A lack of consistency frustrates your long-term team members

The reason I mention this is I've recently been working with a retailer and there have been a lot of changes happening, linked to the appointment of a new area manager. Many of these changes are reversing decisions made over the last two or three years. The effect this is having is that the longer term movers of the team are confused and frustrated as to why these reversals are taking place. As conscientious members of the team, they took in the reasons for the initial changes and worked hard towards ensuring that they educated teammates and customers in the new processes. The entire team understood the reasons given for the changes and got behind these reasons.

The reversal of changes, unfortunately with little explanation from the management team, looks like one of three things-

*the company has no long-term plan

*they have a long-term plan but it's not working

*the management team don't know the long-term plan

And it's the perceived hypocrisy that frustrates and annoys the workers.

Long-term planning is key to the structure of a business and it gives the guidelines for every other decision that the business makes. It's important to ask of every decision - does it fit into the long-term plan? The framework of the business revolves around the long-term strategic planning that takes place at the top of the organisation. These strategies look at the course of the organisation over the next 2 years and beyond. This, in turn, dictates the short-term decisions that affect the day-to-day and week-to-week running of the business and each of it's outlets.

For example, if you decide that the long-term plan is to have a great conversation with every customer then you will need to put things in place to make that happen. You will probably need more staff, a dedicated training programme and an area in your store where these conversations will happen. And you'll probably set off along the road to carry out these steps.

Now imagine, that you cut staff and remove the 'conversation area' from your store without communicating any reasons for the change. Your team would feel confused and at least a little lost as to what parts of their roles to continue and what parts to change.

And you can understand how the team members felt with the retailer I have been working with.

How do you stop a downward spiral?

I've worked with retailers that have been going through a downward spiral and struggling to address it. By a downward spiral, I mean a drop in sales, that ends up with a cut in staffing, that in itself prompts a drop in sales and so on. There are other symptoms that usually go with the spiral, and they include-

*Low staff morale

*High staff turnover

*Low customer satisfaction

*Uncompleted tasks

*Low personal morale (the business owner)

Obviously this combination of factors can be pretty poisonous for a retail organisation - or any organisation for that matter.

Dealing with it at any given point in the timeline is difficult, but not being there every day with your team in the shop floor may well mean that you miss a lot of the warning signs above and end up dealing with it when it's festered for a while. Having to deal with it at this's the stage is much more difficult as you will now be dealing with some of the after-effects of the problem as well as the problem itself.

So, how do you stop the problems from getting any worse?

I've worked with single independent retailers and in national High Street chains and the first step in any of these organisations is to communicate effectively with your team. Spending time with the team on the shop floor may seem like an obvious solution but it definitely is the start of the process. Talking to your team in their everyday roles and everyday setting is a great place to start. And a large part of your communication technique here needs to be listening. You need to be able to find out the feelings of your team and there's no better place to do it. At the same time you are doing this, it's also the ideal place to communicate the plans for the organisation - to let your team know about the past changes and any changes to come. These open lines of communication change the way that the organisation and you are viewed by the team.

Of course, communication on its own won't be able to turn around morale and solve all the problems. In partnership with this, the team needs the feeling that things are turning around. If the store or company is feeling like it's still spiralling downwards, then even effective, positive communication may struggle to stem the negative feelings. At this point, every small victory needs to be celebrated. A new contract, a big sale, a particularly good piece of customer service - anything that has a positive feel to it. Celebrate these small wins with the person responsible and the whole team. This feeling of small positives will start to chip away at the previous negative vibes and start to get the team feeling better about themselves.

If you find yourself in this situation, either as the owner of a retailer or as part of the store management team of a larger retailer then I feel for you. But I think that by flowing the above steps, you can start to put positives in the eyes of your team and turn things around.

