How do you reward your high flyers?

It struck me again this week something that has come to me time and time again during my time in retail. It's a question of reward.

Now if you're an entrepreneur, a single shop owner (as I hope many if my readers are) then don't start to worth at the word reward. The reward I'm putting forward as the most valuable is one that costs you nothing but time.

It's the simple "well done" or "thank you" and it's worth it's weight in gold. I witnessed this week a team member being told that their work was "awesome" and their area "had never looked so good." These comments had that team member bouncing all day and their work improve de enmity than the "awesome" level that had been achieved earlier in the week.

It's comments such as the "well done" or "thank you" put into your own words that make a huge difference to your team. I was a store manager a long time ago and it was part of the daily routine to thank every team member at the end of every day. The store doubled it's sales in a 12 month period. Now there were other factors at play here, but a team feeling recognised and valued were part of the motivation that enabled them to enact the other changes that made us successful. If the team were not feeling valued, they may not have been as receptive to other ideas.

It seems so basic, to talk to your team at every opportunity, but it's so often missed. I've worked in retail organisations where the store management team are hardly seen. They are office managers, who occasionally have to leave their office to pass out a task to a team member but spend the vast majority of their time cooped up in an office carrying out administration tasks or even less. In this experience, the team self-manage and tend to get the tasks done that they want to do, and some if the less favoured tasks just don't get done. It's a huge leap of faith to have in your team, to leave then to their own devices, and not one i'd take. I always want to have contact with my team and customers and I want an employer that empowers me to do that.

A clear purpose of what your retail business delivers is key

You must be able to communicate what your retail business stands for and what your customers are to expect in order to be successful.  The more successful retailers of the present times are clear in what they do best, tell their customers "what they are famous for" and their customers respond with loyalty and passion.

Some examples-

Value
Poundland and Home Bargains stand out here for me, as they consistently offer good products at a great price and their customers love it.  You can expect average customer service, often long queues and no shop floor staff to ask questions, but this is the price you pay to pay the price you pay!


Quality
This is the success story of John Lewis and Waitrose over the long-term and especially over the last few years.  The long-standing guarantee of "Never Knowingly Undersold" is their tagline but it is the absolute quality of their products (and staff) that sets them apart.


Getting the fashion trends "just right"
Now this is more difficult to put your finger on, but Next and Zara have hit the nail on the head, year after year.  They produce what their customers want to wear and their growth and sales have followed.


Loyalty
I have marked this as what a retailer can stand for as Tesco with their Clubcard and Boots with their Advantage Card have built loyal customers through their store card schemes, even though they lack in certain other areas (in my view, Tesco with service and Boots with price.)


Expertise
Their are certain retailers that are just accepted or known as the experts or leaders in a certain area.  If you want to buy sports gear then you will more than likely end up in Sports Direct.

All of these companies named have posted great results over the years and they, their staff and their customers are very clear in what they get from their shopping experience.

Ensure that you and your team have a strong, solid idea of what you want to be famous for and  communicate this clearly and consistently to your customers with your everyday conversations with your customers, your marketing and your social media presence.

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.

Not everything can be bought on the High Street - Amazon Prime with TV and film streaming

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.

Some things you can't buy on the High Street - Kindle version of The Husband's Secret

BBC article on Justin King's time at Sainsburys

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25960491

Highlights 5 key areas of success in Justin King's time at Sainsburys.

I found the quality/value and the focus points the most interesting and the most relevant.

Quality/Value

This is interesting because the days of low price being mistaken for value seem to have all but disappeared.  Value means being appreciated as a customer, receiving truly excellent customer service and buying goods that exceed expectations.  Even value retailers can't get away with selling things that don't last.

Focus

This seems so basic, such a given, but it is still overlooked.  It determines staffing profile, marketing, social media presence, expansion plans. It must be at the forefront of your mind with every decision. It must be clearly defined and clearly communicated to your team.

Some things you can't buy on the High Street - MP3 download of Crying for No Reason

Introduction

Hello

This is a short introduction to an ongoing series of short blogs on retail.  I have worked in retail for over 20 years and in this blog I'll share my experiences and show how these can be fitted to a plan for a retailer to move forward.  I also mention in the blog name about saving the High Street in the UK.  There is much debate about whether it can be saved or should be saved.  It has been the centre of life for many towns for over a hundred years.  It has to change and adapt to survive, but yes - it is worth saving.

I won't reveal my name at any stage my name, the name of any of my colleagues or any of my employers, past or present, as I don't think that this is fair for anyone or any company involved.  I still work in retail, so I value my anonymity.

I will take specific examples from my working life and apply them to a strategy to ensure that retailers have a better time of things (this is specifically vague, as I don't necessarily mean more profit, as this may mean less money in the pocket of you or I) and the High Street is returned to a vibrant place to work, shop and spend time.

Hope this makes a little sense ans starts to get your interest.  All of my blogs will be fairly short and on a single topic, so would make good weekly reading for any retailer, shopper or entrepreneur out there.

Thanks for reading!