Retail Today with Bob Phibbs, The Retail Doctor

Holiday Greeting Etiquette in Retail | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Every year I get the question, should you say Merry Christmas? I get it, there's an awful lot of people that are very passionate on both sides, but the reality is the unchurched continues to grow, and not everybody may share your belief. What I always say is, if they say Merry Christmas to you first, by all means, answer back 'Merry Christmas' if you're comfortable with that. But if not, 'happy holidays' always works best.
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!

Build Enough Trust To Land the Sale | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Do customers lie to you? Of course, they do. Are you taking their lie as fact? Look, customers lie to you because they don't trust you. Now, one of the most basic ones people say is, "We can't afford it." We take that as like, "Oh, they have no money." 
Except research shows that even during downtimes, customers still buy. While you might feel good about that excuse, "Oh, they have no money." It's not going to get you the sale. So remember, people who don't have money don't go shopping. But if you aren't going through and being crystal clear of the benefits they'll get from buying from you, they aren't going to trust you and customers who lie to you happen because they don't trust you. 
So, today I want you to think about the goal of the earliest part of your sale after you've greeted somebody, is to get enough trust so they'll be honest with you and you can dialogue about the sale, instead of hearing those lies. "Oh, we're just looking. We'll look around. I have to ask my husband, wife, partner, whatever." They knew, walking in the door, what you carried. It's up to you to build enough trust to get the sale.
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!

Using Positive Press to Boost Retail Sales | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

You know, a lot of stories are being written about the retail apocalypse and a lot of small businesses are jumping into it. So, when someone asks, "Oh, how's business going?" They jump in and talk about how horrible it is, or Amazon is doing this, or someone else's putting them out of business. 
Here's how to get publicity for your store. Give them a story. Tell them something you're doing differently. You've upgraded your wifi, your communication systems, your POS system. You brought in a new line. You've gone through and you've worked with a local charity, but give your local reporters a positive story. 
When you do that, you show that you're a mainstream person that's doing the job to make a community and to fight online retailers. Nobody is attracted to your sad sob story. So today, just understand the best publicity takes showing off what is new and different.
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!

Making Time For Regular Employee Reviews In Retail | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Everybody likes to know how they're doing. Do you review your employees? Today, I want you to think about that because a lot of millennials and IGens really want feedback because that's what they've received throughout their lives and in school. And that's not going to wait for a year when you happen to think about it, that might even be in a month. 
But I always encourage you to review at a minimum, every employee, 90 days with some kind of a form. If you're using SalesRX, we have a form within SalesRX.com that you can use, and follow it up so that you let them know what they're doing well, what they could use work on, and if they need any different training or goals, you can address that at the same time. But everybody wants to know what they're doing right. And so this gives you the chance to just have a conversation with your employees, put it in your smartphone and schedule it so that you won't forget it. Because ultimately, everybody wants to know how well they're doing. You just need to schedule 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!

How to Handle Customer Complaints Effectively In Retail | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Today, I'm talking about how do you handle a complaint. That's such an easy thing to deal with. It's something that everybody needs to know, not just your managers or your assistants, but everyone all the way down the line, because a customer is not going to complain to the highest store manager. They're going to take that person on the sales floor. Here's the four-step process I want you to think about today is first, shut up.
Ask them what happened. Let them tell you everything. You don't have to get into it. You don't have to justify anything. Don't call them stupid or anything. Well, you wouldn't call them stupid anyway, but you wouldn't act like, "Oh, you should have known that." You just want to be quiet and then listen to what they're actually saying, and listen for what they think they want you to do. I don't say like, "Well, what do you want us to do about it?"
You listen and then you say, "Well, here's what I can do," and you're going to give them maybe three choices. "I can give you a store credit. We could look for another one, or I could replace the exact same item for the same item." Whatever you can do, tell them that, and then go through and make that solution and then thank them. When you follow that formula, you'll handle complaints easily.
When they get to you as a manager or the owner, if your whole staff has done that, then they'll come to you with, "This is what we've already suggested, and here's what they are looking for," so that you're not having to overthink every single customer complaint or return. That's what I want you to think about today.
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!

