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Thursday Jan 30, 2020
Thursday Jan 30, 2020
Looking for a way to refresh your own enthusiasm about your store? Today, I want you to think about inviting a school class. You know, an elementary class, because when you invite a school class to your business, you have to come up with why does it exist, and who buys these, and what is it like to work at a retail store. And suddenly, you find hope in a fairly downtime of the year for us in retail.
So today, I just want you to think about inviting a school class to your business to help them understand retail and maybe become great customers, and maybe even great workers someday, but also to help you get excited about your own business.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Wednesday Jan 29, 2020
Wednesday Jan 29, 2020
Do you know why people quit? No, it's not always for more money. A lot of people think that, but actually, one of the reasons is too few staff, right? They're overwhelmed, they have too many tasks to do, they don't have time to think.
Also, they're untrained. They don't really know what to do on the job. They pretty much just show up, they clock in and then they try to help shoppers and they may not even know what that entails for your brand.
Maybe also the reason that they quit is the changing schedule. So they can't rely on knowing that this weekend they have off, or the next two Thursdays they have off, and so they can't plan their life. People don't like that.
In fact, there are some laws looking to make it so that you have to give a regular schedule and if that's not what you're doing right now, well, you can change that.
And then last, yes, pay is a reason why associates quit. But today, I want you to realize that associates quit bosses, not brands. So if you address those three common reasons they quit before you're left in the lurch, you're ahead of the game.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Tuesday Jan 28, 2020
Tuesday Jan 28, 2020
Have you planned out your labor for 2020? Well, today I want you to think about that because you want to compare your best months with your actual labor and shifts that you had then and then compare those to how you've done historically. Right? So, if it's in January, obviously you're going to be using fewer hours than any other month. But when you compare like to like, and you look at, well how well did we do this last December and how well did we do compared to the year before? And then what did we use in labor and in our shifts compared to the previous year? You might notice that maybe you're running a little too lean that month.
And so, when you come up with a labor schedule for the year, you can get a good idea of at least the number of hours you want or at least the shifts that you want. And if you want to go more advanced and give it a budget, well that's great, but too many times we budget too little and then the experience is degraded for the customer. And I don't want that for you. So today, I want you to plan now how much you'll need to deliver a great customer experience through the rest of the year.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Monday Jan 27, 2020
Monday Jan 27, 2020
Do you have a weekly sale? Well, you should. You know, a weekly sale can focus an awful lot of interest around a brand or a product group. And I'm not talking about a 20% off this weekend only, that kind of thing. That's not it. A weekly sale is going to promote one item or one brand so that you have something different to talk about in your store each week. That means that's something new to talk about to your customers, in your emails, and in your social media. But it's also something to talk about different to your employees and to get them trained. And it also gives you a chance to remerchandise your store every week based on what you're doing. And it doesn't have to be a huge discount, it could be a gift with purchase. There are a million ways to do it. But the key is to have a weekly sale so that your store never looks like it's old, and I've been there, done that. There's always a reason to come in each week to your store.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Sunday Jan 26, 2020
Sunday Jan 26, 2020
For most stores, next week is going to have an inventory day. That's right, when they're counting everything from top to bottom. And if you are fortunate to have an inventory service, well, that's great, and you probably are running around saying do not inventory some things. But for most of the rest of retailers, this is the time of year that you want to count your inventory, both in the back, under the counter, and obviously on the sales floor. Knowing your true inventory helps cut down on theft and overbuys and out-of-stocks. And if you're looking for how to do a physical inventory, you can go on my site, retaildoc.com, and you can search for it. And I have an awful lot of tips. But the key is, the end of January theoretically, your merchandise is at its lowest point all year and all the returns have gone away, and you get a really good chance to get your data perfect.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Saturday Jan 25, 2020
Saturday Jan 25, 2020
Are you delivering a better experience than your competitor? Oh, yeah? How do you know that? Oh, your loyal customers tell you that?
Well, you know what, I don't care what your loyal customers tell you. What I care about is the new customer who experiences you without always having a backstory about knowing you or your family or an even number of things. The more you can go through and see how well you stack up against the competition, the better it'll be.
