Male/female customers

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Ylva

Ylva

SPFG, Supreme Picture Framing God
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Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Posts
21,476
Loc
Gloucester, MA
Business
Artemis Custom Framing
When I opened my shop back in September, I assumed most of my customers would be female. (at least 90%)
However, turns out at least 40% is male.
I must admit, it seems easier to deal with them! (although I do have some nice sweet ladies that keep coming back). It seems men in general are more likely to spend more on framing as well.

Just wondering how it is for everyone else?
 
Ditto - I love the men who come in - fast design, they either like it or they dont - quick decision and move on....
 
I beg to differ.......;)

Over 90% here are nice, married women who like to decorate their houses very nicely and are not scared by the price.

But I must say, almost all my customers are a pleasure to work with, except of course for the occasional eccentric artist....:p

It seems we all like to work with the opposite sex!
 
I think men are generally more inclined to trust the judgment of their framing designer -- we know our limitations.
 
Ok.....Im about 50% here......I have a lot of guys that bring me their sports stuff...........women cross stitch..:vomit:
I would prefer......one or the other.......not hubby and wife teams.....
But then again.....it is kinda fun to over rule the hubby when the wife and I agree on the design!!;)
 
I'd almost have to look over my customer list to be able to tell. I think its about 50-50 but I could be wrong. Sometimes it seems like all women and sometimes it seems like all men.

I use Lifesaver..and I don't see it...but it does have some great reporting tools like average dollar sales, etc. I'm just wondering if anyone else's program has a statistical feature that lets you print out a list of things like that. (My choices would be male/female/couple or corporate.)

Then...we'd have to decide what to do with it. If 70% is male then its easy to justify leaning towards sports, etc...in your displays... on the other hand, if I thought only 30% was female then I'd probably do a little more gender based advertising. :shrug:
 
Jan:

Actually, most of the sport photos / shadowbox jersey orders here come from female customers, presents for their kids or hubbies.

And I am almost certain that not many male customers would spend $800-$1200 on a shadowbox with a sport jersey in it!
 
Funny thing is, my male customers have not brought in one sport item just yet. Okay, I did a flag from a golf tournament with a nice little plaque.
But they bring in photo's and art, maps and certificates.

I don't think my POS tracks this kind of information, the 40% was my own estimate and might as well be 50%. I was just indicating that I thought of framing more as a 'female' customer base because of home decorating. (this based upon my own family probably).

And, it might be true; maybe it is easier to deal with the opposite gender, I don't know.
 
I would say my mix is about even with men and women, witha few couples thrown in, but not many. Usually the couples are more indecisive because they are both trying to pick something the other one likes.

What I find with a lot of my customers is that when women pick something out, as long as they like it, it's all good. But if a man comes in to frame something for their house, they are almost always hesitant about whether or not the wife will approve.

Honestly, male couples are my favorites - they know what they want, and around here the price never seems to shock them. Any they always love the final product.
 
40% male...much easier to work with and to upsell than the females are.
 
Mostly female here. I do love the male couples. They are such a pleasure to work with. Regular couples are mostly a pain to work with. They just cant get their act together most of the time.
 
Customers? your getting customers? I don't care what they are, if they are customers I want some too. This month so far has been worse than when I started in 1976, absolutely dead.

I've been hoping at least one would come in, so I could take a picture and send it around to the other frame shops and make them jealous.

The hardest part about getting into my store lately is you have to knock all the spider webs out of the front doorway.

Female, male, straight, bent, I don't care, my cash register wont care either.

John
 
PaulSF said:
I think men are generally more inclined to trust the judgment of their framing designer -- we know our limitations.
Click to expand...

Here is the typical interaction in my shop when dealing with male customers -
Customer: "What would you with this?"
Me: "I think it would look great in this combination."
Customer: "Sounds good. Here is some currency. Bye"
Me: "Bye."

