We were lucky to catch up with Claire Landgraf recently and have shared our conversation below.

Claire, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

By in large, the bridal industry’s focus as of late has been that of a “churn and burn” mentality…one bride out the door and another bride in. Internet bridal “stores” and larger brand bridal offshoots have popped up over the years which have given the perception that a bride isn’t seeking an experience with her gown purchase, just a deal on the price. This has led many stores to spend less time training employees, developing their sales processes, lending time to understand their client and giving brides an experience along with their gown.

My opinion has been and maintains to be that while brides may be budget focused in some ways, more times than not a bride isn’t seeking a good experience along with their gown purchase, they expect it. At Finery we focus heavily on the bride’s experience, with the attitude that if we listen to our clients, provide stellar service and develop a relationship with our brides, the sales will come. With this focus, there certainly come added costs – staffing, staff training, time spent, etc but I fully believe that in the end, the experience we give our brides will yield a higher client conversion rate.

The “yes girl” (think “yesssss, girl…that looks so good!”) mentality of the undertrained bridal consultant is something that brides see through, and the result is a bride who believes she is being sold to instead of a bride who feels heard, understood and supported. Our goal with every bride is that we give the best possible customer service experience regardless of the promise of a sale at the end of the appointment. The wedding industry is filled with clients who talk and a captive audience of potential clients who are listening and even a bride who doesn’t purchase their gown from us presents a stellar opportunity to be an advertisement to the service we give our clients.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I began my love of the bridal industry at age sixteen when I began working at the bridal store in my hometown of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Throughout the years, I moved to consult, manage, rep brands, buy and eventually develop my own store to continue my passion for helping brides find their dream gown.

At Finery we provide an appointment only, boutique shopping experience for the bride and her guests. We offer designers who will customize gowns so the bride can make a gown truly their own. We focus heavily on customer service, education of our brides and high-quality product in order to provide the best possible bridal experience.

Recently, I developed Trousseau – an offshoot brand of Finery Bridal Chic that focuses on a collection of dresses, attire, accessories and home goods that make the perfect addition to any person’s wardrobe or home and serve as fantastic gifting options for a bride. This boutique inside a boutique concept allows the captive audience already present at Finery to shop for the bride as well as themselves and is designed to inspire excitement for the activities surrounding wedding festivities. Trousseau’s merchandise is perfect for a date night out, a vacation or any event leading up to the “big day”.

My favorite part of my job is making people feel beautiful. Oftentimes, I see brides enter the store without an understanding of how they want to look on their wedding day. They are overwhelmed by the noise of the industry and the opinions of how society believes they should look on their wedding day. The best day in my store is when I can take one of those brides and make them feel comfortable in their own skin.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

My reputation is probably the singular most important thing that I have built within my business. I have always taken the approach that I would rather lose money than make a client unhappy. My customer service model as well as my desire to be meticulous in my brand affiliation have both supported my ability to maintain a fantastic reputation in my area for being an expert in the industry. Though proactive measures are great in attempting to build and maintain a great reputation in any industry, I firmly believe that how you handle shortcomings and failures as a businessowner are what separates the rubber from the road in building strong credibility.

I’ve worked very hard to develop and train my staff to operate in complete honesty with our brides, which sometimes means telling someone that we won’t be able to deliver what they desire. While disappointing at times to not be the solution and the sale, this policy of operating in the best interest of the end game has saved the store and the store’s reputation from disaster. Oftentimes in the bridal industry and due to either differing philosophies on making the sale or miseducation of consultants, promises can be made to clients that are not able to be carried out. Because I truly care about my reputation, I work hard to be proactive in managing client expectations so that everyone is happy with the outcome.

Of course mistakes happen in any industry and mine is not immune. When I encounter problems, I am always forthcoming with the bride as to what happened, assume responsibility for any shortcomings and work to find a solution that makes the client feel cared for. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if a mistake happens in production, by a design team or inside the four walls of my store – to a bride, I am responsible and how I handle a mistake and how I rectify a mistake matters. At the end of the day, an unhappy bride isn’t just someone walking around who is telling their story, it can mean a ruined wedding day and I take the responsibility of that very seriously.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

My single best source of new clients has been referrals. Because of that, I try to look at every interaction with a bride as the potential for the story of my store to be advertised to their friends. Brides typically don’t shop alone and with every guest that a bride brings with her, the opportunity for the story to be further told increases.

I hear so often “oh, I’d love to come in and see the store, but I’m not getting married any time soon.” or “oh gosh, I’m far past the bridal era, I shouldn’t come in to see the shop” and my answer to comments like those is always that everyone at some point in time knows someone who is getting married. and I encourage people despite not being in need of my services to come see what we’re all about.

A referral in a relationship based sales industry is like gold and a bride who comes through the door as a referral has a much higher likelihood of doing business with us than one who walks through the door cold.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.finerybridalchic.com
• Instagram: FineryBridalRochester & TrousseauAtFinery
• Linkedin: Claire Lochmondy Landgraf

Image Credits
Photo Credit: TwelveTen Photography, Becca Haugen