Any bespoke tailor will be a small business owner. The simple fact is, a fully custom suit or dress, is not going to be easy to make. The skills required are immense and the knowledge behind clothing has to match the physical handling of tools and soft skills with customers. So as a small business owner, you would like to avoid wasting time with a client because time is money after all. But what if we told you that, it's not always a case of finding the incorrect client, who won’t be willing to pay the high price of your services, that is the issue, it's that you lose little bits of money throughout the entire process? Here are some ways you can prevent that.
Know Their Commitment
The number one thing that hits bespoke tailors the hardest, is misreading their clients. They meet a new customer in their boutique store, who says all the things about wanting a new dress or suit made and how they want such and such material, design, features, etc. don’t mistake their enthusiasm and their knowledge of clothes, as their commitment to your business. It's vital that you have lots of try-on pieces and you show them how you will be working with them. This requires you to have a book of examples or case studies of the work you have completed. Show them the dress or suit you made for someone, what they wanted, how it turned out, what the process was like, etc.
Pay On The Spot
As you may know, when a client is having their measurements are taken, their suit or dress being made in its earliest stages, they will want to add and remove some things. It's quite normal for a customer to say, they want ruffle shoulders instead of none for a wedding dress. It may also be that a customer would like a peak lapel, instead of a blunter variant. This requires more material, a rework of the internal support, lines to be redrawn, remeasured, etc. If they want this work done during or after, this could be attached to their bill in increments. But to avoid someone backing out, make sure you try this credit card scanner. They can swipe and or scan their card in the machine, making for easy and quick payments which are secure. Then they can’t back out of a dress or suit they have been making more and more complex.
Window Dress
You lose a lot by not properly window dressing. Customers won’t even walk in if they don’t see your best pieces, worn by models in your posters and more. So make sure the lighting is great, every feature can be seen, the colors of your items pop out of the window and you are seasonal. So you may need to change your window dressing, 1-2 times every single season as the temperament of the weather changes.
Bespoke tailors are incredible small businesses. They showcase the best of human hands, in terms of skill, patience, knowledge, making a product totally one of a kind.
