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Pro/Specialty Retailer of the Year: Your Serve Tennis

By Peter Francesconi

When you talk about long-term tennis retail success, you can’t ignore Your Serve Tennis in Atlanta. In 2001, YST and its founder and president, Dale Queen, won TI’s first Pro/Specialty Retailer of the Year Award, and now the retailer is back as our 2014 award winner.

A lot’s happened in those 14 years, but one constant is Your Serve Tennis’s commitment to serving the Atlanta tennis community and helping this game to grow. Queen founded YST in 1976, and the retailer now has eight stand-alone stores in the area, in addition to supplying smaller shops at two public facilities. YST is the official retailer for the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, S.C., and the BB&T Atlanta Open, and the retailer also works with some schools and provides product for community events, especially initiatives to get more kids in the game.

“I think people are beginning to understand they should shop in their community and support local small businesses,” says Adam Queen, Your Serve Tennis’s vice president. “The unique thing about any retailer in this industry is that anything we sell can be purchased elsewhere — except for our service. How we treat and service our customers sets us apart. They like being helped, like doing business locally, and like it when someone knows their name.”

— Peter Francesconi

Tips For Success

• Friendliness is everything — whether it’s dealing with customers, or store management dealing with staff members.
• Continue to innovate and change. What worked five years ago won’t work in the future.
• Embrace technology in the store to become more efficient.
• Play for the long term. You can’t reach the tennis consumer quickly and easily; you have to have long-term campaigns.

See all articles by Peter Francesconi

About the Author

Peter Francesconi is editorial director of Tennis Industry magazine.

From the January 2015 issue
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