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Time to Lift the Spirits of Your Store Staff

Published November 30, 2012 Articles Leave a Comment
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This time of year is many different things to many different people. Your ability to understand what this time of year means to your people in the field, and your ability to tune in and give them what they need, is critical to the success of your operation during this holiday season.

Retail people know that this season is huge for them. There is a better than average chance of them meeting and/or exceeding their sales budgets. To many, that means a better than average chance of earning commissions or bonuses. They know that they will see increased customer traffic. They probably have lots of inventory – great new novelty items in addition to increased quantities of other merchandise. They understand that this is an immense opportunity to contribute to the annual sales results for their store and their company. And they are looking forward to all of this.

Here are some of the things that they are not looking forward to:

  • Staff shortages due to insufficient hiring and illness, real or fabricated
  • Stock rooms bulging at the seams; aisles that cannot be used
  • Employee lunchrooms, and possibly even washrooms, taken over by excess inventory, bags and other supplies
  • Cranky shoppers
  • Extended hours of operation
  • Missing their family functions because they have to work
  • Emergency markdowns on top of emergency markdowns
  • Excessive Head Office requirements for reporting and visual presentation changes
  • Short breaks and long line-ups at the food court
  • Aching bones and muscles…particularly in their feet
  • Overwhelming fatigue day after day
  • The Boxing Day (Week) set-up that has to be finished on Christmas Eve
  • The H.O. visits that always finish with what has to be done/changed/improved instead of a pat on the back and a show of appreciation
  • Constant schedule changes because someone at H.O. (most probably someone who has not worked in that store) decided that they are under scheduled here and over scheduled there
  • Parking so far away from the mall entrance that they wish there was a bus available because their feet are sore

The list could go on and on, but you get the picture. If you have ever worked in a store during this time of year you may have some understanding of what the field staff are going through. If you haven’’t, …maybe it’s time you did just to gain the very valuable experience.

Get more out of your seasonal staff

Published October 26, 2012 Articles Leave a Comment
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It’s that time of year again. Many retailers are on a mission to beef up their staff rosters so they’ll have enough floor coverage and extra help, to handle the increased traffic coming into their stores. And, let’s face it, many of our customers are going to be subjected to some confused new hires who don’t know as much as they should. But let’s not be too quick to blame those new seasonal employees.

Even though many of the new seasonal hires will only be with you for a few weeks, they can add a lot of value if you do certain things right. Over the years, both as a customer and as a District/Regional Manager I’ve heard lots of comments about seasonal people…usually implying that something went wrong in service delivery, or mark downs, or visual display, or cleanliness or, whatever… due to the fact that seasonal people were involved.

That’s a cop out and it’s unfair. If you’re going to invest the time and effort to recruit and hire people – seasonal or not – then you’ve got to make the most of the investment. There’s no room for the excuse “s/he’s just a temp” when it comes to your store(s) and your company’s reputation.

One of the greatest benefits of hiring seasonal employees is that you get to see them in action; it’s like a working interview and you can determine quickly and easily if the seasonal employee is someone you’d like to bring on permanently after the holidays. Lots of retailers get some of their ‘gems’ this way, and here’s why…

People who are looking for seasonal employment may not be your regular job seekers. Some want to get into the workforce temporarily to earn a bit of extra income, and some may want to see if retail is something they’d like. Others may find that it’s easier to land a job when so many employers are trying to find people. Whatever the reason, once hired, many of them shine. There have always been at least a few seasonal employees that I encouraged Store Managers to hire on a permanent basis following the holiday period.

Of course, there are the others as well…the ones that make you say “What were we thinking?”. You know…the party animals who show up late for their shifts looking like death warme d over, and the chatterboxes, and the timid ones standing as far away from customers as possible, and the loud, boisterous ones who think they know everything (when they clearly do not), and the list goes on.

Want to really add value to the seasonal hiring effort this year? Want to get something out of the process? You don’t have to put tons of time in or take your other people out of their stores/districts to make this happen. If you have hired seasonal employees who are new to retail, or sales and customer service functions then give them a copy of the Retail Selling Skills & Customer Service Fundamentals Self Study Course – something that t hey can get through quickly and easily.. something that will help them get ‘in tune’ with what you expect from them and give them some skills to bring to the job. Give them this self study course and the party animals, the timid, the chatterboxes and the know it alls will, at the very least, understand that you expect more from them and that you’re investing to make sure you get what you expect. We guarantee it.

