Retail Contrarian

Post-season success

For the next two weeks, customers will descend on your store armed with gift cards, cash, and a strong desire to buy for their favorite person, themselves.  Many of them will also be carrying gifts to return and/or exchange.

Far too many retailers go into the post-holiday season dreading the prospect of dealing with returns and exchanges.  That attitude is a recipe for upsetting customers and missing opportunities.  

Every customer who walks into your store, for whatever reason, is an opportunity to create a sale and deliver an extraordinary experience that will bring that person back throughout the coming year.

Look at your customers who come in with a return or exchange as an opportunity, not inconvenience.  Think sales and experience, not refunds. Think turning returns into dollars.

Don't assume the customer wants a refund. Don't assume the customer will only spend the value of the product they're exchanging.  And most important, don't assume that you can't finish in the black this week.  A good way to make sure you do finish in the black is to take an approach I call Three "I"s with a Smile.

1. Intercept every customer before he/she gets to the counter.  Greet each with a warm smile, a heartfelt "welcome" and an offer to take the return. 

Associates in many stores run from customers with refunds, or at the very least do nothing more than point them to the counter.  This is not only a big mistake that ends up increasing the amount of returns, but makes the person with a return feel less important than the person making a purchase. Try to engage customers as close to the door as possible without making them feeling accosted.

2. Identify why your customer is making a return or exchange.  Since you are assuming the customer will make an exchange and probably spend even more money, listen carefully to what he says in order to gain information that will help make your next step be the correct one.  One important thing you need to know is whether the person returning the product is the original buyer or received the item as a gift.

3. Inspire your customer to upgrade her return or exchange by enthusiastically recommending products that will better meet her needs.  Your customer may object to this and state that she just wants a refund. With a smile and the information you've gained from your identify step, you can explain why she should consider it.  You'll be surprised how many customers will agree to look at what you're recommending.  It often just takes a bit of finesse because the customer came in with the mindset of getting a refund.

I can't emphasize enough that how you present the refund alternative impacts the results. When you do this with confidence, passion, and a smile you'll often get the results you want.  We owe it to our customers- and ourselves - to try and overcome at least one refund objection.  This can save a retailer thousands of dollars in returns. 

If, after you've taken these steps, the customer wants to move forward with a return then of course you'll escort him to the counter and get his return handled cheerfully and efficiently.

So let me ask, are you ready for the post-season? All it takes is the right mindset and Three "I"s with a Smile.

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Doug Fleener, a proven retail and customer experience expert and consultant, helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our Dynamic Experiences Group website, or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create an extraordinary experience and results.

It’s your time to ROCK!

The discounters, chains, and department stores have Black Friday weekend. Online retailers have Cyber Monday and just had Free Shipping Day.

But this is your time. The last week before Christmas belongs to the specialty retailers. Yes, you’re open Black Friday weekend, and you might even participate in those other days, but now is when you kick it. It’s time to ROCK!

Of course, how well your team does over the next 7 shopping days depends on you. The buyers will be out. Sometimes all at once and sometimes not enough, but they’ll be there, in search of the right gift and a memorable (in a good way!) shopping experience.

Here are the three important things to do in the next week.

1. Treat every customer who walks in to your store as if they already have their credit card in hand. Everyone needs to assume the customer is coming in to make a purchase. There’s no such thing as a “Looker” this week. Encourage your team to avoid clerking the sale, and keep showing and recommending products until the customer says stop.

2. Make it a great experience for every customer. There are three key points of engagement that you have to nail this week in order to deliver a great experience.

i. You can’t fall short on greeting the customer. This is especially important when the store is slammed. Otherwise customers will walk in, see the chaos, then turn around and head for the hills. Or at least to another store.

Consider having a greeter during peak times. At first you might think you can’t afford to not having everyone selling, but when it’s crazy you actually can’t afford to not have someone at the door.

ii. Make the checkout process as fast, upbeat and enjoyable as possible. When people are ready to pay, it also means they are ready to leave. The faster you move the customer through the better. I would also avoid doing any add-ons at the register. You risk upsetting other customers in line. 

iii. Sell at the pace the customer sets. Entertain those customers who want to stay and shop for a while, but also know that many customers want to get in and get out. You have to look to your customer for clues as to which pace they want.

3. WOW your team. This is when great store leaders take their staff to the next level. Inspire them. Motivate them. Make working this week as great an experience as possible. 

Some things you can do include:

* Order in lunch and dinner. That food court is crazy this weekend, and your staff will appreciate the few extra minutes of peace and quiet. This one pays for itself.

