Why “The Detail” is not just for Retail!

How does any business know when they have delivered a ‘wow’ customer experience?

B2B Customers may initially seem to have a different set of requirements to a retail environment, however, isn’t customer satisfaction, loyalty and return business what all industries should be striving towards?

In these challenging times when all customers have a lot more choice and potentially less money to spend – it is vital that you look at what you offer and how you can do it better. The retail business talks a lot about ‘The Detail’ and most of us experience a level of service in the retail/hospitality sector on a regular basis and could easily describe what equates to both good AND bad service. I believe that when ‘The Detail’ is applied in the right way it can be equally relevant to B2B.

When trying to improve service it is important to review each and every area where you and your team come into contact with the customer.

The phone can be an extremely beneficial tool and is often the first contact you may have with a B2B prospect, it is however, an often overlooked and undervalued device. Smiling when answering the phone, showing that you are really listening to the person on the other end and re-capping any information or future actions are all basic and easy to do things – so why is this not always the case or what the actual customer experiences?

Face to face contact also utilises many of the same skills and it is always worth remembering the old cliché that ‘first impressions count...’ Though this may at first appear trite, remember, it is far easier to start a business relationship the right way, rather than spending huge volumes of time struggling to change or improve an initial perception.

After spending some time in the USA I saw how even the most simple service experience can be enhanced and, as always, it seems to be the small things that are the most memorable. When you visit a supermarket – someone brings a trolley over to you and the American consumer would be deeply shocked to be expected to return this after they have finished their weekly shop – instead it is either taken from them or left by their car to be picked up. It all makes the shopping ‘experience’ far more enjoyable or at the very worse less hard work!

How does this relate to B2B service – well, it is a great example of ‘delighting’ the customer.

When asked what attributes contribute to customer service, it may seem deceptively simple – but the best description I can give is ‘... give the customer what they want, when they want it and do better than anyone else’.

How do you get your whole team to do this? Well, the key to this is training, developing and honing some simple skill sets within your organisation and ensuring that everyone in your business delivers this time after time.

Delighting the customer is the fundamental difference that you can offer your end user and it is what can set you apart from your competitors. Look at ‘The Detail’ that your clients require and realise that this will be different for each of your customers, however if you use the above skills set to really understand and recognise what your customer wants – you are half way to be able to deliver it!

After all, all businesses know that retention is less expensive than finding new customers!


This article was originally published in 'Tomorrow's Cleaning' September 09 Issue.
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/a0eeda79#/a0eeda79/70

The ‘Tick Box’ Trainer

When you have a large amount of staff to train it can often seem an enormous and uphill struggle. Many retailers today have a dedicated ‘Training Program’ that staff go through in their first 13 weeks of Induction, to support and aid them in this task. So it would seem that this should easily deliver an effective and competent team with great selling skills?

Sadly, this doesn’t always seem to be the case and it made me start to think about why not?

Having worked for many retailers – all with highly comprehensive training programs - it seemed to me; that what you saw the team doing on the sales floor didn’t always match the level of training that the in store Management team felt (or told you) had been given.

As an Area Manager, it was often part of my role to go through stores ‘Induction & Training Workbooks’ and review what level the individual staff members had reached. I would often, initially, be pleased with the level of ‘training’ that seemed to have been presented. Crucially this would differ vastly from my experience whilst out on the sales floor.

The best way of really finding out the skills set of anyone in your team tends to be the old fashioned way – and by that – I mean to actually have a one-to-one conversation or to observe their behaviours whilst working.

I remember reviewing the effectiveness of a companywide training program that had been rolled out to the entire business. In order to ensure that every single member of staff within the whole business had received this training, there was a form at the back for the management team to get their teams to sign and date when their training had been received. Pleased that the Manager at one of my largest stores had implemented this very quickly, I eagerly went onto the shop floor to see the new ‘scheme’ in action. It was quickly apparent that either the quality of the training had been compromised or, even more worryingly, had not happened at all.

When I began to probe deeper and started to question the team around their view on this new initiative, I found that my initial suspicion had been correct. The majority of the team had been rushed through this, with no time to really understand the key messages. Worse still, I soon discovered that several of the staff from that store had not even attended the session, but had signed the piece of paper that their ‘Manager’ had popped in front of them.

