[NOTE: I am now working on Twitterville's Chapter 9, Small Companies. Big Footprints, focusing on small businesses who use Twitter to extend their reach beyond physical boundaries. I have already posted Notes on two companies to be included in this chapter: CrowdSPRING and Gourmet Gastronomer. Ron's Hardware is the third of several companies that will be profiled in the chapter]
If you are old enough, you may remember the neighborhood hardware store. It was a place filled with shelves and bins and racks of all sorts of neat stuff and treasures. If you went in with a problem there was usually some guy with a carpenter's apron to help you, answer your questions and give you useful tips on how to get a handyman's job done.
Fusek's True Value Hardware Store in downtown Indianapolis is of more recent vintage. But it is like that. Designed and operated by Steve and Sue Fusek, it has a decidedly retro, homey feel to it. And there's usually a "hardware buddy" nearby to help you find what you want.
Fusek's has done well in an era when many local hardware stores have succumbed to Big Box operations like The Home Depot and Lowe's. It's big for an independent operation, occupying 10,000 square feet and offering customers in the greater metropolitan area 20,000-to 25,000 hardware items. Still it's small compared with the 35,000 square feet of the familiar, vacuous Home Depot.
In 2006, the couple decided to try their luck at selling hardware store items online through Amazon.com. They listed just a handful of items, mostly Radio Flyer
wagons and ride-on toys.
The response exceeded expectations, so they kept adding on items. By March 2008, there were over 500 offerings at Amazon when Steve Fusek met John M. Thieling, who shared Fusek's vision for a global
independent hardware store but also had a good deal of technical expertise to make it happen.
They became partners and shortly after that Ron's Home and Hardware store was born on the Internet. There was balance to the relationship. Fusek knew hardware. Thieling new technology. They shared a common vision. A month later, the two were listing 100 times as many items on Amazon as we had previously, and were well on our way to launching Ron's Home And Hardware as a standalone store, named for Fusek's father. Shortly after that , Ron's was using FaceBook, MySpace, and of course, Twitter to attract a growing number of customers in from an increasingly growing geographic circle.
The best I can tell, Ron's is thriving in tough times. Here are excerpts from my email interview with John Thieling. I have edited it some for brevity sake.
Q1. Why did you create the Ron's hardware site? Why didn't you just keep selling on Amazon?
We decided to give Ron's its own space because there were some limitations to what we could sell reasonably in the Amazon marketplace. With the standalone store, we're better able to manage shipping costs, and reduce overhead. Since our catalog is so deep, it provides us with almost infinite flexibility to explore vertical markets. It also allows us to create an individual identity. Amazon is a tremendous resource for reaching a large audience, but it is challenging to brand your own identity there. Through the exercise of setting up Ron’s Home And Hardware, we have gained insight into how to use the technology to create a much larger presence then on Amazon, as well as in our other channels.
Q2. Ron's really is an online version of the brick and mortar Fusek's True Value Hardware. What is different and what is the same about tangible and online hardware stores? How is the customer different?
Ron's really is the online compliment to Fusek's in many ways. When Steve and Sue were planning the opening of Fusek's, they put a great deal of thought into the visual presentation of the store, starting with the exterior sign and awnings, then carrying into every corner of the store itself. The visual experience is intended to be part of the customer experience.
We approached Ron's Home the same way. The internet is such a visual space. We wanted to create a cohesive look, so that no matter where someone is on the site, the design tells them, "You're shopping at Ron's Home And Hardware."
If someone has a question about a plumbing project, we have an expert in the store ready to help them. People like the fact that they can walk onto the retail floor pick up the item they are thinking about buying and have their questions answered. Similarly, we get emails & Tweets from people asking the same kind of questions. We've found that our employees' knowledge has scaled well in the online realm. We've recognized that level of interactivity is under-served on the internet. We're addressing it proactively by expanding our accessibility online, and creating a community space for people to get those answers.
The online and brick-and-mortar have their differences, however. Our brick & mortar store is pretty large as hardware stores go, but it still limits the number of unique items we can carry. Online, we have no such limits. We display as many items as we can--some 80,000 at last count. By the end of Q1 2009, we'll have over 130,000 items for sale online.
Another difference is visitors. On an average day, we might see 230 people at Fucek's. Online we get thousands of daily visitors from as far away as the U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada's Yukon Territory. In 2009/2010, we'll be begin serving Western Europe.
Customers these days are "cross-trained." They shop both in physical stores and online. They have high expectations for customer service in both channels. But, if you make someone unhappy in your brick-and-mortar store, he or she isn't going to do business with you anymore and that person will tell 10 friends. If you make someone unhappy in an e-commerce store, they're never going to do business with you again and they'll tell a few THOUSAND of their closest friends. We provide fanatical customer service. They say 20% of your customers account for 80% of your business. What they don't tell you is to not abandon the 80%.
Q3. You're using Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. How are they different from each other? How do they work together?