How to Read Customer Cues and Close the Sale | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

If you sell anything, you know that trying to close somebody quickly can be really hard, that if you try to go through too quickly and you try to get them out the door, they balk. They don't feel valued, and they never come back, so how to close a sale quickly? Well today, I want you to think about look for the buying signs and questions. What are some buying signs? Their hands are out. They're open. They're holding the merchandise you're talking about. Their body is relaxed.
If they're not ready to buy from you or to close, their arms are going to be closed. They may not be looking at you. They might be looking at your feet. Also, listen to the questions. You're looking for questions that show of they're already seeing themselves owning it, so questions like, "How do I take care of this, or how do I wash this, or, Oh, that would really look good in the bedroom." Those kinds of things are ideal because the customer's in wonder, and they're wondering, "How is this going to fit into my life?"
At that point, closing makes sense. Then at that point, you've closed that main item, and now you can go on to the add on, but don't go too quickly through a sale unless you see those buying signs that say, "Hey, I think I want to buy this."
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!

How to Avoid a Loss With Aggressive Merchandise Markdowns | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

 
Well, we've all had that time when you've had a great run on one piece of merchandise and it comes to the end and you have a couple leftover and suddenly people say, "What do I do with old merchandise?" 
You know, merchandise doesn't get better with age, and the one thing I always say is, if you're going to put it on sale, you can put it on sale for 20% off. That's fine. But when you get to clearance, that's the time to be aggressive. Put it on sale for 60% off, let's say for a week, and if that doesn't work, then get ready to donate it. 
But one thing people do is we hold onto the old merchandise too long, and the problem with that is it's your money sitting there. It's not going to get better. You're going to take the loss anyway. So just admit it, take the loss, and then your store's going to look fresher instead of a bunch of old stuff that's on sale. 
So today, I want you to clear out, closeout, and give away the merchandise that's been there for a long time. Another thing you could do is to color-code your tags if you don't have an updated computer system for that, and that'll help you as well.
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!

Protecting Your Systems Passwords in Retail | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Are your systems in danger at your store? You know, the one thing that we often forget is our business doesn't have just us looking at our computers. There's a lot of other people. So today, I want you to be thinking about your passwords and it's probably a good time to change them.
Now, I use a company called LastPass, which means I can go through and put all of my passwords in there, and then I can assign them to people in my organization. If somebody quits, I can delete them or I can change them. But a lot of times, we're vulnerable because we don't think about what could happen. Quite simply, if you don't have your password somewhere on a hard drive or at home or somewhere, you're also in danger, because if you don't know them, that means somebody else might know them, and they can take advantage of you.
So today, I want you to review all the areas you could lose control of your computers and your business, due to your passwords, and then have the discipline to either log them today or change them, and then have a system to know who has access to them and who doesn't.
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!

Raise Your UPT With Suggestive Selling | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

Do you know what your UPT is? Yeah, that's your units per transaction. It's the one thing that your employees have the most control over. Now, one thing we don't want to see is a units per transaction of one or 1.1, that essentially means people walk into your store, they ask for a product, your employee gets it off the shelf or off the hanger and hands it to them and they pay for it. That's really a waste. You're pretty much just a warehouse.
What you want to see and what the goal should be is at least two items go out your front door at a time, because once I say yes to one product, it's easier for the shopper to say yes to another. 
So suggest selling what will go well with the first product they bought, being able to suggest a gift too, particularly when we come into holiday times, but the more units out the door help margins, even if they've bought discounted or clearance items. So that's your tip today is to make sure that your employees know how to suggestively sell more than one item and to get your UPT to as close to two as you can get 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!

How To Tell If an Employee is Going to Quit | Retail Today With Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor - Flash Briefing

One of the things we all dread is an employee who comes up to you and says, "I've got to talk to you." Then you find out that they're going to quit and they'll give you maybe a few days’ notice or any number of things. They might give you some excuses. But how to tell if an employee is going to quit is pretty easy. 
First off, you start looking at their eyes. If they can't look at you in the eye, something is up. Also, look at the job details. Did they use to be on time all the time and now they're a little late? Did they use to always have the details on a special order right, and now they're lacking on that? They are telling you right away that I'm not all here anymore and you want to be able to nip that in the bud before it gets to, "I've got to talk to you. I'm quitting."
You know, here's the thing. The mind quits about six weeks before the body. Help them out, have that discussion early, and then you can go through and be aware that this person is unhappy. I can fix it now, but it won't have to get too much till they quit and I'm left shorthanded. By the way, the other part to that is making sure you're always hiring.
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!