This brings me back to the ‘Tick Box Trainer’. Many Managers view training programs as a ‘chore’ or something that needs to be done to keep the Training Department or company happy. I believe they are doing themselves, their teams and their stores a disservice!

With today’s ever discerning customer having much higher expectations of service in an increasingly competitive market, the levels of service that you and your teams can deliver can be the deciding factor in a purchase. Customers are talking (and walking) with their feet and are simply no longer prepared to purchase if they feel the service is not there.

Training your team – and by that I mean, really giving them skills, confidence and knowledge – is the only way you can really deliver a serious service proposition and have any chance of also retaining your staff.

Rushing through Workbooks and deciding that your staff members have ‘passed’ a level of competence, when they obviously haven’t, is compromising your business at every level.

Slashed staffing budgets and ever increasing tasks make training and development more and more challenging.  Experienced Managers will use a combination of utilising other team members and prioritising training, mixed with sales floor training to ensure that their team fulfil their potential and are able to ‘serve’ their customers in every way.

But remember - If you become a ‘Tick Box Trainer’ – no one is a winner!

When Tasks can Torment your Customer...

Today’s busy retailers are ever more challenged to achieve amazing sales, a fabulous visual proposition and deliver exceptional customer service – and all on a shoe string budget.

As more and more retailers fall by the wayside in today’s harsh climate, the watchword has become more and more about saving costs. As the old saying goes...’Sales for Vanity and Profit for Sanity’

The workforce is the biggest cost that any retailer has and is also the key cost that can be really influenced and controlled by a good Store Manager; however this has led to a severe slashing of staff and is now being keenly felt by most Customers that walk through your door.

We all accept that tasking is a necessary evil and Customers would sometimes be staggered by what goes on behind the scenes in order to ensure a shop is ‘customer ready’. Indeed, when I was a Store Manager, I remember one of my friends asking me if I would be finished at 5:00pm. I can still see her amazement, when I told her, that firstly we did not close until 5:30pm and that then we would need to recover the sales floor, do a small visual move of the product, cash up and prepare for the following day. Therefore escaping at 5:00pm was highly unlikely!

With the current cull of staff, this is becoming more and more apparent to the Customer and we are beginning to create a culture where the Customer can be ignored when staff are so busy and tasks have become a priority.

Whilst I appreciate that there is an enormous amount of work that needs to go on ‘behind the scenes’ to get a store ready for business, I am sometimes left wondering, ‘how high on the task list is Customer Service?’

I recently visited a store at lunchtime, only to find them in the middle of preparing for their sale. The whole team was fixated on identifying the sale product and starting to move the sales floor around and separate sale from non-sale. Whereas I understand that this needed to be done, this was at the expense of the customers that were in the store and wanting to buy something there and then. They were 'tormenting their existing customers' and potentially losing sales...

So what is the resolve?

The simple answer would be to increase staffing to ensure that both service and tasks. This isn’t always an option – so what else can you do?

Well, firstly it is always important to try and task in your quieter timeslots – review your traffic and ensure that when Customer footfall is at its highest – that you are maximising all opportunities.

Secondly, is to try and prioritise your tasks into what is and isn’t business critical. Also be mindful about what tasks can disrupt your sales floor and be overly obvious to your Customer. The analogy of the swan is a good one – the customer should never be able to see all the frantic paddling which is going on under the service.

Think about who is best suited to a particular task and can therefore do it the best and also the most efficiently. Matching the right people to the right job is one of the keys to effective management.

Finally and most importantly, it is always critical to remember that the Customer is the real reason why you are there and they should ALWAYS be the priority! If that is not the case in your store – perhaps you need to review this.

And try not to ‘torment your customers by tasking’???

The Wonder of Westfield...

Whenever a new Shopping Centre opens, I am always filled with a huge sense of excitement!  I like to think I am a bit of a connoisseur of Retail Malls, having visited the majority of key outlets in the Country, including Bluewater, Thurrock, Meadowhall, Manchester Trafford & Arndale, not to mention major city centres such as The West End, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Southampton and Brighton, to name just a few.

Often, however, when I have visited the Centre in question, I can be very disappointed – thrillingly, that was not the case with the new White City development in West London!

From the clear and easy road signage pointing us in the right direction, to the sophisticated car park (which marks free parking bays with a lit green arrow), even the journey there and initial impression was a delight!