So, today, I want you to go through and think about getting mystery shops in your store. That's right. Because a mystery shop is a great tool to learn firsthand what a shopper experiences.
More importantly, mystery shops help hold you and your employees accountable for actually delivering great customer experience, not that asked-and-answered type of retail so prevalent in big boxes. You know, asked and answered, "Hi, can I help you?" "Yes, I'm looking for this widget." "That widget's right over here. Need anything else?" "No, that's it." Asked-and-answered retail is the death knell of brick-and-mortar retailers.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Friday Jan 24, 2020
Friday Jan 24, 2020
Did you know email is still the most efficient way you can address your former customers? It is. And yet, are your subject lines compelling? Maybe not. The easy way for you to do it is to add first names to the subject lines. Now, a lot of programs can do this automatically, you wouldn't do this on your own, but anything you can do to make that subject line stand out is going to help you.
Another way to do it is to go down to your local drugstore, or somewhere that carries magazines, take five or six men's and women's magazines, take them home, rip the covers off, and then look at those headlines and say, "could I steal one of these?" Because they've done the hard work to find what somebody finds compelling? Then put that as your subject line, mix it up a little bit. Beyond that, you can also add emojis. I know those little hearts and those little faces can add as much as five to 10% and open rates, and let's face it, if they don't open the email, then what good is it? It's kind of like that tree falls in the woods, does anybody hear it? That's your idea today. Are your subject lines compelling?
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Thursday Jan 23, 2020
Thursday Jan 23, 2020
Have you been in that creepy back room of yours yet? Recently I talked about cleaning your store and a lot of people leave the back room on its own. They become this dumping ground for sloppiness and leftovers and broken fixtures that you don't even carry anymore. But God forbid, maybe I'll be able to use them someday. And so we just leave all that stuff up or we throw it up on top of each other, which makes it harder and harder to organize your stock room. So today I want you to go into your back room and realize that you could do Marie Kondo and does this give you joy or not? Then get rid of it if it doesn't, but old fixtures, old boxes, those need to go and stock that should be returned to vendors needs to go. And if it's brand new merch it's not going to sell it all in that back room. So find a place, if you can, to at least get it on the sales floor or even up above the overstock. But make no mistakes, it's time to clean up that back room.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Wednesday Jan 22, 2020
Wednesday Jan 22, 2020
Soon, you're college students, if they haven't already, are going to be going back to school who have helped you during the holidays, and I don't want you to be left high and dry. So today, I want you to think about looking for new hires. January is a slow month, and those college students that were wonderful will leave pretty quickly to get back to school. So wherever you see somebody at a coffee house or a restaurant, or you get good customer service, say, "Hey, I'm hiring. If you ever want to get some extra hours, I'd love for you to come down and talk to me," and hand them your business card.
Some people feel really shy about that, but you know what? If you've had a good experience, it makes it much more likely, A, that they're going to come back and B... to your business for the interview, but B, you know already that they're doing a lot of things right. So again, the January month is slow and realize that the mind goes before the body, so even people who stay... Might be time to upgrade your crew, so look for the new hires.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!
Tuesday Jan 21, 2020
Tuesday Jan 21, 2020
When you were a kid, did you have somebody get upset at you for not cleaning your room? Today, I want you to think about, is your store really clean. And I mean the bathroom, I mean under the racks, I mean the windows of all the scotch tape there from the holidays, you name it because a clean store makes all the difference. One of the ways I always start new employees is to train them on how to clean the bathroom. I know that sounds really bad, but here's the thing. Everybody uses it. If they use it and they clean it, then they respect it, and then you also don't have a system of, "Oh well, we don't clean the bathroom, we're prima donnas or we don't have to sort or take out or any number of things." Quite simply, then everybody understands that we're all responsible for the store's cleanliness. Today again, everyone respects cleaning, when they're a part of it.
If you love what you heard on Retail Today, connect with Bob by visiting retaildoc.com or send a message to bob@retaildoc.com. Thanks for listening!