Retail Contrarian

Revisiting (and Fixing) the Generic Email Address Issue

Mike Buckley over at Tacony Corporation's Mine Your Own Business blog picked up on my recent entry about the glut of businesses using generic email addresses. In the short time since my original post ran, I've received quite a few communications from retailers asking how to go about getting a unique domain and/or email address for their business. Mike actually offers quite a few good points, and I encourage anybody who's interested to check out his blog entry on the subject. Getting a unique email address is really not as difficult (or expensive) as it may seem. One reader even reminded me that local schools and continuing education efforts can be a great resource, as they often provide gratis set-up of domain, website, and email services for individuals and businesses as a real-world experience for their students. All you need to pay for is the domain registration fee.

On a sadly ironic note, in the days since I posted that entry I saw perhaps the most graphic example of this communication faux pas. As prominently displayed in its advertisement in a local newspaper, a new business had gone through the trouble of getting a vanity phone number (you know the type - 555-LEAK for a plumber, 555-BABY for a maternity store, etc.), and they even had the city officially change the name of the street where they're located to that of the business. And their website was www.theirbusinessname.com. But their email address? You guessed it. businessname@aol.com!

Just Too Darn Sexy

No we’re not talking the Retail Contrarians, who aren’t too darn sexy for middle-age pudgy white guys, but rather that’s what Victoria’s Secret chief executive admitted on today’s analysis call.

CEO Sharen Turney said that the chain had become too sexy and had gotten away from its heritage of being “ultra-feminine”. Her goal she said is to bring more-sophisticated, higher-quality products back to Victoria's Secret stores.

That’s code words for profits and attracting older more affluent women. On Wednesday Limited Brands reported a 12% decline in net income for its fiscal fourth quarter, and comp sales at Victoria's Secret were off 8%. While Victoria’s Secret has been quite successful attracting younger women with their Pink and other lines geared towards that customer segment, it has been at the expense of the older more affluent woman.

The Retail Contrarians are the first to say that older woman are indeed sexy, it’s just they would like to shop in an environment that tells them that maybe they're too old to be so. I look forward to seeing the changes Ms. Turney makes. Call us if you need us!

Ten Ways to Know if You're Working or Clerking

I recently talked with an executive from a specialty store chain who is worried about the economy's impact on his stores.  Sales were off so he contacted us to see what we might be able to do to help.  I said I would shop a few of his stores and follow-up with him.

After visiting four stores in three different markets it was clear that indeed he has a problem - but not the one he thinks he has.  The problem I saw didn't have anything to do with an economic slowdown but it had a lot to do with a customer focus slowdown. In every store I visited the staff was not very attentive to the customers and didn't seem that concerned if the customer made a purchase or not.

While in the fourth store I heard my friend Donny's booming voice in my head call out, "THE PROBLEM, PEOPLE, IS THAT YOU'RE CLERKING IT AND NOT WORKING IT!"  (I'm often grateful that people can't hear what sometimes goes on inside my head.)

As I looked around I saw all the signs of a staff that was clerking the customer, not working with customers.  Since you're a regular reader of The Weekly Retail Experience I'm sure you don't lack the customer and selling focus that this retailer did.

Just to be sure, here are the top ten signs you know you're working with customers and not just clerking them. (I'm not going to bold each one so please read them all!)

1. A customer rarely gets to the counter to make a purchase without having already been engaged by you or one of your teammates. Actually, very few customers even get to the counter who aren't brought there by a staff member.

2. You enjoy greeting and engaging customers when they come into your store.

3. You're not behind the counter unless you're ringing a sale.

4. You naturally ask your customers questions to see how they can best be served.

5. Unless the store is extremely busy you know exactly which customers have been assisted by which one of your colleagues.

6. Asking the customer if they'd like to purchase what you're showing them has become second nature - and if it hasn't yet it's your goal.

7. You already know what product you're going to show the customer after you've finished showing the current one.

8. You're disappointed when your customer doesn't make a purchase but you never let them see it.

9. Customers seek you out when they come into your store.

10. You're extremely focused on providing a great experience to every customer who comes into your store. 

11. You try to go above and beyond for every single customer.

So let me ask, are you working or clerking?

Knowing How You’re Doing Through Highs and Lows

As I work with independent retailers in my coaching and mentor program I’ve noticed that when sales are good, owners and managers know exactly how they are doing against sales goals. You’ll hear “We’re up 17% this month” or “We’re 10% over plan.”

But when the store is struggling they quit paying attention. When I ask how they’re doing I get answers like, “I’m not sure” or “We’re down but I don’t remember how much.”

One thing I’ve learned as a retailer and as a parent is that ignoring things I don’t like doesn’t make them go away.  When sales are falling short of goal is when it’s even more important for owners and managers to know how they’re doing.  How else are you going to make up the difference?

Successful retailers always know how they’re doing against goal, whether they’re happy with the results or not. The more you know how you’re doing, the more likely you are to be happy with the results.