A stitch in time saves nine applies to business as well

There is such a thing as work that stops more work. For instance, at home yesterday my wife didn't want to take the extra 30 seconds in checking that she had the right log-in details for online banking. She put in the wrong code 3 times, and locked herself out of accessing the account. This prompted a 5 minute telephone call to the bank, passwords being reset and having to effectively re-register through the system to select new passwords and then having to reset access through the apps on both the iPhone and the ipad. In total, approximately 15 minutes of extra work.

And it's like that in retail. Being able to see events before they happen comes from forward-thinking and experience. Having witnessed events unfold before is a good market that they may happen again if left unchecked. Seeing an employee is unhappy or down is the point in time to deal with it - not waiting until they've handed in their notice. The extra work in ensuring that they are happy is a lot less work than dealing with the fallout and the recruitment and training process.  Having that sit down talk and being able to listen and hopefully help one of your team is easier than processing the resignation, doing exit interviews, advertising the role, assessing the applications, conducting the interviews, selecting the applicant, offering the role, completing the paperwork, starting the induction and training the new recruit.

It's just a short blog today, but I must emphasise the point before I go. Every part of your role is determined by decision-making. Even inaction is a decision not to act on a particular issue. The people who work around you will form their opinion of you based on what you do, how you act. It is therefore important that you seek to address issues at the earliest convenient juncture and try to avert situations from becoming things that absorb vast amounts of your time.

And this applies to situations with customers as well. Dealing with potential complaints in a decisive and definite manner will stop them turning into complaints that turn ugly and take up your time. And your customers will appreciate it. For example, if a customer believes that they have been wrongly charged for an item, taking them to the relevant part of the store and going through the pricing with them usually resolved the situation at source, rather than it escalating at the till point into some kind of argument. If this doesn't help, then a course of action to satisfy them is much better than allowing them to walk away unhappy.

How do you retain your talent?

Retailers, how do you keep hold of your talented employees. In my experience in UK retail, there are always a large proportion of the team that are students, those returning to work, those doing this whilst they look for something else. Often these are talented and valuable members of your team, and you've spent time and money in recruiting and training these people. Your customers build a rapport with them and they know your business well. I don't think that there are ways of keeping 100% of these employees happy or a single way to make a large swathe of them stay but there are methods to make each individual have a higher propensity to stay.

If you are in retail, your traditional armoury in this area can often be limited. You will probably have restrictions on pay rises, bonuses, overtime, promotion, transfers and formal training. This doesn't mean that you should give up. There are other means and ways of improving and maintaining employee morale and this means that each member of your team is more likely to stay. And in this sentence lies the first such thing that you can do to help.

If you treat each member of your team as an individual then you will immediately increase their happiness at work. It sounds simple, but I can tell you from experience that not every manager or business owner does this. A large part of feeling valued by an employer is feeling that they understand you and care about you - not just in your job role but in your life. One of the very best mangers I've worked with had a fantastic memory for what her team had told her and could recall those little details that meant something to you. Mention that you were going away for the weekend in a few months and she would wish you a nice weekend just before and ask you how it went just after. Whether this was genuine interest or a faked act it went a long way to ensuring that the team worked really well for her and respected her hugely.

I'd say a similar but distinct thing is to ensure that your team feel appreciated. Money isn't the only form of appreciation here - just saying "thank you" really does go a very long way. Allowing a valued team member to go 5 minutes early to catch their children's school play or a similar act ensures that feeling of value and trust.

There is the issue of promotion that can be a major factor here, particularly with your student population. By promotion, I don't just refer to the straight up and down promotion lines of sales assistant, team leader, assistant manager, store manager that traditional stores have as their structure. Other, sometimes more subtle, changes to someone's job role can add to their interest and commitment to the business. Key holding duties, involvement in special projects, leasing a small team in a specific task or learning new parts of the operation all add to the interest level. And this, in turn, adds to the chance that your team member could stay.

Now these are ways to attract and retain quality employees from whatever their background. Never underestimate how interesting and rewarding the job is on how much your team want to stay. And that goes for all of your team, no matter what their background.

Do you know how to interact with your team?