* Make people take breaks. Sanity is very important to selling and delivering a great experience.

* Have prizes and drawings.

* Follow these directions: Praise. Recognize. Repeat.

* Keep your spirits extra high. It doesn’t matter if you’re having fun or not... but you need to act like you’re having the best day ever. So instead of faking it, you might as well just plan on having the best day ever for real.

So let me ask, are you and your team ready to ROCK? It’s your time... make the most of it!

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Doug Fleener, a proven retail and customer experience expert and consultant, helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our Dynamic Experiences Group website, or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create an extraordinary experience and results.

Twelve on the 12th to be up 12% or more

Happy 12-12-12.  One thing I know: We won’t see another day with three matching numbers in the date for another 89 years.  Something else I know: The impact the following twelve actions will have on your holiday business.
 
1. Be absolutely sure your team knows how to engage and sell to multiple customers.  I know I’ve been beating this drum for a while, but there’s a huge difference between talking about the need to do it and the ability to do it well. Investing in a few minutes of practice and role-play this week will pay big dividends next week.

2. Always give customers an opportunity to purchase something for themselves as well as for the people on their list. Some stores like to put signs on the register (or even on the sales floor) that say, “Who, who, and you.”

3. Coach more, not less, over the next 12 days.  This is when the return on your investment in coaching pays off the most.  It takes less than a minute, maybe two at the most.

4. Keep your team focused on an ADS goal.  It’s beneficial when every staff member is shooting for, say, a sale of $150 or more rather than just making sales.

5. As traffic increases, increase the amount of praise and recognition you give your staff.  That’s the best antidote to staff stress there is.

6. As the traffic increases, acknowledging customers when they enter the store becomes even more important.  Customers can excuse you for not being able to help everyone when you’re slammed, but they won’t excuse you for ignoring them.

7. Don’t ask your customer how much he/she wants to spend.  Ask for whom the gift is intended, and then sell down using the butcher rule.  Price takes care of themselves if you focus on the value of the product and the joy it will bring.

8. Speaking of value, never forget that the shopping experience itself is a key part of the value.  Studies show that when you make the shopping experience special and memorable, customers will happily pay more.  I believe that price gap is even higher during the holidays.

9. Schedule the most productive associates at the most productive time.  Your best associates can sell 12% or more.

10. Open those doors early if you have customers waiting outside.  As simple as it is, very few retailers do it.

11. Don’t stop the sale. I’m sure I’m going to tell you this again, but it’s vital to let the customer say she’s done shopping.  Don’t say, “Will there be anything else?”  Instead say, “Now who else do you need a gift for? or “I have the perfect item to go with that.”

12. There’s still time to do one or two small events for any VIPs who haven’t made it in yet.  A little goodie bag, some snacks, some extra attention... and some extra business!

13. Always try to go above and beyond for your customers.  That extra attention and making the customer (or her/his family and friends) feel special might payoff today, and will definitely pay dividends in the future.

So let me ask, which of these actions will you apply to drive your business up 12% or more?

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Doug Fleener, a proven retail and customer experience expert and consultant, helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our Dynamic Experiences Group website, or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create an extraordinary experience and results.

The early days of Christmas: All dressed up and nowhere to go

The week or two after Black Friday are always interesting. It’s like being all dressed up with nowhere to go. You’re ready for the rush. Some days there are flurries of activity, but other days there’s not as much going on.

If you’re going to get all dressed up, you might as well have somewhere to go!  Here are some tips and reminders for maximizing these early days of Christmas:

1. Aim for an aggressive average daily sale. These early days are almost a perfect storm for raising your ADS. Customers are spending money, and you have more time to spend with customers.  Get your team focused on ADS for the next two weeks.  Run some daily or weekly contests to reward your staff for achieving a high ADS.

2. Events, events, and more events NOW.  The key to beating your early holiday goals is creating incremental traffic. Too many retailers think they don’t have time to do events during the holidays. That may be true after around December 10, but right now we’re dressed up so we might as well entertain! (Read more on holiday events here.)

3. Offer appointment selling. This week and next, can offer your VIPs some precious one-on-one time in the store, perhaps even an opportunity to shop before or after the store is open. It’s worth calling your top customers and offering them this option.

4. Host a retail employee appreciation event. What would be the impact on your business if employees in other stores in your mall or downtown referred business to you this holiday?  It can happen if you host a retail employee appreciation event.  Here’s how.

