Some thoughts/observations about what Illinois dispensaries could be doing (but probably aren't):
1. Making sure their online menus provide every bit of information possible on a product. You want me to spend how much on something I can't touch until after I've bought it? Please pay someone to keep your Dutchie/Jane/Trees up to date with proper pics, strain info, mg per piece, cannabinoid info, etc.*
2. Keeping canna beverages and concentrates in a fridge/cooler. I'll never forget shopping a legacy market spot in the STL when the person helping me's eyes almost fell out of her head when I said I didn't know a single IL dispensary keeping their concentrates cold. I'd never thought about it, but it just makes sense.
3. Training their budtenders with basics of helping different types of customers. In the more rural places of downstate, the variety and needs/wants of customers can be pretty wild. Train budtenders on what to expect in different scenarios, how to best help, or how to defer to someone else who might know more.
4. Keeping products on the menu that are roughly $10 including tax. This can be a couple of prerolls, the new super potent single gummies that have been hitting shelves, a canna beverage or two, and (in dream land) even a disposable vape or a cart. Why? A customer in the door is a customer in the door and if someone needs a little lunch break pick-me-up preroll, why not? Gatekeeping cannabis for only those that can spend $25 on a purchase is just goofy, get real.
5. Hiring passionate, engaged, hard workers who aren't just there for the samples and paying them accordingly. A 5 hours a week, minimum wage-making part-time employee can't be expected to be up to date on all the newest products, strains, gadgets, and gizmos and therefore the customers' experience suffers.
6. Using social media like it's a life preserver in the ocean BECAUSE IT IS. There are maybe 4-5 dispensaries in downstate doing this right and one independent site in the Metro East specifically that I point everyone to. Social media, marketing, and event planning is an entirely different role (technically they should be three separate roles but baby steps). Stop skimping out and "saving money" by not paying someone to handle this as a separate role because you are definitely missing out on customers that might make an extra drive for a sale or specific strain.
7. Researching their cultivators. Ask loads of questions. Do they have their own grow? If not, where does their product come from? Does it come from that company every time, most of the time, or from different places every time you order? How do they handle their harvests, concentrates, etc? You don't have to and shouldn't just buy from everyone. Customers, especially older folks, want consistency. They want to get the same thing every time and have the same effects every time. Brand houses that just sell whatever they can get their hands on can't provide this experience.
This is awesome!