Weekly Newsletters

I was talking recently with a retailer in my mentor and coaching program who said she seemed to be having "one of those bad weeks." Among the contributing factors was that her best employee had just given his notice, one of her top lines was picked up by one of her competitors, and the anchor in the center where one of her stores is located has gone out of business. After going through the list we both agreed that she was lucky it was only "one of those weeks" and not "one of those months."

We commiserated for only a minute or two and then agreed that she needed to move past her current thinking. I even challenged the notion that she was having a "bad" week. Maybe her week was actually a good week. I reminded her that more often than not the difference between a good week and a bad one is your perspective.

Degpokerplayer I told her the story about my daughter learning to play poker with her cousins a few years ago. Jane seemed to catch on pretty quickly and even won once or twice in the first hour. After a while, though, she wasn't doing so well. At one point she came over to me to complain that she wasn't doing well. I looked at her cards and she had drawn an ace high straight. Jane thought because she didn't have a pair or three of a kind that her cards were bad. Once she learned to see her cards differently she started to win more.

The same thing happens to us. We're dealt something at work or home we immediately view as bad but if we look at it from a different perspective it may not be so bad at all. I told a friend of mine this story and he said, "You're right. After I lost my job when my company downsized I had more time to look for a better job." Obviously my friend is a smart aleck and was trying to say that I was being a little Pollyannaish. I got the last laugh when two weeks later he landed a great job he never would have gotten if he hadn't been downsized. Okay, I did luck out on that one.

If you're going to run a successful business or store you need to be able to play the cards you are dealt and turn them into a winning hand.

That's just what the retailer I was talking with is doing. The best employee who gave his two-week notice is leaving retail so this gives the owner a chance to promote another up-and-coming employee. To get this person trained she is going to have another store manager be a mentor to the new manager. This is a perfect scenario since the owner is considering promoting the store manager to an area manager and this will be a way to try her out in the new role.

She also realizes that her competitor picking up one of best lines is actually a good thing. When she thought about it she realized that the competitor has a lot more foot traffic, is only carrying a limited selection, and offers sub-par service. So instead of moving out of this product line she is going to increase the number of skus and advertise it more. I think this is a winning hand!

And in regard to the anchor going out, well there's not a whole lot she can do about that. She is going to meet with the store team and hopefully together they'll come up with some ideas to drive traffic. And who knows, maybe they'll get an even better anchor.

So let me ask, are you turning your cards into a winning hand?

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Most retailers who miss sales do so by ignoring customers. Others miss sales when they over-engage the customer. Yes, there really can be too much of a good thing! I know that nothing will run me out of a store faster than too many people trying to help me.

Degscream Last year I was in a store that was obviously implementing a new company initiative that required staff to talk to a customer whenever the customer was within a certain distance. I was asked at least eight times either "How's it going?" or "May I help you?" within the first five minutes I was in the store. The funniest - or maybe it's the saddest - part is that there were only four or five employees working in the store! I was attacked by some of the employees more than once. Either I'm not a very memorable person or they were only going through the motions and didn't really care how I was doing or if I needed help. I suspect it was a little of both.

When I was attacked for the ninth time I snapped and said I'd been doing pretty well until I came into this store and was asked over and over how I was doing. I'm sure they talked about the crabby customer after I left. I didn't care because I had no plans to return (unless I needed something to write about.)

Greeting or welcoming a customer when they enter your store is an important piece of delivering a quality customer experience. I was discussing this with some clients on Friday and someone compared it to someone coming to your home. You welcome them when you answer the door but you don't keep greeting them over and over.

These are the different types of QUALITY engagement that should take place in a store:

1. Greeting and engaging the customer when he/she first comes into the store. I've covered this many times in the Daily so I won't go into much detail here. What I do think is that it should happen within thirty seconds or so and can be done either verbally or non-verbally.

2. Re-engaging by the same employee who first greeted and engaged the customer. This is often a continuation of the conversation the employee had with the customer. Customers should probably only be re-engaged once unless he/she is clearly open to it. Don't overdo it or you'll ruin their shopping experience and your chance at making a sale.

3. Acknowledging the customer by a different employee. If a sales associate is somewhere near a customer and makes eye contact it more than appropriate to smile and say hello. Sometimes you can tell the customer wants help but more often than not they are just being friendly. Skip "How's it going?" and "May I help you?" Just acknowledge the customer and show by your actions that you're willing to help.

4. Engage for a reason. When done well this can be one of your most effective sales tools but when done poorly it is potentially extremely annoying to your customer. Engaging for a reason is when an employee engages a customer he/she did not initially greet in a conversation. The engagement can be based on what the customer is looking at, what they are wearing, bags they are carrying, etc. If the store I wrote about above had engaged for a reason then I wouldn't have left so annoyed. Then again, engaging the customer nine times in five minutes is annoying no matter how you slice it.

Note what isn't listed:

* Asking customers how you can help them.
* Asking the customer if anyone is helping them.
* Following customers around the store.
* Talking to the customer without purpose.
* Telling someone "welcome" when they're well into the store.