This time of year is way too important to leave this to chance. If you can help your new people get up to speed quickly enough to make a difference this season, why wouldn’t you? Consider this very simple example.

Your seasonal employee, Jane, will help clean and organize the stockroom, she’ll change lightbulbs and keep displays tidy, she might even be a really friendly greeter when positioned at your lease line. You may be very happy with Jane. But if Jane learns some sales & customer service skills she can be more productive by actively selling to customers, in addition to her other duties . Depending on your average sale, if Jane made just a few good sales, you’d recover your investment in the Retail Selling Skills & Customer Service Fundamentals Self Study Course in no time.

You can decide to make your seasonal employees a valuable asset this year.

All the Success!

DMSRetail

P.S.: Get your copy of the Retail Selling Skills & Customer Service Fundamentals Self Study Course now and take advantage of the $50 off!

Conversion

Published September 5, 2012 Articles Leave a Comment

Today’s ‘Words to the  RetailWise’ are:  If you don’t have traffic  counters you are missing out on one of the most telling KPI’s  there is. 

  Conversion. The rate at which shoppers are converted into buyers.  This usually has a lot to do with sales associate  effectiveness.

  Without traffic counters, you can’t measure conversion. Unless,  of course, you have someone standing at the door counting  every person who comes into the store and then do manual  calculations to figure it out. That’s not the most efficient way  to do things! You can’t know what opportunities were  missed.

  Conversion is one of the best measures of your sales associate  effectiveness. Remember the old saying…”If  you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” If you are not  measuring conversion, you’re missing out on a clear opportunity  to coach and train your associates to get more  business.

  And, further, without traffic counters, how do you know what the  opportunities were? You’re looking at a sales or transaction  report with lots of information…but you have no idea how good  business could have been because you don’t know how many  customers came in but didn’t buy anything. Of course, it  works the other way, too. Perhaps traffic coming into the store  was very low…but your sales associates did a fantastic job and  sold to almost everyone. The thing is you just don’t know.

  *************************************************************************************************************
Workshop seats still  available:
Retail District  Management – San Diego, CA – September  27-28, 2012
Retail Brand &  Category Management – San Diego, CA –  September 24-25-26, 2012
The  Retail Operations Management Workshop – Dubai,  UAE – October 2-3-4, 2012
Retail District  Management – Dubai, UAE – October 10-11,  2012
Retail Brand  & Category Management – Dubai, UAE –  October 7-8-9, 2012
  *************************************************************************************************************

  In a convenience store, or a grocery store, you can pretty well  expect close to 100% conversion. People coming into  those stores are usually there for a specific  reason and really aren’t just looking around. You might lose them  if you don’t have the item they need, but that isn’t going  to happen very often.

  But in many other retail stores, it is the sales associates who  will engage the  customer to find out what their needs are  and present merchandise for them to consider.

  It’s the sales associate’s skill at building rapport, their depth  of product  knowledge, their ability to state and  explain features  and benefits and to  overcome any  objections…combined with the customers  desire to buy…that will turn the shopper into a  buyer.

  Many Store Managers and Sales Associates are not in  favor of traffic counters….and we’ll discuss the reasons  for that, and how to make them comfortable with traffic  counters, in another issue of  ‘Words to the  RetailWise’.

You need traffic  counters and you need to pay close attention to conversion  rates. Getting the selling  skills and customer service fundamentals down pat is the  first step.

  All the Success!
  DMSRetail Inc.

PS: For a limited  time only, our top selling course is $50 off! Help your teams  develop their skills and learn how to convert more shoppers into buying  customers. Check out our Retail Selling Skills & Customer Service Fundamentals  YourTime Study Course .

PPS: Early Bird rates still apply to some of the  workshops mentioned above. Send an email to: training@dmsretail to  inquire.
    
If you’d like to share today’s ‘Word to  the RetailWise’, please forward it in it’s entirety. Or,  better yet, if you have friends and colleagues who are interested  in retail, they can sign up to get their own copy free…it takes  about 3 seconds to sign  up. When they confirm their free subscription,  they get a copy of The “WOW” Effect  – “77 Ways to  Give Your Business the “WOW” Factor and Make Your Competitors  Wish They were You!” AND “Powerful Offline Marketing”. That’s two  freebies with sign up. Sign up right  here: RetailWise.

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