The design is impressive and the high ceilings of both the entire centre and the retail outlets within made for an exceptionally awe inspiring view.

Both design and ease of journey apart – the reason you go to Westfield is to shop! So did our retail experience match up? I am so pleased to be able to tell you – the answer was an unqualified YES!

Although the Centre had been open for some time and the visit was on a busy Saturday, every single retailer we visited really did enhance our shopping trip.

I can rarely remember when I have had the pleasure of being acknowledged and said ‘hello’ to in every single store I went in to. Whether it was fashion, electrical or even the food outlets, everywhere we went, we had a sense that staff and management really were wanting, and more importantly, were prepared to work, for our custom. Staff were happy to answer questions and queries and more importantly, knew their product! We were even offered some free samples in one of the Malls 3 Department stores, with none of the ‘snootiness’ that can sometimes be felt in those environments.

This should be the norm and it is almost sad that I am writing about such basic Customer Service as if I had discovered something special. So often, however, the retail stores in a centre can really make the difference on whether or not the consumer will make a return visit. These were all retailers that you find in every High Street across the Country - but Westfield seemed to have sprinkled a little magic across them all...

The visit to ‘The Village’, the designer part of Westfield was really something memorable. From sipping a glass of bubbly at the ‘The Champagne Bar’ as we listened to the pianist and browsing such brands as Gucci, Tiffany & Co and Prada, you really did feel that you were in the lap of luxury!

But it was the main part of the Shopping Centre that really over delivered around service, product and overall store visuals.

So, what can other Centres learn from Westfield? Well, it is a great example of when design and a serious commitment to delighting the customer in every single way, really do come together. I suppose the only question it leaves me posing – Is why can’t every Centre deliver this?

So arms full of shopping bags and full from a delicious lunch at ‘The Spaghetti House’ and a late bite at ‘Crepeaffaire’ we staggered back to the car, exhausted but happy!  Will we be going back – just try and stop us!

www.uk.westfield.com/london

Can you Conduct?

The art of ‘managing’ has become more and more challenging within the retail environment. So how do you know when you are getting it right?

The dictionary states that a Manager is:

One who handles, controls, or directs, especially:

a. One who directs a business or other enterprise.

b. One who controls resources and expenditures, as of a household.

c. One who is in charge of the training and performance of an athlete or a team.The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source www.dictionary.reference.com/browse/manager

So – it would seem initially very simple – right?

Unfortunately today’s modern retail Manager has many challenges and with many staffing budgets being slashed to the bare minimum to save on costs, it has become more and more critical that the team that you DO have is deployed in the best way. The key word for me in the above description would be ‘to direct’, as this is the task that ‘some’ retailers seem to be so poor at.

The art of Helicopter Management is one that is often spoken about and the best interpretation of this would to imagine you are conducting a large orchestra and have to be aware of every instrument or, more relevantly, aware of what every member of your team are doing at any given time.

Most Customers will be aware if a store is being ‘well managed’ almost immediately they walk through your door – even if this almost an ‘unconscious’ awareness’. This manifests itself in a well run store, in many ways. From the Customers perspective, there won’t be long queues at the till point as the ‘conductor’ will have ensured as many as possible will be open. Customers will find that staff will be available at the Fitting Room as the ‘maestro’ will have scheduled the correct volume of staff and will be ever ready to move the team around the sales floor, as required.

Being ready and aware enough to move your staff around the sales floor, as needed, is key to ‘Conducting’ your team and is the base for the smooth running of any store. This also means that as the Manager – you need to be ON the shop floor in order to manage it!

The below map shows the areas you should ALWAYS be ‘conducting’ and should give you some food for thought about how you can better plan your team to always be there for the Customer to deliver the best service that you possibly can!

I am reminded of walking into a large and busy store on Oxford Street and being instantly conscious of several things...


The Store Manager was ON the sales floor and was clearly ‘in charge’ of everything that was going on. I instantly knew that she was the Manager as she had a huge presence on the sales floor. Her staff were being clearly ‘directed’ or ‘conducted’ and she had a great talent of quickly spotting areas of the store that were either under staffed or getting busier and then reacting immediately. The result of this was that the shop was being run as efficiently and professionally as it could be. A great example of someone ‘conducting their orchestra’!

So ask yourself ‘Can you conduct’? And if you think you can – ask yourself whether you are a ‘Maestro’ or merely a Conductor without a clue?

