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Retail Today with Bob Phibbs is a daily digest guiding brick-and-mortar retailers to gain better traction, generate more revenue, and stay strong in their market.
Tuesday Aug 06, 2019
Tuesday Aug 06, 2019
You know, many people say, "Oh, we give great customer service." And then I ask them, "Well, what is great customer service?" And they're like, "Oh, we get an official order out." And I'm like, "No, that's not great customer service."Great customer service is making the person in front of you feel like, for those few minutes, they are the most important person in the world. Yes, it takes training. Yes, it takes a branded shopping experience. But the attitude about it is that you are making sure that that person feels something when they go into their brick-and-mortar store because people who feel they matter buy more.Today, I want you to think about customer service needs to be defined by you, trained by you, and then you end up being able to deliver that. Otherwise, you just end up like every other person on the street, every other brick and mortar saying, "Oh, online's beating our butt," when you can decide what customer service is, and that's what brings customers back every time.
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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 Aug 05, 2019
Monday Aug 05, 2019
When people are trying to build sales, they always tell me they need to lower their prices, and I'm saying, "No. What you need to do is to be able to have your employees be able to challenge people's perceptions." An example I always use is garden hoses. You go into a home center and there they are at $9.99 and then there are others that are sitting there for $50 and $75.
And the problem is that somebody walks in and the sales rep says, "You need a garden hose. They're over there," and the guy will get the cheapest one. The problem is the cheapest one builds up steam and is heavier than lead when you try to drag it around your house. The more expensive ones need the ability to have somebody challenge their perception. You could buy a cheaper one, but when it gets hot out, the steam is going to build and it's going to rupture and it's going to be heavy to lug around with all that water. Wouldn't you rather have this lightweight one, which will hold up for many seasons because in a lot of ways it's the cheapest hose we have?Today, I want you to be thinking about, don't equate price with value. Value is different, and that's what you're selling.
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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 Aug 04, 2019
Sunday Aug 04, 2019
As retailers, we all wish we had more time at home, and the problem is, is that when we're home, we just come up with all the tasks we have to get done on our days off. The problem with that is when we get back to our stores, that's what we put in charge of just doing tasks.
I'm here to tell you that tasks aren't going to make you more money, but training will. Your most important thing you can look at is instead of telling somebody to go do this, you want to train them how and why to give great customer service. You want to come up with a branded shopping experience.
Today I want you to think about fewer tasks, fewer to-do lists, and more of the soft skills of, "How do I engage a customer? How do I build rapport?" Because that is what's going to make you money today, not how neatly something is folded or how you got something from one shelf to another.
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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 Aug 03, 2019
Saturday Aug 03, 2019
A lot of times people ask me, "How do I attract more customers?" And one of the most basic way is making sure your location looks like a friendly place. A new restaurant just opened not far from me, and they didn't change any of the plantings. And they're all in grasses and some things that looked kind of dead, no color. And the problem with that is it doesn't get anyone's eyes and frankly it looks kind of dead. So what I want you to do today is to plant it up, whether you're in California or you're in New York, whether it's in spring or fall or winter, whatever. In your location, you want to grab people's eyes that's going to be bright colors, seasonal flowers, or maybe even lights at night because natural color attracts the eyes, which attracts customers.
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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 Aug 02, 2019
Friday Aug 02, 2019
When you're trying to sell more in your brick-and-mortar store, a lot of times people think it's about discounting, but really what it is is you have to make a friend from somebody walking in your door. What I always say is, "Look for something they're holding or something that they're wearing. Notice it. Share something about yourself based on that, and then continue."
That's because people respond to people that open their hearts to them. You know that yourself. You can sell to a friend easier than a stranger. Today, I want you to think about that and find a way to engage that stranger before you ever start talking about product.
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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 Aug 01, 2019
Thursday Aug 01, 2019
When I do a business makeover, I always look at how clean the store is first. So today, I want you to go out, about halfway into your store, and I want you to look down at your shoes. Then from there, I want you to look and notice five things that need to be cleaned. That could be carpet, that could be display fixtures, that could be a million things, and then, set your task today to clean those five things.It's funny, RSR Research recently said in a report that most retailers say, "If we just had more money, our store would be cleaner," and yet, customers are turned off by dirty stores.So remember, clean stores attract shoppers. Go out and clean it today.
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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!
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