The difference between making and not making goal is often based on a staff's ability to naturally engage the customer. The difference between a customer having a good or a poor experience is usually based on how much value the employee's engagement approach adds to the customer's experience.

So let me ask, how well do you and your team engage and not over-engage the customer?

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It's hard to believe we have just two weekends left until Christmas. Most shoppers are now in a buying mood but with a little bit of extra effort from the staff you can help the customers complete even more of their shopping list in your store(s).

Here are some suggestions and ideas to ensure a fun and productive week or weekend.

1. Using assumptive language with your customers inevitably leads to more sales. Doing the same with your staff also leads to more sales. When talking about the day or the upcoming weekend use very positive and assumptive language. "We are going to absolutely blow away goal this weekend." "We're going to be slammed." "The buyers will be out this weekend."

2. Whenever possible no backroom work; it's all hands on deck. At this time a year a store can go from library quiet to rock and roll crazy in a matter of seconds.

3. Keep the checkout line move and grooving. Not only should all registers should be open and ringing away but someone should be assigned to engage the people in line. This is very important because people still have time to skip standing in line and go finish their shopping either online or in another store.

4. This week and weekend offers many opportunities to create additional sales if you're careful to not be just an order taker. One way to do that is to ensure people are selling and suggesting different products and/or product categories by playing Holiday Squares. To reward that behavior, take a large poster board in the backroom and divide it into 9 or 12 squares. In each square write a product or category. You can also use a smaller copy of Holiday Squares at the counter by downloading the form.

For example, a wireless store might use the 12 square model and put 3 handsets in the first row, 3 accessories in the second row, different plans or services in the third row, and extended warranties and other additional offerings in the last row.

A women's accessory store might do product categories only. Using the 9 square version the boxes might include handbags, luggage, shoes, sunglasses, earrings, necklaces, etc.

Whatever you do, it has to be easy for the staff to know and remember what they need to sell. Every time a staff member makes the first sale in the box they put their initial. First person to sell something from every box wins. You can also arrange it so everyone wins a prize if they selling something from each box. Or you can do both, where everyone wins but the first person wins something extra. Obviously you'll need to personalize it to your store(s) based on how your staff schedule works, how competitive your team is, etc. This little game is fun and will keep people suggesting additional products.

5. Consider giving out some goodie bags, candy, and other prizes to your staff throughout the weekend. Remember these equations:

Last week I was fortunate enough to participate in a two-day customer experience program titled Creating Xtreme Customer Experiences with the National Association of College Stores (NACS). Fifty college store retailers gathered in Seattle for interactive workshops and learning tours on the topic of creating remarkable, memorable customer shopping experiences. Presenting the first day was Joseph A. Michelli, author of The Starbucks Experience: 5 Principles for Turning Ordinary into Extraordinary. Another presenter was some guy who writes The Weekly Retail Experience.

Tony Ellis, the educational director at NACS, didn't miss a detail in creating a wonderful learning environment for the participants. One of the smartest things Tony did was choose the W Hotel as the location of the program. From the minute you entered the hotel you realized that differentiation is a key element of the W customer experience. The W definitely has its own brand personality and presents one of the most unique hotel experiences in the hospitality industry.

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I have stayed at a lot of hotels in the world but this was my first visit to a W. The W is hip, urban, and social. I was once hip, urban, and social but not recently. So I'm sure the targeted W customer likes the low mood lighting in the hallway and the music cranking in the lobby. Well, it's more like a living room than a lobby but I still didn't want to hang out there. The Kobe burger was quite good but at $30 with the room service delivery charge it seemed a little over the top. There was no coffee pot in the room but, it being Seattle, there was a Starbucks across the street. And for the life of me I can't figure out why the more you pay for a room the more you have to pay for an internet connection.

With all that, the W still exceeded my expectations. Why? It's clear that the staff's goal is to exceed the customer's expectations. From the doorman to the concierge to the banquet employees, every single person is focused on the guest. Any time I engaged an employee it was clear that I was that person's priority. Other conference attendees staying at the W had similar stories of how the hotel had wow'd them.

One man asked the concierge how to get tickets to a Sonics game. The concierge pulled two tickets out of his desk and handed them to the guy. Another asked the concierge for some dinner recommendations and when they got to the restaurant they were treated to some appetizers, courtesy of the concierge - and this was not a restaurant located in the hotel.

The best story was told by the gentleman who had bought some fish at the world famous Pike Place Fish Market to take home with him. In the middle of the night he decided he was hungry and called down to the front desk to see if there was a microwave he could use to cook his fish. In minutes there was someone at his door with a microwave. That may not seem like a big deal but I guarantee that most hotels would have told the person why they couldn't accommodate him.

So why am I telling you all this? Because in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season it's easy to lose sight of what's important. And what's important is exceeding your customer's expectation. Dr. Michelli said something I don't think I'll ever forget. He said that a retailer doesn't have to be that interesting to create a great customer experience; they just need to be interested in the customer. I wasn't really into the hip and cool hotel with the $30 burger and no coffee pot in the room, but I had a great experience because the people who worked there wanted me to.

If you're interested in every customer who comes into your store, and you make it your goal to exceed their expectations, I can't imagine that you won't achieve your goals this holiday.