Pick two or three days to host an “event” that celebrates and recognizes retail employees during the holidays. The employees stop by to pick up a small goodie bag that might include a $5 Starbucks card, a few coupons for your store they can give to family and friends, and an entry into a drawing for $250 or maybe even $500.  It has to be high enough to motivate people to come in.

Promote the event by taking flyers around to all of the stores.  You might limit the goodie bags to the first 100 or so people, but any retail employee can register for the drawing.  Capture each person’s email address so you can announce the winner.

Be sure to follow-up with both the announcement of the winner and to remind people about the coupons they can share with others.  Believe me, this will create a buzz and result in additional business.  You might even be able to get some press out of it.

So let me ask, what will you do to maximize these early days of Christmas?

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Doug Fleener, a proven retail and customer experience expert and consultant, helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our Dynamic Experiences Group website, or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create an extraordinary experience and results.

Read more: http://www.retailcontrarian.com/#ixzz2DWpXvk5V

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Doug Fleener, a proven retail and customer experience expert and consultant, helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our Dynamic Experiences Group website, or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create an extraordinary experience and results.

Read more: http://www.retailcontrarian.com/#ixzz2DWpXvk5V

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Doug Fleener, a proven retail and customer experience expert and consultant, helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our Dynamic Experiences Group website, or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create an extraordinary experience and results.

Read more: http://www.retailcontrarian.com/#ixzz2DWpXvk5V

To be an effective retail leader you must be able to juggle any number of things at once. To be an effective retail leader in the holidays you have to be able to juggle twice as much with one arm behind your back while jumping up and down on one leg with a big smile on your face and saying, “Ho, Ho, Ho.”  Or maybe it just feels that way.

With all that going on, here are two things you absolutely must not forget this holiday:

1. It takes a happy staff to have happy customers, and happy customers spend a lot more money. We all know this to be true.  In order to have a great holiday, we have to make sure “happy employees” is a daily outcome and not just a goal.

I was talking the other day with a woman who is the assistant manager of a teen clothing store.  She has worked there for three years, and although she loves her customers she is currently job-hunting because she feels underappreciated.  She feels that no matter how hard she tries, it isn’t enough.  She would stay, if only her employers gave any indication they are interested in her happiness.

I’ll be addressing how to do this throughout the holidays, but one thing you need to remember is this:  As a leader, you’re responsible for your staff’s happiness this holiday season.  While I could easily disagree and debate myself on that comment, I think we must own the staff’s happiness.  Sure we could say every employee is responsible for his/her own happiness, but I think we have too much at stake to not take personal responsibility for a happy team.

Okay, what about that employee who hates working retail? What about the person who stresses out every holiday? Are you supposed to own that?  Of course!  Why is the person who hates retail still working for you?  What are you doing to teach and coach that stress-prone employee during stressful times?

The good news is that most of our employees enjoy working the holidays, and they respond appropriately to your recognition and appreciation for them.  Keep that going this season, and your store will be filled with happy customers who spend a lot of money.

2. It takes a happy YOU to have a happy staff, and a happy staff creates happy customers who spend a lot of money.  As an executive, owner, or manager, you have to take responsibility for your own happiness during the holiday season.

Keep your life in balance, don’t try to do everything yourself, get plenty of rest, and keep things fun.  As long you take responsibility for your own happiness, you’ll have a great store and I’m sure you’ll be very pleased with the results come January.  And that’s why they call it the most wonderful time of the year.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and an extremely successful weekend.

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Doug Fleener, a proven retail and customer experience expert and consultant, helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our Dynamic Experiences Group website, or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create an extraordinary experience and results.

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Doug Fleener, a proven retail and customer experience expert and consultant, helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our Dynamic Experiences Group website, or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create an extraordinary experience and results.

Read more: http://www.retailcontrarian.com/#ixzz2CwhB3cvF

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Doug Fleener, a proven retail and customer experience expert and consultant, helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our Dynamic Experiences Group website, or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create an extraordinary experience and results.

Read more: http://www.retailcontrarian.com/#ixzz2CwhB3cvF

Consider this

Good morning from Australia. I'm here for two weeks of programs in Brisbane and Sydney. The beautiful spring weather and incredibly friendly people make the 36-hour trip (including layovers) worth it. I look forward to sharing some of the things I learn and experience in an upcoming Weekly.

With the holidays quickly approaching, here are a few things to consider.

