How To Make Real Connections Between Your Stores & Your Communities

Even if you have multiple locations across multiple states, you can create genuine connections with the communities you operate in. Sure, you may not be able to achieve the level of connection that existed in the days of the general store where the owner knew everyone in town, what they liked and what they needed. But that doesn't mean you can't build a strong local connection in every store that adds to your overall brand promise.

The key to creating those local connections is your employees. You're management and marketing people may all be in one location, but your employees are local at every location. If you can mobilize them to really connect with their communities in meaningful ways, your brand – and eventually sales – can only benefit from it. There are a lot of ways you can do this and it can be as simple as encouraging them to be active brand advocates online and on social, interacting with the community there and in-person in store. But probably the best example of truly engaging through employees was what a furniture retail client of our did a few years back.

Grand Home Furnishings was celebrating their 100th anniversary and together we came up with a plan to make it a year long celebration. Based on their company culture of always going above and beyond to make their customers happy, we launched a new themeline, "Making people happy is what we do best" and the whole year was built around making people happy. Grand also had always been very involved in giving back to their communities through charitable giving. By formalizing that giving into a Happiness Foundation and by planning to do "100 Happiness Gestures" during their 100th year, Rather than make one or two big contributions to big charities, they were going to give something to 100 local charities chosen by the local employees. In the process, their employees became completely immersed in each local community.

The employees of each store was asked what charities in the local area were most deserving. Which ones did they care most deeply about? Guidelines were set that they were looking for charities that helped women, children or education. As long as the local charity fit into those criteria, the local employees could nominate them to receive a Grand Gesture. And employee involvement went beyond just nominating. Many of the gestures involved not only Grand contributing furniture or money, it involved the employees putting in the work. So, one woman's shelter in one market might get all new bedroom sets for the shelter and the local employees would not just deliver and set them up, but would do cleaning, repainting, fixing up and other needed work at the shelter.

Spending extra time together working for a good cause had added benefits for employees. Not only did they make deeper connections with those in their communities who needed help, they made deeper connections with each other. The overwhelming response was that these happiness gestures not only made those receiving them happier, it made those giving them happier. Employees really enjoyed doing the work. It made them feel good about themselves, their fellow employees and the company.Those are results that go beyond good PR and stronger community ties. Happy employees work better and stay longer.

In this over-connected online world with consumers having so many options, making sure you connect with your communities is more important than ever. Finding ways to connect in the real world are still important too. I think the Happiness Foundation example is a good one of how to do everything right and endear your stores and your brand to the communities you live and work in – with the added bonus of endearing your employees along the way. It's important to look for ways you can make connections and strengthen bonds. What have you seen that works?

Mike McClure, feeling the happiness.