The Michaels Craft Outlet Founded In 1973, Is The Leading Retailer Of Arts And Crafts Supplies In North America, Enabling Makers Of All Ages To Express Their Imaginations With Skill And Uniqueness. Michaels Has Supplied Do-It-Yourselfers With The Supplies And Knowledge Necessary To Complete A Diverse Array Of Tasks For Decades. However, For Those Unaware, Michaels’ Dedication To Its Clients Extends Even Farther.
The Makers, Making The World More Beautiful
“At Michaels Craft Outlet, We Are Here For Our Creative Clients, The Makers, Who Make The World A More Beautiful And Meaningful Place. We Endeavor To Make Our Makers The Focal Point Of All We Do Because They Give Us Significance; They Make Us Michaels. Our Mission Is To Provide Each Customer With An Amazing Experience. Each and every time.”
Michaels Less Of A Craft Store
In fact, one could argue that Michaels Craft Outlet is less of a craft store and more of a Maker community advocate. Michaels is not only a chain of craft supply stores; rather, they are a source of expertise, entertainment
and inspiration. They have created a reputation as a brand for and by the creative community by continuously pursuing new methods to contact and engage new and existing customers.
Michaels Community Classroom Program
Craft Outlet Michaels Community Classroom program has developed rapidly through in-store and online classes over the past few years and has become a major emphasis of their business. More than 400,000 Makers have registered for their classes to date.
Michaels Craft Objectives
It took time for Michaels Craft Outlet Community Classroom to develop into a comprehensive. Multichannel program capable of engaging Makers both online and in-person. Prior to collaborating with Any Road, Michaels operated a program that was limited to in-store purchases exclusively. In addition, the team had to address the following five objectives:
Obtain Actionable Insights From Specific Customers
Obtain actionable insights from specific customers – The retail teams manually reported Michaels Craft Outlet in-store activities. The data was aggregated and did not contain customer-specific information. The team was aware that they would require more direct client data to enhance their experiences.
This information would permit more personalized interactions with clients depending on their priorities. Priority number one in this process would be to correlate registrations to participation so that the team could determine who attended each activity.
Capture Actionable Data About Content
Capture actionable data about content/instructors — manually reporting in-store events created space for inaccuracy and occasionally resulted in inaccurate results reporting. In addition, the instructors were local store employees, and there was no consistent method for students to provide Michaels Craft Outlet with feedback on the overall sessions or specific instructors.
Michaels aimed to address this issue by using pre- and post-survey questions to identify novel approaches for enhancing the course material and instructional quality. The team intended to use this information to disseminate instructor best practices.
Facilitate Locally Sourced Content
Facilitate locally sourced content – The formation of local Maker Communities was central to Michaels Craft Outlet program of in-store classes. To support this community emphasis, a two-pronged strategy was required. First, the new system must permit community members to register to teach relevant classes in their local neighborhood.
Second, the technology must make it simple for community members to register for these classes. For this local programming, the insights provided through improved tracking and organized feedback would be crucial.
Reduce Store Workload
Reduce store workload – The current program imposed a substantial workload on the Michaels retail staff. They were needed to prepare schedules and assign workers manually, as well as visually supervise the performance of all classes. Consider methods for reducing employee workload. Contact center managers need to be creative when they want to deal with the increased workload. Michaels shop employees required a more automated method to allow them to engage with clients within the store.
Build Community At Michael Craft
When establishing the goals for the new program, Michaels realized that the current system could not support the new two-sided vision. The intricacy of enabling community members to register to teach and take lessons would necessitate a custom-built online infrastructure.
This system would be used to manage bookings, content, and participant data, and it was essential for the growth of a Maker Community that offered more locally relevant content and decreased the workload of the shop employees.
Experiences And (The Solution)
Beginning in November 2018 as a pilot, Michaels and Any Road collaborated to develop a sophisticated, omnichannel community content campaign. The procedure for developing this program involved five focal points:
Understanding What Motivates Decision-Makers
Michaels Craft Outlet and Any Road started by gaining an understanding of their end users. The teams were able to hone in on the types of material. The Maker Community enjoyed most by unearthing crucial demographic and behavioral insights. With this data-driven foundation, Michaels was able to develop a recipe that could be applied to all 1,250 of its stores.
Create A Makers’ Community For Makers
Throughout the pilot, the Michaels Craft Outlet team continued to uncover insights and build a deeper comprehension of the Maker Community. For instance, they discovered that Maker-led classes had a higher level of engagement and a more positive effect on brand perception than employee-led sessions. In addition, they discovered that by hiring community experts, they could expand their course offerings to a vast array of topics.
The Michaels Team On Optimizing Operations
As the initiative expanded in 2020, Michaels and Any Road continued to improve the customer and employee experience. Initially, the team utilized Any Road Marketplace to develop a simplified Instructor Portal enabling instructors to manage their own classes and schedules. Second, all classes were add to a new Experience Calendar.
Results Of The Objectives
Michaels was able to reinvent its in-store lessons, optimize the experience with data and insights. Establish a virally successful online class program by collaborating with Any Road. The organization identified significant time and cost savings on Michaels Coupon discounts Michaels was also able to lay the groundwork for a marketing experience program that could smoothly move to digital, allowing them to continue to support Makers despite the global health crisis.
