Celebrate every small win, as they add up

I've been thinking about how to motivate your team at a low level in a regular basis. It's important to know they you are appreciated and that your efforts mean something to colleagues, customers, management and the company as a whole. People need to feel valued, and for me, the biggest way you handle this happen is verbally and non-financially.

I know some companies where every 'appreciation' has to be given through the payroll. This just doesn't have the same impact. In the moment feedback is invaluable. Actually saying to someone how well they've dealt with a customer, straight after the event is worth so much more than speaking to your colleague later, or even rewarding them financially at the end of the month in their pay packet.

And I'm talking about celebrating all the small wins that add up to the big win at the end of your trading period-

Getting a big delivery dealt with

Solving a problem for a customer

Closing a difficult sale

Cross-selling items to a customer

Tenerchandising a section to make it look much better

It's only when your team feel involved, motivated and free to have the confidence in their abilities that they will fire on all cylinders and produce their best work for you.

What type of retailer do you want to be?

In terms of retail, there are many shapes and sizes, many categories, many markets and target customers.

Some attempt to specialise, others want to be all things to all people. Some want the multi-site outlets, whilst other are happy to have one store, or even no stores and just to operate online.

However, I believe that it is possible to split retailers into 2 categories- those that compete on price, and those that don't. This may seem absurd at first sight - of course all retailers have to establish a competitive price, don't they?

Well, what I'm saying is-

 Some retailers provide goods at the lowest possible price and use price as their marketing edge - Aldi, Poundland, Home Bargains, Tesco.

Some retailers provide a service or something else that goes above and beyond just a product for the lowest price, and subsequently can offer things at a higher price and still have a flow of customers - Boots, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer.

So back to the original question - what type of retailer do you want to be?

Price

I think that this is the tougher way to distinguish yourself. I think that there is always someone who can undercut you, or attempt to undercut you. There are some massive competitors out there that can run lost-leaders or price promotions to drive you put of business, should they want to.

Service

In my view, this is the way forward. If you can offer something to your customers that they can't get elsewhere, if they can't get it locally. I was once told that the definition of competitive advantage is -

"Doing something that your competition can't or won't do."

Now, to me, this isn't price - it's service. Build A Bear and the teddies that your kids have made themselves, Marks & Spencer and their superior quality food and service, or your local craft store that  offers lessons for children.

As a successful retailer, or a potential succesful retailer, you need to find whatever this is for you and your business. We used to call it a USP, it's the reason your customers come back to  you.

If you don't already know what this is, then work with your team, your customers and establish exactly what it is. Then accentuate it, run with it, use it on your marketing, talk about it ceaselessly. It's your future.

Amazon's 13,000 seasonal staff

Christmas planning should be well under way by now

Christmas is on the way! Didn't anyone tell you? Your planning for Christmas will depend in what type of retailer you are, but the planning stage should be through or almost through by now.

Some retailers see the trade uplift from towards the end of October, whilst others don't see that until December.

Planning takes many forms and needs to cover many areas-

Staffing

Generally retailers will hire temporary staff to assist with the uplift in trade. For me, it's all about looking at your needs from the outset. Not just what hours you want to be covered but the exact nature of the duties you want these temporary staff to carry out. Think about the areas where you will see an uplift in sales, where your existing team will be best used and then you can identify any gaps in your weekly planner.

From this point you can plan extra hours x number of weeks x hourly rate to work out the costings of your extra Christmas staff.

When you are happy with the costings, it's about advertising the vacancy/vacancies whilst you design the recruitment process and timescales.

Advertising

The fact that it's Christmas will be a part of the natural advertising for any retailer - people will arrive at your door looking to buy.  You need to enhance this by your own marketing or advertising. This doesn't have to be expensive - changes to your shop window, your website and your social media presence can have a big impact.

Range

Now I'm probably too late for Christmas 2014 but changes to your range in time for Christmas can and will make a difference to your sales. Gifting and capturing the imagination of someone buying for someone else has become a massive industry. If your range is too static to change this close to Christmas this year then ease consider what you may be able to do in time for next year.

Hope this helps.

Looking at how to analyse your company and your competition

I have been looking at different ways to analyse threats to your business, and came across this blog in a similar vein-

http://245daystogo.blogspot.com/2014/10/facing-my-fears.html

There are many ways at deciding what way to take your business forward and the above blog may be one if them. I've worked with many companies and used many ways of deciding which way I'd forward-

SWOT analysis

Competitor analysis

Annual cost reviews

SWOT analysis

This stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. And the analysis works straight along those lines. Divide a piece if A4 into 4 and in each section you simply write the Strengths, Weaknesses of your business, and the Opportunities and Threats to your business. From these areas you can formulate your plan. Expand on your strengths, work on your weaknesses, explore the opportunities, mitigate against the threats.

Competitor analysis

This is about looking at the key areas of the business and marking yourself and your competitors objectively. This will give the areas that you need to focus your efforts in. If your competitor scores highly in a particular area then you may need to rethink or redesign how you approach this area.