I know this probably first appears as a stupid question - of course I know how to interact, especially with my team. But look a little deeper and you'll find a communication, training and leadership issue that can determine the future success of your company.

Now whether you are an independent retailer with a handful of staff or a multinational with tens of thousands, it has been shown in recent years that people take in, process and act upon information in different ways.

In terms of learning, there are quite wide differences, where some understand written information much better than verbal and vice versa. Some understand theory and can adapt that to their role, whilst others require practical learning that they can immediately apply to their everyday job. Some need silence to be able to take in and process what is being conveyed whilst others need a group to discuss and question their own understanding.

And this is just training!

Add to this any tasks that you want your team to carry out, dealings with customers such as taking orders, and you have a potential minefield. But it does it have to be so.

I'm sure that you already have at least an inkling of how you need to interact with each member of your team, even if you've not yet formalised these ideas in your head. 

Think about who in your team reacts quickest to things you've said - these are probably those that can process information verbally. You get the picture!

It's about assessing your individual team member's needs and adapting your style to suit.

Try it - the results will be obvious.

Keep your team challenged and supported

I write this as a warning to all you retail managers and entrepreneurs out there.  You must keep your team engaged, interested, challenged and supported.

If you don't then things may start to get out of your control…

I tell the tale of someone who I used to work alongside and then found out was having a disciplinary investigation carried out on him in another store.  When I spoke to him after it had all been settled he told me of his immense frustration at working in a store with little management supervision.  He had worked alongside people who had put in little or no effort and not been pulled up about it by absent management.  His efforts were overlooked and some of his behaviour became slightly niggling and destructive.

The outcome was a lot of bad feeling, a lot of lost time in dealing with the disciplinary, re-training and starting again with motivating a demoralised team member.

The message I'm trying to get across is that you have to keep the job interesting to keep your employees interested.  Be out there with your team, lead them, inspire them and keep then fresh.

Some of the best days are when you just leave your team to do their job

As the title states, I think that some of the best days are when you have a team that you have trained, skilled and motivated to do their jobs to the best of their ability. Sometimes all you need to do is point people in the right direction and let them get on with what they do best - no interference, no questioning. Yesterday was one of those days where the operations guy knew exactly where he wanted to be after a heavy weekend trade (see payday weekend blog from Saturday.) The customer service team had nothing other to do than give great customer service and weren't hindered by taking on extra tasks. The shop ran well, sales were up and everyone enjoyed their day. For things you can't buy on the High Street - Kindle edition of Philomena: The True Story of the Film (Film Tie-in Edition): The True Story of a Mother and the Son She Had to Give Away

It's payday weekend again

I suspect many of you have seen an upturn in sales towards the end if this week. Thursday and Friday are reporting good sales from local retailers here.

Make sure you're ready for this weekend.  Extra selling staff will make a big difference, as will staff ready to serve at the tills.

Your operations team should be prepared for extra replenishment and for it to take a little longer than usual, due to the extra customers.

Good luck out there!

Have a great weekend!

The 5 rules of managing your team

These are the 5 rules of managing a team in any discipline, but is perfectly tailored to retail-

1- Recruit quality

The recruitment process and the remuneration package needs to be robust enough to ensure that you can attract quality applicants and choose the best available to you.

2- Train effectively

Once you have your quality team or new quality employee then your training programme needs to be thorough, challenging and supportive.  Your team needs to feel as though they have been given training in the right areas to be comfortable in their role and then successful after that.

3- Set the standards

Your team should know what you stand for, what is important to you and what your expectations for them are.  This is basic management and can be shown by your words and your actions - lead in the way you want then to follow.

4- Police the standards

Once your team know what you want from them, ensure that they also know you are watching and monitoring their performance.  This is positive reinforcement of the standards that you outlined in point 3.

5- Reward accordingly

This can take many forms, from a simple "than you" to a bonus or more responsibility.  This can also mean performance management or disciplinary action if the results are not to the standard required.