The Final Countdown...

I was talking to a friend last night who was relating an experience she’d had in a well known young fashion chain.

She had been shopping with her niece and they had rushed to this particular store to try and find a specific item of stock. It was 5:25pm and concerned that they had only got 5 minutes before the store closed; they grabbed the nearest member of staff and asked what time the store closed. When the team member replied ‘6:00pm’, they breathed a huge sigh of relief.

With 35 minutes left to browse and buy, it initially might sound like a story with a happy ending? Sadly – that was not quite the case! What happened next really shocks and surprises me – although, sadly, I believe it is an extremely common occurrence in many retailers.

The store had already pulled the front door grill to the half way point and my friend was staggered to find that the Fitting Rooms had been closed. Staff were starting to cash up and it was made crystal clear to my shopping friends that absolutely no one was interested in them or what they as Customers might need.

This store was completely uninterested in making a sale and was in fact (which is one of my pet peeves in retail) treating the Customer as a total inconvenience and a barrier to them closing their store and getting home as soon as possible.

The retailers amongst you may challenge me and say – ‘it is very difficult when a customer comes in at closing time!’

My response to that would be that the Customer is coming into your store within your trading hours and I fail to see the issue!

I often ask myself whether the people at the top have knowledge of this common working practise.

Certainly in my experience as an Area Manager I would frequently ‘drop in’ to a store around closing time, just to ensure that this was not happening in the stores I managed. Key Shopping Centres, such as Bluewater, Thurrock, Meadowhall etc are also known for fining retailers for this kind of behaviour.

Your staff are being paid and you are advertising that you are open, so why in this difficult retail climate, do staff feel this is an acceptable way to treat a customer who actively WANTS to put some money in your till?

My friend and her niece never actually made a purchase – the item they were looking at was a bikini and without being able to try it on – they were unable to see if it was right for them. A £35 sale lost...

So I would ask any retailer reading this - Is the ‘Final Countdown’ actually your biggest opportunity and in fact a very simple way to differentiate yourself in a positive way from your competitors?

A Coach too far....

When I looked at the dictionary definition of ‘Coaching’, I was surprised by what I saw. It simply read:

‘To train or tutor or to act as a trainer or tutor’.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

Coaching is a widely used term in retail and is usually used to describe a more individual one-to-one training - and is normally completed on the sales floor rather than in a more traditional training environment.

So what contributes to ‘successful coaching’? As always, there is not a clear cut answer to this question.

It can be argued that it is good ‘business practise’ for a Retail Manager to spend time on the sales floor with their team. As most retailers can tell you about Managers who barely came out of the office – is it always what today’s employee experiences?

To really be a successful coach, you do need to find the time to work with your teams. You will reap the benefits. Successful coaches use their communication skills and will feedback quickly and simply to their team members and will always notice and give praise when they observe something has gone well. This to me is one of the main differences in a good or bad coach. It is always better to ‘catch someone doing something right...’

I remember watching a Manager in one of my stores ‘coaching her team’. She really hadn’t grasped the concept of what she was trying to achieve and it was very painful to watch. She also had failed to understand that a successful coach NEVER switches off and is always ready to feedback - both in a positive and constructive fashion. Her first mistake was to ‘coach’ a large group of people at the same time, who were all at very different levels. Her negative comments about a particular individual – though correct, were crassly expressed and had a very poor impact on the entire group.

The best coach I have ever seen was an Assistant Manager I worked with in a large fashion retail chain. He always seemed to be aware of what his team were doing and always MADE the time to comment on it. Watching him ‘work the team’ was really a big lesson in how effective coaching can be if it’s done in the right manner!

He would never walk through the sales floor without making comment to staff on what he saw – the effect of this was to create a team that really strove for his approval and had a desire to get things right. He had, almost unconsciously, created the very best environment to train and develop his team!

It is vital for today’s modern retailer to recognise when it is appropriate to coach a member of staff on a one-to-one basis and when it is more suitable to hold a training session.

How can you be sure that you are getting it right? Well the best coaches guide, inspire and motivate all through effective communication. Take the time to observe your team in action – catch them ‘doing something right’ and let them know you ‘caught’ them and see what results this can give you! You really will see the difference and your team will feel respected and respect you!

So – are you the best Coach you can be??