1. If you’re not opening on Thanksgiving, or super early on Black Friday, consider promoting that fact in the store, in newsletters, and on Facebook. With all due respect to any of you who are doing this, but I find it a travesty that stores are now opening at 8pm on Thanksgiving, something I predicted a couple years ago we would see happen.

True, some consumers like the ever-earlier Black Friday openings, but most of your customers would respect that you’re going to put your staff’s family life first. Even more important, your employees will know how much they are valued and will repay you in kind. So I say, let’s promote not being open!

2. Consider spending the rest of this week getting all your paperwork up to date, the office spic and span, and leaving no outstanding to-dos to get in your way next week. It is a nice feeling to go into next week with everything done.

3. Consider having someone get the backroom ready for the holidays. This time of year it can get a bit sloppy with all the extra products. The standard you set before the holidays becomes the standard you have throughout the holidays.

4. If you're not busy yet, why not meet one-on-one with each employee over the next few days? Identify an area of focus and growth for each of them to work on this holiday, and show your appreciation before things get busy.

5. Consider pre-wrapping more of your best sellers so they're ready to go. It makes it a lot easier to add something on to a purchase when you can just drop it into the bag.

6. Consider roleplaying key holiday selling strategies with each employee today. I recommend especially working on selling on (not stopping the sale) and showing three products at a time.

7. Consider knocking out the rest of the year's staff schedules. You'll probably have to revise them somewhat as the season goes on, but it's a lot easier to do now than after a long day at work in December.

8. If you haven't already done so, consider brainstorming a number of different Facebook posts to have ready on slower days during the holiday. Nice to have a list of ideas ready to go.

9. Have you considered decorating the backroom and break area for the holidays? Why not post some holiday-themed motivational messages, a holiday sales goal board, and redoing the bulletin board?

10. If none of these grab you, why not consider taking the day off? Nothing wrong with a little extra R&R before the holiday starts. Or perhaps someone on your staff would love to leave early for the day.

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Doug Fleener, a proven retail and customer experience expert and consultant, helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our Dynamic Experiences Group website, or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create an extraordinary experience and results.

Things that scare me

It being Halloween, I got to thinking about the different things that scare me:

* How soft business has been for some retailers over the last two months.  It hasn’t been horrible, but it hasn’t been fabulous either.

* An empty store.  More specifically, an empty store that the staff that isn’t doing anything to fill.

* Keeping top performers. In a recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, 44 percent of people said they will likely look for a new job within 12 months. That's up from 36 percent last year.

* It’s only a little over three weeks until Black Friday. That’s scary!

* New or seasonal salespeople with no product or sales/experience knowledge.  That’s why it often makes more sense to give your regular staff more hours, even if it requires you to pay overtime.  Especially during the last ten days before Christmas.

* Any specialty store that doesn’t have a plan to increase their average sale this holiday over last year.  While we can certainly hope for higher traffic this season than last, we can’t bank on it.

Things that don’t scare me:

* The upcoming holiday. I really believe it is going to be a strong holiday for smart, well-executing retailers who differentiate their store and store experience.

* Election results.  I may be happy or disappointed with the results, but as far as retailers are concerned, at the end of the day the most important election is where customers vote with their wallets.  That’s the election we have to win.

* How easy it is to keep top performers when you treat them well and reward them appropriately.

* Seasonal staffers who are trained in specific areas of the store or service.  Unless someone is a returnee, seasonal employees are usually more productive when you narrow their focus.

So let me ask, what does and doesn’t scare you? That could make for an interesting discussion with your team.

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Doug Fleener, a proven retail and customer experience expert and consultant, helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our Dynamic Experiences Group website, or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create an extraordinary experience and results.

Flip It

One of the keys to being successful this week is the ability to flip customers who come in for a refund or exchange into making a big purchase. It won't happen with every customer, but it rarely happens at all if you don't try.

The game/contest Flip It makes trying a lot more fun.

The goal of Flip It is to have the largest sale of the day that began with a return or exchange.

I like to make the prize a $20 bill or gift card and then have the prize passed around as one employee tops another. I used to do this back in my Sharper Image days, and I'm convinced some of the salespeople enjoyed taking the prize from a colleague more than the prize itself.

Here's an example of how it works.  The first customer of the day comes in with a $20 return, but the salesperson then sells him $60 of additional items.  That means the current top Flip It sale is $40. (You have to net out the return or exchange.)

The next customer has a $130 item to exchange, and the salesperson sells her additional items worth $200. The net Flip It sale is $70.  He/she now gets to take the cash or gift card from the other salesperson.

