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By Hope Silverman,
Professional Apparel Association
Dena M. Stebbins is a take-charge type of person with a very outgoing personality. She knew she should be running her own business, so when she heard that Helens Uniforms in Lakeland, Fla., was up for sale in 1986, she bought it. Sixteen years later, this store is a success in large part due to Stebbinss personality and her ability to make each customer feel special.
The store measures 2,000 square feet and is located in a strip mall on one of the busiest streets in Lakeland. Three full-time and two part-time employees work with Stebbins. The storefront features a large lighted sign as well as an under canopy sign. The front window display is about five feet deep and 13 feet wide. Stebbins enjoys creating her window displays.
We change the window every month to go along with the change of seasons, holidays or special sales we might be having, she says.
Helens Uniforms is the only full-service uniform store from Tampa to Orlando (Lakeland is right between the two cities.) They sell a wide variety of uniforms, including nursing, industrial, school, career, public safety and the accessories to go with them. Weve found that our customers dont let us specialize, reports Stebbins. They always want something we dont have in the store, and I guess Ive never learned to say no!
The interior of the store is decorated in creme colors, with green carpeting that accents the cedar trim over the outriggers and on the dressing rooms. A few years ago, Stebbins renovated the store and installed slat walls, making the arrangement of merchandise a lot easier. We use the slat walls for displays as well as the tops of our rounders, says Stebbins. We also purchased wooden crates that we use for special items.
Nursing uniforms are in the front of the store, with one wall dedicated to new arrivals of scrubs. The middle of the store features career and industrial uniforms. School uniforms and shoes are toward the back. Stebbins chose to display school uniforms in the back with a playhouse to keep the children busy and away from the front entrance.
Stebbins embroidery services are a successful component to what she offers her customers. Capitalizing on the trend that everyone in business now wants polo shirts with their company logo on it, Helens Uniforms can accommodate them using the two in-house embroidery machines. Weve found that embroidery is a great add-on for lab coat sales and scrubs, too. Doctors offices are putting their logos on the staff uniforms for a number of good reasons, including the free advertising. Another example is we have a customer that sells corporate apparel, and we handle all of his embroidery.
This past year, Stebbins purchased digitizing software and says, Im now doing digitizing at night. I can give my customers a better price on digitizing, and the money stays in the store rather than going somewhere else. She also is doing contract embroidery. Helens actually handles the embroidery and digitizing for another uniform store in a different state.
Stebbins also offers silk screening. She farms this work out to a local company (that one, in turn, uses her embroidery services). Another great add-on for her business is alterations, a service many customers appreciate. She takes in outside alterations as well.
Stebbins tries to keep her sales within 25 miles of the store, but she does handle group sales in Tampa and Orlando. She finds that the telephone and fax machine make those long distance deals a lot easier. When Stebbins makes her sales in person, her personality is a real asset. I am my own best salesman. Im the outside sales-person when when a customer needs Helens Uniforms to come to them.
Helens Uniforms also has a number of city and county contracts. Stebbins recently provided a quote for a city in another county when she was recommended by a satisfied local city official, and she won the contract. A lot of my business is generated by word of mouth, says Stebbins. I removed my Yellow Page ad from the phone book a couple of years ago, and business was not affected at all.
Stebbins uses the fax machine effectively for specials and sales twice a month. My most successful marketing program is broadcast faxing, she reports. You set it up, hit a button and tomorrow morning, everyone on your list has a flyer from you. You can do it as often as youd like! We purchase inexpensive unisex scrubs and sell them as sets for $19.50 and it works like a charm. Everyone comes in for the special scrubs and buys other things as well.
In addition to faxing, Stebbins hands out catalogs supplied by her vendors and once a year does a bulk mailing of about 4,000 pieces. Twice a year, Helens Uniforms offers discount coupons to staffing agencies.
Her store has such a wonderful reputation, Stebbinss landlord tells her that he has people requesting to be next to it when there is an empty store in the strip so that they can benefit from Helens Uniforms traffic. We even have customers come in and tell us that their grandmothers or mothers bought uniforms from the original Helen that opened the store in 1958, says Stebbins.
What keeps generations of customers coming back to Helens Uniforms? There isnt anything I wont try to get or do for a customer, Stebbins says. We are here because of our customers, and customer service is our first priority. We try to assist our customers as if they are the only patron in the store.
I teach my staff to wait on the customers even to the extent of waiting outside the dressing room doors to fetch different sizes, colors and help them decide how something looks on them. Most women know that when you go shopping, the worst part is trying on something that doesnt fit and having to get redressed to find the correct size or color. In my store, someone is right there to get it for you. We kid with our customers and tell them we wont let them out of the dressing room until they find something they like! They love that service.
Stebbins is certain that it is her stores level of customer service that makes it stand out from the competition. When someone comes in at closing and buys a pair of pants for work tomorrow before we open, I will stay late to hem the pants and let the customer pick them up before hours. She also gets a lot of referrals from other small businesses in Lakeland. One lady told me the other day she was referred by a sports shop. They told her that if Helens Uniforms cant do it, forget it. We made the lady happy with same-day service. We also deliver, which really helps a lot of working people that cant seem to make it to the store to pick up their orders. We have UPS service, so well ship the order as well.
Another reason for Stebbins success is her community activities. Unfortunately, Ive had to let a couple of my activities go since Ive gotten so busy, she reports. She is a business partner for a local elementary school and teaches a class every year to the fifth grade on business ethics. Her store has won the Silver Zone award from the Polk County School Board for five years. She belongs to the local chamber of commerce. Of course, says Stebbins, Im also a member of PAA.
In fact, Stebbins has been a member of the Professional Apparel Association since the very first meeting and has been attending its meetings and trade shows ever since. I found the PAA to be the most help in my business, she says. We are a highly competitive industry, and its not easy to be close to someone in the same town because of the customer base. Ive made some very close friends over the years from other states. I can call them any time with a question, and we can share ideas and what worked and what didnt work without fear of increasing the competition between us.
Some of the ideas Stebbins has gotten from other retailers have really worked well for her. If I was looking to expand, I know there is someone within the PAA that has already done it and I can ask them questions. Besides that, being able to talk to the manufacturersnot the customer service rep, but the actual ownersand share with them my concerns or my requests has been extremely beneficial.
Stebbins also has enjoyed working with the trade show committee in planning education seminars and speakers.
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