Annual costs review

I worked with a company that used the annual accounts to prompt a review into spending, and this prompted a review of all aspects of the business based on how spending decisions had influenced the year that had just passed.

For example - "we spent £500 on advertising in the Yellow Pages last year. How much business did this get us?" And from there you would check the referral database to see how much business came from the Yellow Pages, whether this was cost effective and whether it was something that should be repeated.

I like this method for the ability to relate the activity to cost and results, but it feels a little bottom-up in terms of how a company should be run.

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to consider where your business is in relation to where you want it to be.

Technology can help, but not for technology's sake

I'm just reading an article in the i newspaper about John Lewis plan for the use of technology in their stores. It involves the use of GPS to locate your position in the store and push notifications in their app to inform you of any offers in that part of the store. You will complete your shop on the app, and it will be picked and packed at the checkout waiting for you to pay. Do they know something that we don't? Do John Lewis and Waitrose customers shop in a different way to the rest of us?

I can't see that walking around the store looking at your phone is in any way a different or better experience than pushing round a trolley and selecting the items physically rather than digitally.

It's a gimmick.

I know a lot if peoe will probably use it when it's first launched and it will gain some publicity, but in the long term it will probably be consigned to the dustbin.

But technology can help retailers, but in the places that make a difference. Apps and mobile versions of retailers websites are a great way to engage your customers in your brand, your stores and your offers (without the reported cost of the John Lewis system above of £100,000.) Poundland sends incentives to customers to Pinterest, Tweet and Facebook their experiences and their purchase and this makes headway into social media networking markets. Friends may not immediately run out to Poundland upon reading about it, but will bear them in mind on their next trip to the High Street. It's this kind of social media networking that is making unseen inroads  into customers spending habits. The retailers with the best apps, best online offering and best social media links will probably win out over those that have great stores, but no more than that.

Click and Collect plays a massive part in this, and retailers of all shapes and sizes have become aware that they can still make the sale, even if the product us not in stock. Pay today and collect tomorrow, whether the buyer is in store, sat at home on a computer or browsing on their mobile phone is a great way to ensure that the business stays within your company - and that people don't shop around and look elsewhere. All retailers need is for the collection process to be smooth and streamlined to ensure that customers feel confident to follow the process again.

I witnessed a customer this morning in an unnamed High Street national chain go to the till to collect her parcel. The cashier asked her to wait while she found the delivery, and came back 2 minutes later to state that it wasn't there. Irate customer asked cashier to have another look and said that they wouldn't be doing this again. Cashier found item, but by this time there was a queue at the till, so the customer had to wait her turn to be served. All of this could and should have been much slicker and customer-friendly. A dedicated collection point, cashiers that are really clued up about their systems and an attitude of ownership of the situation make a great in-store collection experience.

Hope this helps.

Who's next? Why we can alienate our customers before they've even reached us

I hate the phrase "who's next?" in retail. I hate it with a passion. It strikes me as out of control, rude, unfriendly and derivative.

So why do we use it in most retailers when our customers reach the point of sale?

There are so many better things to say-

"Can I help?"

"Hello"

"How can I help?"

Are all better phrases that could be used over the "who's next?" comment. It runs deep, and customers really don't like it. It is at the core of where you and your customers stand with each other. Every time I hear "who's next?" I think "well, the person at the front if the queue - that's who's next."

It shows a lack of control, as the till operator should know exactly who is next. And they always do know who is next.

It isn't very polite, as a smile, eye contact and the phrase "can I help?" say far more positive things about our relationship with our customers and how we wish to treat them.

If this happens where you work, please talk to your team and eradicate it.

Are Tesco set for more pain?

Tesco have issued a second profit warning, the share price has taken a hit and the new chide executive has cancelled his holiday to start a month early.

Are we seeing the fall if the retail giant?

I have made my feelings clear in this blog about Tesco's major failings in respect if their customers. They try to be all things to all men and end up doing none if it well. In the case of the profit warnings, I think that we are seeing stock market tactics and a chief executive that wants to lay a lot if the blame at his predecessors - "look at the mess I inherited" - before a turnaround that looks oh so much better when/if it happens.

We are still seeing it with the banks, where they report trading figures that don't add up to the performance. There are always hundred of millions of pounds put aside for potential future bad debts and misselling claims. For me, this is double accounting, as the bad debts and claims are accounted for in the present but don't happen until the future. At a certan point, the banks won't have these future potential losses to put in their balance sheet and presumably some of the money they have put aside will have to reappear for losses and claims that didn't materialise.

Things aren't always as accounts make then seem

Tesco's next step is to look at their operation and decide where they want to be experts, and where they want to step back from. Offering opticians, pharmacy, tech experts, cafés, mobile phones, etc on top of their wide-ranging food offering is diluting the quality of service and advice they can offer their customers.

Online and 'Click & Collect' can provide answers

Some services Tesco will want to be able to offer in every store, but some have a better foothold online, where the expertise can be pooled and not spread so thinly. Tesco had a functioning website and a reasonably good Click & Collect offering, so these can take the strain of the expertise, whilst try get back to basics in the areas they can lead on in store. Great customer service will never go out if fashion.

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