Elapsed time: 3 minutes, 47 seconds
 
Most of my male customers just drop it off and say "Make it look good". Price is usually not an issue. Now if those same males came in with their so's, then price becomes a big issue, and they are the ones balking. Go figure!
 
I get the majority being couples. I like to break them down immediately to determine the decision maker. As soon as I know that piece of information I let the other know that they are not really making any decisions by joking about it. I say things like as much as you like that one it is hers/his decision anyway. It works well to get them out of the design process. I always remain engaged in a side conversation while designing to the decision maker.

I find that men don't want to see options once they see something they like. Women tend to see a couple others but quickly come back to the right design. I like to take options off of the table quickly by saying these mats have too much green/yellow/red etc. and put them bak in the rack. I like to get down to a couple mat choices and send them to the frame samples to pull the one they like then remove the mats that don't work as well with the frames. Most designs are under 10 minutes with the exception of the ones that stray off looking at framed art to buy.

The customers that were hardest to get used to were the ones that fight as a natural part of their relationship. There are a lot of New York/New Jersey transplants here and I was not used to people fighting the way they do. Eventually I learned that was how they relate and started egging them on. GeAnn does the same thing and she thinks they are hilarious.
 
Pangolin said:
But if a man comes in to frame something for their house, they are almost always hesitant about whether or not the wife will approve.
Click to expand...

That's because they don't want this to happen when they
show up with something she doesn't like.......


liweiart07.jpg




:icon21:....:icon21:....:icon21:



I'd have to say we're probably about fifty-fifty on the male/female ratio. The one thing I don't like doing is designing for committees. Especially groups of five or more women. It's like herding cats. :faintthud:
 
I don't get a lot of couples in here, just a few here and there. I do get the ladies that bring the original artist in. Now, do I need say more????

I do the same as Jeff, try to determine quickly who is going to make the decision in the end and focus on this person mostly. I joke around a bit, don't give them too many mat choices and put the ones back that are 'rejected' quickly. It works most of the time.
 
JRB said:
Customers? your getting customers? I don't care what they are, if they are customers I want some too. This month so far has been worse than when I started in 1976, absolutely dead.

I've been hoping at least one would come in, so I could take a picture and send it around to the other frame shops and make them jealous.

The hardest part about getting into my store lately is you have to knock all the spider webs out of the front doorway.

Female, male, straight, bent, I don't care, my cash register wont care either.

John
Click to expand...


Couldn't agree more, I don't care who they are as long as they spend their money with me. But, I was just very curious, because my perception at first was so far off.
And, no matter what, I feel men are easier to deal with! (in business at least....)
 
Men and women shop differently, women couples shop different than straight women, guy couples different than guys and a straight couple is always a mixed bag.
In general a man goes to the store knowing what they want.... beer, potato chips, dip. They grab what they usually grab, pay, leave. 3mins flat car to car.
Women look at labels, consider values and weigh consequences then go with the darkest chocolate but only after an hour of angst . . . and then they pick up a small pack of sanitary napkins that they came in for, weigh the plastic or check dilemma, then the plastic or paper dilemma even though they have two things that fit just fine in their purse.

The guys are weighing the balance of their decor.... and "it would really help if you could come look at where we're putting it because of the early morning light......", but very easily overcome and workable. They also once you produce a couple of tight perfect "OMG you have to stop by and see" projects.... they just drop it off and tell you the budget or not... "just do your magic, you know exactly what we like."

The girls, are just indecisive and are not confident at whether their choice is "the right one". If you are confident that the design is the best, tell them. If they go to the space of "we're not sure the mat color....." stop them in mid sentence with "if it's not perfect, bring it back and I'll redo it at no charge". A confident reassurance of their design capabilities. I've had one back in many years. . . . and when I went to visit..... they had repainted between the placing of the order and picking up..... the original paint was Navajo White..... the new was Raspberry Cream Charmous....... the deep purple was just wrong.. :rolleyes:
 
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