DR. ADAMS: WE ARE READY FOR THE CUSTOMER TRAVEL – AND WE WANT TO WALK ON OUR OWN
The uneven and cobbled streets in Odense lead to Dr. Adams at Pogestræde. For the past 23 years, the fashion store has been selling clothes to the customers at Fyn.
The store is in control with the customers, location and the goods. However, it is something else when it comes to the virtual universe, which Dr. Adams will optimize on several fronts, says the co-owner of Dr. Adam’s Stine Larsen.
At Dr. Adams they have always been honored to do things themselves. That is why, they wanted to improve their own digital skills in an active way, that would give the competences and guide the store owners and staff in the right digital development direction.
That is why, they signed up for Digital Growth Culture (DVK). A project with the purpose of competence development of Danish lifestyle companies in a digital direction.
“We never regretted that decision. We have achieved much more than we thought we could. Already now we see that traffic to our web shop has increased significantly”, says Stine Larsen.
“We have experienced a great change after participation in Digital Growth Culture. None of us are educated in IT of any kind, so it has been very helpful. We have got tools we can implement, while one-to-one consultations with experts on different topics have given us a lot of inspiration. For us, it has worked perfectly, that we could choose specific topics that we needed inspiration for”, says Stine Larsen and continues:
“We involve all the staff in what we are working on, have workshops and share knowledge with the entire staff. We really believe in making each other better and involving everyone’s experiences – both the store staff, the dedicated web staff, the buyers, etc. In this way, everyone becomes wiser, and everyone offers what they have of ideas. It’s really rewarding.
Social media in particular has been a focus for Dr. Adams. Here they could, with Stine Larsen’s own words, “clearly optimize”, and they did.
Customer journey as a method and DNA as motivation
Dr. Adams has started a journey towards a more digital business. The digital aspect must never replace the physical store and the service-minded employees in the Odense store, explains Stine Larsen.Another thing, Dr. Adams has begun is “customer journey”. In short, it is about getting closer to the (online) customer, getting to know them, understanding their needs and being able to service them as they prefer. It is exactly this journey that takes a lot of Dr. Adams time at the moment.
“The customer journey is really the most important thing for us at the moment. We work a lot with the social media, with customer descriptions, segmenting and targeting our ads and working with persona types. Currently, our newsletter and web shop are not segmented, but it is clearly the goal that everything should be adapted to the individual user if possible. We know our customers better now than before, which data collection and social media help us with. Now we just have to manage the new personal data law, so we do not do anything wrong, but we will certainly gather more data.”
A common argument for several participants in DVK has been that it can be difficult to get your brand to shine at social media, as you do not have the same opportunities that you have in a physical store.
Dr. Adams recognize that as well. Therefore, they have intensified their presence on social media, while two employees have got new responsibilities in relation to the web shop.
“It makes perfect sense for us. We are constantly trying to involve all our staff in as many processes as possible. In this way we can better communicate our brand and DNA through digital channels. This is also where I have to say that digitization is hard. It requires sacrifices if you want to do it properly, which we will. But honestly, I would rather open three physical stores than one web shop”, says Stine Larsen with a smile on her face.
Implementing a digital development strategy for the entire company
Dr. Adams has implemented a digital development strategy for the entire company. “As you know, Rome was not built in one day, just as the more digital version of Dr. Adams. But it clearly goes the right way”, explains Stine Larsen.
“Our ambitions for the DVK have grown significantly. Everyone can provide good service, but we want a lot more than that. The desire to work with digitization, experimenting, lies in our DNA.” She says.
A key factor for the digital desire is found in the management of Dr. Adams. The Odense fashion store has managed to create a culture that fully supports digital development.
“From the management’s side, we do a great deal to ensure that our employees are curious about the development we are working on purely digitally. Jacob, our second leader, has just joined another project on digitization, as he thinks it’s really exciting. We drive the development forward in consultation with colleagues, who in their employee interviews have all indicated that they think it is great to work with digitization. Their input is valuable because they are the ones who have daily contact with customers and their wishes”, says Stine Larsen.
“We are partly finished with a concrete digital development strategy. It involves both sales, marketing, staff development and much more. Everyone must be involved in it, so it will also be important for us, that the store staff will be allowed to manage the social media so that they can see that it is not “just something you do”,” says Stine Larsen.
“In a year we do well on our own”
The company has hired a company that specializes in SEO optimization, so the company becomes more exposed through search engines such as Google. However, they have no interest in the company “just” SEO optimizing them.
“Often we get education from their employees about how we can optimize SEO ourselves in the future. It is significantly more rewarding for us that we in the future can work from the foundation that has been created”, says Stine Larsen.
SEO optimization will among other things help Dr. Adams heading for a larger online presence. In a year, they expect that the digital takes much more of their everyday time than it has done so far.
“We buy better when we are at fashion fairs around the world because we now know our customers better in terms of the data we collect. This means fewer purchases we have difficulty selling – and that means we have to distinguish between which goods are selling on- and offline.”
“It doesn’t help to get anyone doing the work for you. But you can get help for it, and it works better”, concludes Stine Larsen.