Our principal goal is accessibility. We don't ever want to limit our customer interaction by forcing them to communicate strictly on our terms. We want to be in all the spaces where our customers are most comfortable. Facebook and MySpace give you the ability to actively search for people whose interests align with your business model. We connect with those who are avid do-it-yourselfers, homeowners, contractors, purchasing managers, and people with a passion for tools and hardware.
Facebook and MySpace also let you share your message in more than just text and photos. We have a connector that displays the "Featured Items" on both sites. People can add items directly to their shopping cart on our site, then visit the store later to complete their purchase. Additionally, we're developing a video series called "Ron's Hardware Half-Minute." that give people ideas for projects, demonstrate simple projects, and provide us yet another vector of social approach.
But the hub of our social media mix is Twitter. It provides an inherent level of synergy with people. It's contagious and engaging like no other medium. We use Twitter to tie all our social media operations together with cross-promotion. One other benefit we see from utilizing social media for our business is in the "Trust Factor". Establishing trust on the internet is crucial for any merchant.
Q4 When and why did you start using Twitter?
We began using Twitter in December 2008 on a lark, just to see if people would talk to us. We very quickly realized that this underutilized it. Now, not only do we use it to engage and interact with those who seek us out, but it lets us find folks who have hardware or home improvement questions.
If we see someone complaining that they just broke the carafe on their coffee maker, we can actively engage them and help them find a replacement carafe at Ron's. If we see someone asking questions about chimney repairs, we can advise them on how best to get it fixed. While we use Twitter to interact with both customers and potential customers, we always strive to be respectful and never spammy.
Occasionally, we remind people that we're an online hardware store, but mostly we limit our self-promotion. If people like who we are, they'll visit the store on their own without brow-beating, and they'll probably recommend us to others.
Twitter gives us a way to show our humanity. While we sometimes talk business, we also talk about life, the economy, last night's big game and even lunch. Twitter allows us to show who we really are. It is very much "in the moment."
Q5 How did has Twitter changed your business?
There's a coffee counter in our Indianapolis store where customers congregate and shoot the breeze. We have some amazing conversations, there. Sometimes, it's pithy stuff like the economy. Often, it's just banter about the Colts or Pacers. Twitter has become our Internet "coffee counter." It's extends our reach beyond your grasp.
Every day, we talk to wonderful people on Twitter --a "groovy farm chick" in Nebraska, the CEO of a huge online company, some of technology's great minds and respected journalists. These are people we would never meet outside of Twitter.
When we know a customer is on Twitter, we give them a "shoutout:" "Hey, Larry in Omaha! We'll get that Weber Grill to you ASAP." Little things like that touch people, and help them remember your name. They become your evangelists.
Twitter gives us a way to show our humanity. While we sometimes talk business, we also talk about life, the economy, last night's big game and even lunch. Twitter allows us to show who we really are. It is very much "in the moment."
Q6. Can you tell me a great story of something that happened on Twitter, that could not otherwise have happened?
I have a pair of great stories, one of them not necessarily related to business.
One Saturday morning I saw Seesmic CEO Loic LeMeur , was asking if anyone could find him the new Canon 5D MKII anywhere in San Francisco. I decided to do a Bay Area camera store search for him. I called about a dozen stores. Nobody had one. So, I decided to call one last store. The owner, named Frank, answers and says, "Sure, I've got one. Come get it." About 10 minutes later, Loic is raving about how awesome I am on Twitter, and is sprinting to the store to get his camera. He keeps asking me, "Why did you do this", and I tell him just to help a fellow human being. We're both over-the-moon that Twitter has helped make this awesome connection, then he gets to the camera store. The camera Frank has is indeed a Canon 5D...but it's the MKI, not the brand-new MKII. GAAAAH!!! Loic didn't even care. And truthfully, although I was slightly embarrassed that it didn't work out as I had hoped, I didn't care, either. We were both happy to have witnessed the power of the instant connection, separated geographically by 2000 miles.
My second story plays out in one form or another almost daily when we reach out to other merchants, and they to us. We discuss what works, what doesn't, the latest trends, and so on. Twitter allows us to share without having to feel adversarial. Obviously, we aren't talking strategy so much, but we do discuss things like best practices and general business topics. Competition drives the marketplace, it's a very healthy force. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer they say. We believe there is no reason to fear your competition, nor to avoid them. Embrace them, learn from them, and teach them.
Q7. What advice do you have for merchants considering using Twitter?
First: Just do it. And do it with honesty and integrity. People are tired of form letters, canned responses, and being treated with indifference by corporations. Check out @comcastcares for a good lesson in how to be genuine. Frank talks to people like they're people, without the corporate façade. He's genuine, he helps people, and he's a great brand ambassador for Comcast. Second thing? Make judicious use of all the fantastic software available to Twitter efficiently.
Everyday, there are more and more tools available. We use Twhirl to keep up on the messaging and searches. We use a great service called "TweetWorks", created by @mikelangford, which allows us to start Twitter "groups". TweetWorks is, in particular, one example of the great communities Twitter has spawned. Lastly, don’t ever forget this: it’s the internet…have some fun!