Another way to play Flip It is to pay everyone a prize for flipping customers.  You could, for example, say that any return or exchange that has a net increase of $100 or more wins a $5 gift card.

The key to flipping the customer is to NOT ask if he/she wants to see something else. Use proactive phrases like, "You have to see these items on sale" or "I have the perfect widget to go with the red one you're exchanging."  

While I'm sure I don't have to remind you of this, it's important to make sure trying to flip the customer doesn't have a negative impact on his/her experience. It's all in the passion and enthusiasm you use to move your customer to other products, and remaining keenly aware of how each customer is reacting.

So let me ask, are you and your team successfully flipping returns and exchanges into bigger sales?

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Doug Fleener is a proven retail and customer experience expert that helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our website or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create extraordinary results.

Which leader will you be this week?

How are you doing?  You, not your store, although I'd love to hear about last week's sales. Right now I'm more interested in how you are.  I ask because the energy and attitude you as a leader bring this week has a huge impact on your results.

This is the week to be an extraordinary leader.

Retail leaders usually fall into one of these categories at this time of year:

1. The tired leader. If you ask this owner/manager how he's doing he'll tell you how tired he is.  If you don't ask how he's doing he'll still find a way to work it into the conversation. Not surprisingly, everyone on the staff is pretty tired too, or at the very least tired of hearing about it from the owner/manager.  And of course when everyone is that tired, more opportunities are lost than are created.

2. The stressed-out leader. You can find these owner/managers without ever setting eyes on them. All you have to do is talk to stressed-out staffers. This owner/manager might try to tell you everything is fine, but the short fuse and tense facial expression is a dead giveaway.  The stress could result from any number of other reasons, none of which really matter. It all leads to more lost opportunities.

3. The overworked leader. This owner/manager loves to tell anyone who will listen how much he/she is working. I had a manager once who would refuse to take a day off between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and then spend every day talking about how she hadn't had a day off! This owner/manager's need to talk about him/herself results in lost opportunities.

4. The overwhelmed leader. While this owner/manager may at first appear to be a stressed-out leader, you can spot them by the lack of leadership and confusion within the team. This manager/owner is working extremely hard but the store is slowly spiraling out of control, taking opportunities out of reach.

I'm the first to admit that at one time or another in my retail career I've been every one these leaders. I also learned from some great mentors to become the fifth type of leader.

5. The crunch-time leader. This leader is far from perfect. As a matter of fact they're just as likely to be tired, stressed-out, overworked, or maybe even overwhelmed, as any of the other leaders. The difference is that they're not showing it.

The crunch-time leader leads. The busier the store, the more she elevates her game. She shows more energy, not less. She's demonstrating more passion and giving out more encouragement to her team. She's keeping everyone focused on the customer and, most importantly, she's keeping it light and fun.

Leaders lead, especially in busy times when the opportunity is there.

So let me ask, which leader will you be this week?

Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas - or Happy Hanukkah - or if you have no holiday preference a Happy Holiday! - Doug

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Doug Fleener is a proven retail and customer experience expert that helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our website or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create extraordinary results.

Rock the boat!

I recently spoke with a retailer who is disappointed with the performance of one of her key employees. When I asked how she is handling the situation she replied, "I haven't really said much.  I don't want to rock the boat this close to Christmas."

I hope your reaction is the same as mine.  Rock the boat!

Here's why.  A mentor of mine recently explained that people and organizations have a finite amount of energy and focus at their disposal.  This energy and focus is used both externally in creating sales and building your community, and internally in dealing with organizational problems, challenges and opportunities.

What he said next really stood out for me:  Any additional energy and focus that's required internally is taken away from the external customer side.  We may fear rocking the boat during the holidays, but not quickly resolving issues during the holidays will cost you a lot more money than will rocking the boat.

Here's my advice for that retailer and any other owner/manager in the same position. If an employee is falling short of your expectations, address it now.  As I've said many times, most employees want to do a good job.  They can't improve if you don't let them know what to work on.

Nine times out of ten these conversations go better than we expect.  Remember, keep the focus on future behaviors and don't dwell too much on past actions.  Keep it positive. Express your support of the employee and be done with it.  Take the internal distraction, fix it, and get the energy and focus back on the customer.

Also, don’t forget to praise and thank all of your employees at the end of each day. It’s Showtime!

So let me ask, do you need to rock any boats?

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Doug Fleener is a proven retail and customer experience expert that helps companies dramatically improve their customer experience and their results. Visit our website or call Doug at 866-535-6331 to discuss how he can help you create extraordinary results.