I’ve got 20+ years in retail management experience— I miss it sometimes. Everyday I read another retailer is shuttering stores and putting people out of work. As someone who is a consumer I see the problems in stores everyday— and I can almost always predict when someone is next on the list.
1- Overall store presentation. Take a good hard look at your store— are the shelves full, are the floors clean, can someone easily shop your store? Does it look like a place someone would like to shop. I stopped into my first DOLLAR GENERAL a couple of years ago—it was a mess, I couldn’t even walk down the aisles because of dropped on the floor displays. If your store looks like its going out of business then it’s probably a self fulfilling prophecy.
2- Your Front End. The checkouts make or break an experience in your store— that’s the bottom line. I can have a miserable experience in your store and it can almost always be turned around by a pleasant, work focused, well trained cashier. Your Front End beyond every other department is what your customers will remember. Are all the employees focused on their job— no talking about their weekend plans with a co-worker— no scrolling on their phones while a customer is trying to checkout. Do they acknowledge every customer as they approach? Are they clean and well dressed? Do they seem to know how to do their job? There is nothing more frustrating for both customer and clerk than if the person doesn’t know what they’re doing. This is often a lack of training, and lack of training leads to poor morale.
I’d say this— whoever runs your Front End needs to be your best manager. They need to be able to see problems before they occur— they need to be able to hire the right people. I’ve seen managers run interviews where its clear they have no idea what they’re doing. In the interview process you should be focused on finding out some crucial points about prospective employees:
Do they Communicate well?
Do they accept blame or are they blame shifters?
Do they lack self awareness?
Do they seem engaged in your conversation?
Do they accept criticism?
A no to any of these is enough to sink the interview for me.
3- Training and Communication = Good Morale = Better Sales. This is one of my favorite equations. Every employee should be trained (and re-trained when needed). Training should just be here’s a video sit here and watch this for 90 minutes. It should involve getting them to see the store and their job through the eyes of a customer. Once you’ve hired them keep an eye on how they’re doing. This goes from full time back room employees all the way down to the part time kid who cleans your bathrooms (and make sure you have someone cleaning those bathrooms), open communications with them. Eliminate rumors, get it so that they can ask you things that are on their mind about the company, their job, their future.
If you see bad behavior— let’s say it’s two kids stocking shelves and they’re talking about a date they’re excited to go on— pull them aside and show them from the customers standpoint how this hurts the shopping experience and in turn kills sales which hurts every employee.
4- If you have to discipline an employee be straight with them. Don’t ever discount your authority or that of one of your managers by saying “The company is making me do this”— no. Explain what the disciplinary action is for, explain how it can be corrected and explain what will happen if it comes up again.
5- Fire rotten apples. There are a few in every store. They rot morale from the inside. They are disgruntled, they are happy when sales are down, or a manager gets laid off. They feel like they’ve been treated unfairly. First, try talking to them. Try to actually hear what they’re saying and at the very least make sure they feel heard. Now explain how their behavior hurts everyone and can’t be good for their own self esteem. In hundreds of cases I’ve seen most of these types of employees turn it around— in fact a number of times that same person who was rotting the crop became a cheerleader for us. Some people can’t be turned, and when it comes time to let them go do it honestly and let them grieve for whatever time they need.
I had one guy— he was a produce manager— he was terrible at his job. He didn’t know how to talk to his employees, he didn’t know how to pull bad produce off the shelves. He didn’t know how to order. So I moved him over to a smaller department where I thought he could get a better handle on operations and he was just as bad.
From there I placed him back in a training position and he took this very poorly. He had a large ego and felt like he never should have lost the Produce Manager gig. I was constantly pulling him aside and asking him if he really felt he was cut out for this. To my face he would insist he was and that he appreciated everything I did for him. Behind my back he was miserable and claimed I just had it out for him.
I worked with him may times over but it never got better. It’s easier and more cost effective to fix an employee rather than fire them, but this was clearly a case of it wasn’t working out.
When I pulled him into my office and handed him his final paycheck and his severance package he broke down crying— and crying hard. He said he never thought it would come to this. I was shocked, I couldn’t see how it WOULDN’T come to this— and I’d told him as much time and time again— he said he knew I said that but he thought it was empty threats.
We talked out a lot of his issues, I think the meeting ended up taking 2 hours— but he left shaking my hand and he got a job with the Fire Department where he was much happier.
People are worth your time, make sure they are trained, make sure they recognize what makes someone WANT to shop in their store, and most of all make sure they know that a customer is not an interruption of their work, they are the reason for it.