Thanks for reading!

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Your enthusiasm infects your team - and your customers

The best managers have boundless enthusiasm (mixed in with some focus.). When you are enthusiastic about your job, your company and have a clear direction for this enthusiasm then your team will feed on this.  They will work better for you, share your goals and share their ideas.  Nourish these and you have a winning team and a great place to work.

I worked with a manager with great energy, enthusiasm for the job and a clear view of where they wanted their store to be - with a sense of what order things had to happen to achieve this.  It was a job that I jumped out of bed to work in.

And your customers feel it too!

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Article on retail gazette website By Wayne Usie, Senior vice presidentof Retail, JDA Software

Just reading through retail gazette website when I came across this article-

http://www.retailgazette.co.uk/articles/41412-building-the-nextgeneration-retail-operating-model-five-things-every-retail-ceo-needs-to-know

This brought up 2 key areas for me-

1-You must know your customer

Through all your customers interactions with your brand, you need to know what your customer is doing. Your High Street presence is the face of your brand but your customers will interact with you via your website, mobile website, apps and social media amongst others.  The more of these you can track, then the more you can tailor the experience to your customer.  Having log-ins for your website, tracking in your apps and loyalty cards will enable your systems to follow your customers browsing history as well as purchase history.  Allowing reviews of products via your website sees how your customers use and recommend your products.  Interacting with your customers on social media allows you access to their profile and their friends.  This information can prove invaluable.  Use it wisely.

2-You must know your own proposition

These two areas go hand-in-hand.  You must know in exact detail what you offer your customers.  From this detail you must ensure that all your team know your proposition and can talk about it with confidence to every customer that walks through your door.  Some of the UK retailers that have disappeared over the last few years tried to be too many things all at once - Woolworths, Comet, JJB Sports to name some high-profile examples.

Your customers must know why they are walking through your door. Your team must know how to interact with them.

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Comparisons of UK High Street to that of Italy

On a recent visit to Italy, I decided to look at the similarities and differences between the High Streets in Italy and those in the UK.  The High Streets I encountered in Italy were generally more vibrant, with a higher occupancy rate than those I have encountered recently in the UK.

There is more of a focus on the trades in Italy and no High Street is complete without a butcher, greengrocer, fishmonger, cobbler or baker.

Some or all of these have been rolled into one supermarket in many UK High Streets.

This isn't to say that supermarkets are necessarily a bad thing in a High Street shopping area, but that a competitor that provides some expert knowledge and a high level of customer service would be beneficial.

We have seen more of a café culture like our European cousins over recent years, but the difference is marked.  UK High Streets have mimicked the US with large chains tending to dominate, whereas in Europe the trend is for local, independent cafés.

Planning offices need to prioritise the types of business they want to occupy their town centres. When economic times are tough, it is easy to accept whatever business that comes along.

Perhaps a forward-thinking council would get together with local landlords and advertisers to request certain tenants or sectors that they would like to enhance their town centre. That would be a proactive move.

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Speed of service is key for most High Street shoppers

Although quality of service and spending as much time as possible with each and every customer, the dynamic can change for many of your customers on the High Street. There are time constraints, mostly in the week, from the ticking clock on their parking space, childcare, returning to work from a lunch break and generally trying to fit necessary shopping into an already busy lifestyle.

High Street customers have less time than those in edge if town stores.

As quality, successful retailers we react to the reduced amount of time our shoppers have.  We need to man the tills, with a back up available nearby, especially at lunch time. Staff lunch breaks need to be worked around this. Putting a positive spin on this with your team will help with morale.

Stock replenishment needs to be complete before and after the busy hours over lunch time.  This ensures availability for lunch time shoppers (especially important if you sell lunch food items) and keeps your replenishment staff ready to assist customers on the shop floor and tills.

Management need to be visible on the shop floor and available to motivate their team at this vital time of the day.

Let's gear our teams up for this important time of the day and ensure we make the best if our High Street location.

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