Does Your Candy Store Need A Soft Opening?

Will your candy store be soft open? Should the candy store have a soft opening? Generally, people who open a store for the first time will face a problem: After all the preparations for opening a store are ready, should they directly open a formal business or test operation?

Generally, these people will have three reactions: First, after all the preparatory work is ready, the habit of directly opening a business, not aware of the trial operation. The second is to rely on their own or surrounding people’s experience and experience, subconsciously thinking that there should be a trial operation of this link, a symbolic trial operation a few days later, in a hurry to open a store. Third, we know the importance of the trial operation, but we can’t start during the trial operation, we don’t know what to “try”, and after trying for a period of time, we began to officially open for business.

In any case, because the preliminary work of the trial operation is not done well, various problems occur frequently when the formal operation is later, and customers cannot be retained, so the business is naturally not good. Which begs the question: Why the soft opening? We have investigated a lot of shop people this problem, some say that according to common sense should try, some say to see which aspect of their lack, there is a room for error… There is, admittedly, some truth to these answers. But it’s clearly not comprehensive enough. This also leads to the trial operation period, which can not be fully targeted.

A candy shop is a shop dealing in sweets, chocolates, cakes and other sweet products. Trial operation refers to a period of simulated operation activities to test the operation of the store and the market response before the official opening. A soft opening is also very important for the operation of a candy store, continue reading this article to learn why you need a soft opening and the benefits of a soft opening for your store.

The Role Of Soft Opening

More comprehensively, it is the following three aspects:

1. First of all, be clear that you can continuously optimize the problem during the soft opening. Think about it. Do you know what your candy store was like before the soft opening? Of course, you know the candy products in the store very well, and you may know the hardware of the cash register, but when it comes to operational issues, who can guarantee that they are 100 percent sure? So this needs to try, to put it bluntly is to try and make mistakes, through the trial business period, take the initiative to expose the problem in advance, and then target improvement, and adjustment, this is an optimization process.
2. Again, give yourself an excuse to avoid the problem. This is mainly for customers. Whether there is a problem in the sale of candy or service, the “trial opening” is a good excuse: “I’m sorry, we are now in the trial opening period, anything that makes you dissatisfied, please forgive me.” The trial operation, in the eyes of customers, means that at the beginning, it is easy to make a mistake at this time, and naturally it is easy to be forgiven. Even if customers don’t approve of your store service, a soft opening is a good excuse, to say the least.
3. What’s more, the trial operation is also a period of running. Whether the products of their candy store are suitable for the market, whether they are liked by consumers, whether the taste is outstanding, whether they belong to the public or the minority, etc., these problems may be that you have a certain psychological judgment, but how the real situation is, you need to try to know. Otherwise, you’ll never get the most honest feedback.
   At this time, there are usually two situations: first, the candy products and taste of the store are recognized by customers, and the customers are satisfied with the service and price, so you can rest assured that the official business can be opened at this time. Two: There is one or several aspects, the customer is not satisfied, it is just the opportunity to adjust and improve. On the other hand, if you change it after the official opening, will the customer give you a chance to correct it? And you didn’t dare open the candy store.

In fact, a trial business is like a man and woman falling in love, and talking about it for a while before getting married. During the two people quarrel is a process to enhance understanding and feelings, on the contrary, indirect marriage, the probability of life happiness in the end how much, I believe that everyone’s heart is a judgment.

The Target Of A Soft Opening

Test the product

This is the key test item. The main test is whether the customer is satisfied with the product, and what are the problems, and then according to the customer’s evaluation and feedback, the response adjustment and improvement, The most important is to be able to achieve standardization and standardization.
What needs to be emphasized here is that you must be clear about the attitude of your core customer base.

This means making a trade-off between core customers and non-core customers. For example, the main customer group of your candy products is young people, and the core customer should be young people, so the focus should be on considering the feelings of this group of people, as to whether others are satisfied, if you have the ability to meet it, you can consider it, on the contrary, you don’t have to take too much into account. If you want to have your fish and bear’s paw, you often end up with neither.

Trial Operation

It mainly refers to the various problems that affect the perfect operation of your candy store during the trial opening period. It mainly includes the following two aspects:

• Software

That is the impact of improper operations. For example, the service is not good, the customer experience is poor, the candy taste does not meet the needs of customers, the cooperation between employees is not good, and the preparation of other snacks sold in the store is not sufficient, which can be adjusted and improved before the official business.

These areas are the most prone to problems, and it is also a problem that requires focus. No matter how good the preliminary planning is and how perfect the employee training is, problems that are unexpected during the trial business will happen. For example, you think there will be many customers on the same day, and the waiter must be diligent. But that day you will find that the situation is far from being as simple as you think. If the customer urges the checkout, it is not that the customer wants it from time to time … In short, there are too many questions, and the waiter does not serve customers at all as you expected.

• Hardware

It refers to the problems in the design, layout and equipment of the candy store. For example, whether the equipment in the new store works normally, how the power load is, whether the dynamic line needs to be optimized, and those details can be increased to improve the customer shopping experience… These can be adjusted and improved before the official opening.

Trial Market

Again, this is a good opportunity to observe the market. First of all, you can use a variety of ways to tell customers that your candy store is open for business, welcome to consume, to understand the consumer portrait, including consumer structure and consumption habits, to see consumers on the candy store products, pricing and other aspects of the response, and then make targeted adjustments and improvements.

At this time, the trial operation is like playing a warm-up game. The purpose is very clear, is to find out the results and problems, to know what their advantages and problems should be, the adjustment, the improvement, so that when the grand opening, at least not scrambling, at a loss.