You Get by Going

A friend of mine said to me, "I've always found that you don't get where you want to be, you go there." I asked him to say that again and when he did I replied, "That's brilliant."  He smiled and said, "Yeah, I know.  I read it somewhere and thought I'd try it out on you."  Oh well, even if he didn't make it up it's still brilliant.

If you're going to be a successful retailers you're not going to get there unless you take the actions to go there. For most specialty and independent retailers that involves improving your customer's in-store experience.

Forget customer service. It's all about the experience.

Adapting for Sales and Engagement Success

One of the ways GREAT retail salespeople differentiate themselves from good retail salespeople is in their ability to adapt their sales and engagement approach to the customer. Most retail salespeople will engage the customer based on their own style and approach. Some are high energy, some are low key, and most are somewhere in-between. Good retail salespeople will deliver the same quality experience throughout the day with little difference between the first and last customers of the day.

GREAT retail salespeople deliver a quality experience but they adapt each experience to the customer themselves. They are able to quickly size up a customer and completely adjust their sales and engagement approach based on the customer's style and mannerisms. It's a real art, but it's one that can be learned.

Years ago I worked with a guy like this at The Sharper Image in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The man was a master retail salesperson. Or at least he was when he hadn't stayed out all night before coming to work. But when he was on, he was on! His ability to adapt to each customer was unbelievable.

The result was that customers just loved him and were practically begging him to sell them things. For the life of me I can't remember his name so I'm going to call him Bob. These are four ways Bob personalized his approach to each customer that made him a GREAT salesperson.

1. Bob mirrored the customer's energy level. Bob's own energy level was extremely high. Sometimes he'd get talking so fast you weren't sure if he was speaking English or not. You knew when he arrived at work because it was if a whirlwind had hit the store. But when he was with customers you would only see that energy level with customers who also had high energy. He always welcomed a customer in his natural style but would ramp it down if needed based on the customer himself. Within minutes he would be at the almost same energy level as the customer, always remaining just a bit more energetic. He didn't just adapt how he spoke to the customer but he even adjusted the speed he walked with them.

2. Bob always got - and used - the customer's name. This is one of those things we know will make us better salespeople but we simply don't feel comfortable doing it. Or maybe we've convinced ourselves that people don't like it so we don't do it. The reason most people don't like salespeople using their name is because it seems forced. This happens because salespeople are using a customer's name just for the sake of using her name. Bob set out to create a relationship with each customer and if you're going to have a relationship you should at least know the other person's name.

3. He personalized the pace of the experience he delivered to the customer's own pace of shopping. It's always easy to see when a customer is in hurry but each and every customer wants to shop at his/her own pace. Some customers are slow and deliberate while others want to move the process along quickly. Don't confuse a customer's energy level with pace. To judge a customer's pace you should observe how he is moving between products and how focused he is. Customers who like a quick pace are often misjudged as in a hurry or "cranky," while customers who are slower and more deliberate are mistakenly labeled as browsers and non-buyers. The more you are aligned with your customer's desired pace the more likely you are to complete a sale.

4. Last but not least, Bob always assumed and asked for the sale. Bob was our top salesperson practically every month because he spent his time working with buyers while the rest of us waited on customers. The difference lies within our own thoughts and attitudes.

So try this out on your customers this week. Adapting to your customers might just get you adapting to higher sales.

What Does Your Email Address Say About You?

My typical Friday morning routine involves breakfast at a great little spot down the road.  The kind of place that only serves breakfast and lunch, where the waitresses call you Hon and know your regular order by heart.  I usually read the weekly newspaper while I eat, but the last time I went there was no weekly paper to be had.  They hadn't published that week due to staff vacation.  Okay, fair enough.

So I found myself reading the paper placemat.  In addition to a few word games to occupy little ones the placemat features a border of advertisements for local businesses.  Usually these ads are just reprints of business cards, and there's nothing wrong with that.

As I looked at the different ads I took note of how many businesses have websites and email addresses. No website?  Okay, that's forgivable for some businesses.  No email?  Again, somewhat allowable, but it's becoming less excusable.  Let your customer contact you in as many was as possible, and in the way they want.  Most businesses wouldn't dream of placing an ad without their phone number in it.

What I found most confounding is the number of businesses who have a website with their own domain name, but their email uses a generic service provider.  For example, a local pet groomer might display www.petgroomer.com in their ad, but their email address is jdoe@verizon.net.  Or jdoe@aol.com.  Or jdoe@hotmail.net.  Some folks would use petgroomer@whatevertheirprovideris.com, and that's a little better.

My questions is: why not use jdoe@petgroomer.com?  Or info@petgroomer.com?  Or anything@petgroomer.com?  I actually saw an ad for a local company that builds websites, and even they were using a generic email address!  This tells me these businesses are either using the free webspace their internet provider includes or they didn't want to spend a few bucks to have somebody set up an email account using their own domain name.  Either way it makes one question how serious these businesses are about making it easy for their customers to reach them.

