How to Create A Standout Retail Experience with Dawn Craig

Creating Superfans

If you’ve ever been to downtown Franklin, Tennessee or to one of Nashville’s trendiest neighborhoods in 12 South or the Gulch, chances are you’ve either walked by or shopped in Finnleys, a women’s clothing boutique.

I’ve been a superfan of Finnleys for the last several years. In fact, if you’ve read my book, Creating Superfans, you may recognize this week’s guest from my case study in chapter 17. Dawn Craig is the CEO and owner of Finnleys, a local brand that firmly checks every box of my SUPER Model.

In this episode, she shares her journey of building a thriving small business that’s become a shining example of what’s possible when you create exceptional customer and employee experiences.

Dawn and I chat about the origin story behind the boutique, the struggles of managing and scaling a business during and after Covid, and the intentional experience design she’s put into each of her three retail locations to make them their own.

Show Notes
4:04 - Dawn describes her background and the industry she was working in prior to opening Finnleys

5:20 - How Dawn went from Grocery retail to fashion retail

7:25 - Dawn chats about the Finnleys motto: “pretty things, great people, good vibes.”

8:45 - How her motto sets the standard for Finnleys, both internally and externally

11:15 - Dawn’s struggles as she first started running Finnleys

12:30 - The Finnleys origin story and the store’s rebrand

14:35 - How Dawn got the second location of Finnleys in Nashville
17:35 - How Dawn has tailored the store experience from location to location to match what the customer is looking for

18:50 - Is Finnleys going to expand to other cities or locations?

21:00 - How Finnleys weathered the pandemic

22:22 - How does Dawn’s daughter Finnley feel about being the namesake of the brand?

24:08 - Brittany’s recent customer experiences with Tesla and Lowe’s

27:02 - The Finnleys online package that helped them survive during Covid

27:14 - How Dawn transformed the omnichannel experience for her website

30:30 - The “superfans project” that Finnleys has been working on

33:20 - How is Finnleys serving their customers for the Taylor Swift concert in Nashville?

Shop Finnleys online store.

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