the Michigan Institute of Launders and Dry Cleaners and the International Fabricare Institute, and served on the board of directors at the Point of Woods Country Club and was a life member of Berrien County Sportsman Club. He is survived by his wife Mildred; his children Sharon Hafer and Skip Fetters; his brother John and Marilyn Fetters; three grandchildren and many nephews and nieces. There will be a visitation on Monday, August 17th at Starks & Menchinger from 5 to 7pm and a memorial service at the First Congregational Church in St. Joseph at 11:30 am on Tuesday, August 18th. Memorial contributions may be made to Hospice at Home or the First Congregational Church in St. Joseph.

Jean Julius of the Dealer’s Room Las Vegas NV passed away recently. Jean was a long time member of the association. Her business catered to casino employees and show people along with tuxedo rental. 

  After Six is pleased to announce the acquisition of Ascot, LLC. As the leader of microfiber shirts in the formal wear industry, Ascot’s Luxe Microfiber® shirts will complement and enhance the product mix of After Six further establishing After Six as the primary distributor to the formalwear industry. Bob Milam, formally with Ascot, will be the Sales Manager for the After Six shirt division. You can reach Bob at 615-373-2040 or 615-400-4202 (cell) to answer any questions you might have regarding the combining of our two companies.

We appreciate your understanding for any inconvenience that might arise as After Six and Ascot combine their inventories and systems over the next few weeks. The customer service phone number for all After Six products, including previously Chaplin and now Ascot’s Luxe Microfiber® shirts is: 800-554-8212

Please note that After Six has a new address:

After Six LLC
420 Thornton Rd. #109
Lithia Springs, GA 30122

Plesae feel free to contact me with any questions.

Thanks again,

Samuel Kim

CEO
After Six LLC

The International Formalwear Association has lost two industry members. The first is Gene Fetters of The Tux Shop/ Sanitary Cleaners in St. Joseph’s MI who served as president of the association in 1983& 84. The second is Jean Julius of The Dealer’s Room Las Vegas NV. The association extends its deepest sympathy to the families, friends and employees of both of these members.

Obituary for Eugene Robert Fetters
Born on the 9th of December, 1923 in Benton Harbor, Michigan to Edith Marie and Clyde Travis Fetters, Gene graduated from Benton Harbor High School in 1942. He attended Michigan State University for a year and a half before he was called to serve in the South Pacific during World War II. Prior to being inducted into the military he met Mildred Lucile Klepser who he fell in love with and married. Returning from his military duty he joined his fathers business as a second generation family member in their business of Sanitary Cleaners located in St. Joseph, Michigan. Gene was an avid golfer all of his life and was a member of the Berrien Hills Country Club, Point of Woods Country Club, and Pinacle Peak Country Club in Scottsdale Arizona. He was also very involved in Rotary Club for many years, past president of the Easter Seal Society, member and past president of the International Formalwear Association, a member of the Michigan Institute of Launders and Dry Cleaners and the International Fabricare Institute, and served on the board of directors at the Point of Woods Country Club and was a life member of Berrien County Sportsman Club. He is survived by his wife Mildred; his children Sharon Hafer and Skip Fetters; his brother John and Marilyn Fetters; three grandchildren and many nephews and nieces. There will be a visitation on Monday, August 17th at Starks & Menchinger from 5 to 7pm and a memorial service at the First Congregational Church in St. Joseph at 11:30 am on Tuesday, August 18th. Memorial contributions may be made to Hospice at Home or the First Congregational Church in St. Joseph.

Jean Julius of the Dealer’s Room Las Vegas NV passed away recently. Jean was a long time member of the association. Her business catered to casino employees and show people along with tuxedo rental. 

Paul Morrell Formalwear of Little Rock, Arkansas is seeking to purchase the following items:

Coats:
Slightly Damaged, Worn, Old and New Merchandise in Tailcoats (of all colors), Cutaways, and Basic Coat models of Black, White and Ivory.
(Framed Edge and Regular Full Satin in Peak, Notch, Shawl and Fashion Styling are all fine).
We also need additional Black Santa Cruz 10 Button Coats from FCGI.

Trousers:
Non-Pleated, Single, Double and Triple Pleated wool Trousers including Flexo and any other waist models in Black, White and Ivory.

Accessories:
Backless and Fullback Vests in Black, White, Red and many colors.

We are interested in the merchandise you no longer rent and would like to have out of your backroom or warehouse. This is a great way to create cash and clean out needed space for New Inventory instead of throwing or giving it away. Very Low Prices Offered on Bulk Buys.

We Pay Ground Shipping.

Please contact:

Justin or Michael at Paul Morrell…
info@paulmorrell.com  
501.374.8256
800.643.8345
fax: 501.374.7564

120 S. Victory
Little Rock, AR 72201

Offered For Sale:
Calvin Klein 2-button black and 3-button made by FCGI several years ago. They
can be rented and sold. There are about 75 of each model, a full range. Coat & pants @ $7.50 each.

Ira Coleman
Colemans Tuxedos
649 Morris Twp
Springfield NJ 07081
1-973-568-5238
iratux@aol.com

Paul Morrell Formalwear of Little Rock, Arkansas is seeking to purchase the following items:

Coats:
Slightly Damaged, Worn, Old and New Merchandise in Tailcoats (of all colors), Cutaways, and Basic Coat models of Black, White and Ivory.
(Framed Edge and Regular Full Satin in Peak, Notch, Shawl and Fashion Styling are all fine).
We also need additional Black Santa Cruz 10 Button Coats from FCGI.

Trousers:
Non-Pleated, Single, Double and Triple Pleated wool Trousers including Flexo and any other waist models in Black, White and Ivory.

Accessories:
Backless and Fullback Vests in Black, White, Red and many colors.

We are interested in the merchandise you no longer rent and would like to have out of your backroom or warehouse. This is a great way to create cash and clean out needed space for New Inventory instead of throwing or giving it away. Very Low Prices Offered on Bulk Buys.

We Pay Ground Shipping.

Please contact:

Justin or Michael at Paul Morrell…
info@paulmorrell.com  
501.374.8256
800.643.8345
fax: 501.374.7564

120 S. Victory
Little Rock, AR 72201

Offered For Sale:
Calvin Klein 2-button black and 3-button made by FCGI several years ago. They
can be rented and sold. There are about 75 of each model, a full range. Coat & pants @ $7.50 each.

Ira Coleman
Colemans Tuxedos
649 Morris Twp
Springfield NJ 07081
1-973-568-5238
iratux@aol.com

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” ~John F. Kennedy~

“Life is too short not to make the best and the most of everything that comes your way every day.” ~ author unknown~

“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” ~John F. Kennedy~

“Life is too short not to make the best and the most of everything that comes your way every day.” ~ author unknown~

The opinions expressed by the authors do not reflect necessarily of the Association of  International Formalwear, its officials, directors or personnel. Each author is the unique person in charge of her or his content.

The opinions expressed by the authors do not reflect necessarily of the Association of  International Formalwear, its officials, directors or personnel. Each author is the unique person in charge of her or his content.