Client Recommendations
- “Our library has made huge progress since your two visits. The customers are commenting how much better it looks. Having you here has coincided beautifully with the change of attitude needed for the Enterprise Unit, so staff can buy in to being more customer-driven. The grot squad found very little to fix this month.”
Jill Best
Tauranga City Library, New Zealand - "I employed John Stanley as a consultant to work with my team on developing the overall appearance of the store. As a result of John's input and advice, within six months we achieved a growth that far exceeded our expectations. On a busy day we are achieving a turnover which is equivalent to one weeks turnover prior to us taking over the store."
Pierre Sequeira
IGA Supermarket, Como, Western Australia
- “The Store is doing really, really well. December's revenue was triple the target. As at the end of December (first six months) we'd achieved 83% of our annual target. It's now a bit quieter (but not too bad), but that's to be expected.”
Alice-Ann Boylan
Director, Museum of Brisbane, Australia
- “Overall, we feel the JSA project is one of the best things we have done: staff have been enthused and displays & product awareness have improved - we've seen this in stock and quality audit visits to libraries. Nuneaton our largest library issues up 10% in Dec 05 compared with Dec 04 & the manager feels this relates to the JSA impact on staff there. Several libraries are now successfully doing customer collection of requests”.
Allison McKellar
Principal Librarian, Warwickshire, United Kingdom
- “The responses from John's workshops and report have been very positive. We have already initiated the daily checklist, created a folder on marketing and promotion standards, improved the library procedure manual, and are looking for courses on display techniques. Even our most negative staff are accepting these changes, and indeed suggesting further improvements! Some very positive staff and some great improvements in displays already.”
Vivienne Barton
City of Stirling Library Service, Western Australia
John's Clients Become His Advocates
When John works for a client he puts his passion into their business development. Clients respond by taking John into their confidence, and often into their family, as they understand his commitment to their future success. The following are comments from some of John's clients.
“After seeing lots of Johns work on the NAFDMA Wisconsin tour I decided too see if he was visiting the UK. Within one month John had visited our shop and after a brief discussion I was convinced he would be an investment for our up and coming extension. We booked John for the full day and after a lot of head banging we came up with a plan to triple the size of our store and put in a coffee shop. I can honestly say without Johns input we would have wasted thousands, he totally changed the layout and the entrance points. We have now built the new store, customer flow is excellent and we have hit the ground running, in our first month we are 40 percent up on last year ( in the height of a recession). Whilst John let us keep our own ideas and expectations for the shop he was very instrumental in the smooth transition for the business and the customers and I can definitely say John and his team have been a great investment to our business. PS we are still at least 40 percent up on last year.” Rob and Heather Copley, Farmer Copley's, Winner of best Farm Shop in the UK 2007/08
"In November 2007 John Stanley was engaged by the City of Mount Gambier to assist with the planning of the new Mount Gambier Library. John assisted not only with the floor plans, but also with branding, sponsorship ideas, merchandising and promotional strategies. His advice was crucial in determining spaces within the building as well as customers flow throughout those spaces. The library service has also recently embarked on a new branding strategy thanks primarily to John’s advice and guidance. His words of advice of – keep it consistent – has really been embraced by the library team. Good retail practices are vital for the survival of any library and over the last nine years I have witnessed a remarkable change in Australian libraries because of the inspiration John has provided to library teams." Cathryn Harris, Library Manager, Mount Gambier Public Library, SA Australia August 2009
"The consultancy report was a real boon and underlines the changes that need to be made. Since we had the John Stanley consultancy staff have become more confident in their display skills and are much more ready to engage positively with the customer. Our members are very enthusiastic about the decluttering and re-presentation using retail concepts and our staff have achieved a great deal in a relatively short time. As an authority we have now decided to rebrand and represent our libraries and our first library full makeover will be finished in July 2006. However several other libraries have been modernised and all staff have been trained in the techniques promulgated by John Stanley. We are now on our journey to improvement and all staff are driving forward. Our customers have commented positively about the changes and there is more to come! Since we had the consultancy, staff have become more confident in their display skills and are much more ready to engage positively with the customer. Loans have increased in Warminster, where we have zoned the library.” David Green, Wiltshire Library & Information Service, United Kingdom
"With our new library being located in a busy shopping centre, it was imperative that we had a retail focus. Bringing John Stanley on board early in the design process meant that we were able to incorporate a strong retail focus, whilst not compromising on the core functions of the library. John's expertise became invaluable as we progressed through to detailed design and specification. John was able to bring our library plans to life with his passion and knowledge of retail concepts as well as library fundamentals. I would not consider undertaking another library project without consulting with John." Andrew Barnett, City of Armadale, WA, Australia June 2009
“John’s visit was absolutely invaluable! He said he would come back and visit us in November and we are really looking forward to showing him what we’ve done. We have had a few stops and starts because we have to concentrate on the business, so when our store isn’t so busy and/or we have some spare time we action John’s suggestions. I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending John to any retailer needing help. His friendly manner, his ability to explain without offending and to give praise where its due are brilliant assets for individuals trying to develop their business.”
Delwyn
Dellow, Body Indulgence, New Zealand