Retail Academics

Some of the fine folks at the National Association of College Stores recently had the opportunity to hear Doug speak at their Creating Xtreme Customer Experiences Workshop, and they've posted a few of his recently-published comments on their blog (with permission, of course) to share with their members who were not in attendance.  This also serves as a reminder for those who were there and might have missed or forgotten something Doug said.  Ultimately, though, their inclusion of these bits of wisdom reflects what the NACS wants their stores to strive for.  Check out their blog and some of the other valuable insights they're sharing.

The Velvet Hammer

The saying goes "If you put too much velvet around the hammer it won’t drive home the nail." I used to be guilty of this myself. Whenever I had to deliver a hard message I would try to wrap some “velvet around the hammer” to remove the sting of the message. Regrettably, I sometimes padded the hammer so much I never drove home the point.

I saw the same thing happen at a store manager’s meeting. At the meeting the VP of stores was addressing his managers on the subject of current sales falling short of expectations. I liked that fact that he told the team that he knows they’re giving their best. Unfortunately he proceeded to explain away the shortfalls on gas prices, housing slow-down, the Big R, etc. That all may be true, but he might as well had told them, "Oh screw the numbers. We don't have a snowball chance in hell in hitting them, so lets just forget about it. It's alright to fall short. "

Instead he could pull just a little bit of that velvet off the hammer. He could had said to the managers that he knows everyone is giving 100%, but in today’s retail market that is not going to enough to overcome business conditions. He could have asked all of them all to elevate their game and bring in goal regardless of the price of gasoline or houses or the Big R.

It’s always a fine line between delivering a tough message and de-motivating your team. I think because the VP acknowledged that people weren't slacking off he wouldn't have de-motivated the team by putting a bit more “punch” on the message. They would have left the team pumped up instead of thinking why bother.

Are you striking the right balance between hammer and velvet?

Making The First Day Count

Remember when you were first learning to count down a register?  I don't know about you, but for a while I was as slow as molasses. For the first few weeks I thought my manager was going to wear out the carpet pacing while he waited for me to finish.  Over time, of course, I got faster and faster.  Like most retailers, I eventually learned to count down a register at lightening speed while talking on the phone and completing paperwork.  How did I improve?  Practice, of course. The more I did it the faster I got.

There is one task you have that you don't get to practice much even though it is one of the more important parts of your job.  You probably don't even realize the impact it has on your store's long-term success.  I'm talking about working with new employees.

Unless you run a large retail operation, outside of the holidays you may only bring new employees on a couple of times a year. Because you don't do it that often you may not do it as well as you'd like.  I know, because I've done my fair share of starting new employees and more often than not the experience wasn't up to the standards I had expected.

Here are some tips to help you make sure you give your new employees the best possible experience.

1. Schedule an employee's first day for a day you can give them your undivided attention. Always start the new person on your slowest day. For most of us that means Tuesday through Thursday.

2. Staff up on an employee's first day. You need enough employees to cover the floor so you can spend an appropriate amount of time with your new employee.  Don't make the mistake I did - I not only didn't staff up but I would schedule the new employee to work the floor. You can imagine how well that worked out.

3. Have all of the employee's paperwork ready days before they start.  Once I started an employee only to discover I was out of new employee packets. So there I was spending all of my time getting other stores to fax me the necessary paperwork. Yes, it was a fax and not an email.  I've been doing this for a while, you know.  I'm sure the employee went home and told her family what an idiot her new manager was.

4. Have an agenda for their first few days so both of you know what is going to take place.  Having a successful new employee orientation is important for getting the new hire off on the right foot.  An agenda keeps you focused on everything that needs to be done and done correctly.  If you work for a large retailer there is a good chance your employee will miss their first paycheck if you don't get everything done correctly and completely. You want talk about how NOT to start a new employee, have them not get paid for a month.

5. Assign a mentor to the new employee. I think we can all remember how awkward it is to start a new job. You don't know how to do much and you walk around feeling like you have two left hands and two left feet. The last thing you want to do is keep asking your new manager so many questions you're fearful that you're bugging them.  By having a non-manager as a mentor the employee will feel more comfortable asking questions, and we know the staff knows more than you do anyway!

6. Celebrate the employee's first day. I'm written before that it's odd that we throw a party when an employee leaves. "Hip hip hooray, you're leaving!"  Okay, there are employees we would do that for, but most of the time we're sad to see our employees go. Well, throw a celebration when an employee leaves AND when they start.  Imagine how special someone feels when you celebrate their joining the team. A little cake, a few balloons, a welcome card signed by the entire staff and you've delivered a WOW that will keep giving for a long, long time.

So while I doubt you'll get as good at starting new hires off as you are at counting down a register, with a little bit of planning and focus you can do it well enough for an employee to always remember how great it was to start working for you.

Remember, we can't expect our employees to wow our customers until we wow them first. And that starts on the very first day.