simplerich

Today I had my first employee meeting with the crew of my new home and I think it went well. I’d be curious to know how they thought it went, but they’re still a little hesitant to talk to me yet. In their minds I just fired their old manager. That or I was demoted from a District Manager position to take their old manager’s job from him. Either way I’m still a little unapproachable feeling to them. That will probably get better with time.
The meeting was a lot more top down than a lot of my meetings will be in the future. There was very limited time that I could have it in and I had an awful lot of information to go over with them. Some were simple stylistic differences between me and their previous managers. I wanted to make sure they knew what my priorities were so they’d know my primary focus. Our priorities are very different and I wanted the crew to know mine.

At one point in the meeting toward the end one of the employees, when I stopped to take a drink and inhale a couple breaths, raised her hand tentatively, “I have a question?”

It wasn’t the question part of the meeting but I didn’t want to squash the first person to show any interest in speaking up so I replied with, “We’ll always have questions at the end but go for it. I can take another drink while I listen. Thanks for the break, my voice is tired.” I did a little laugh and waited.
“Some customers are really annoying when they ask… (whatever it was they were asking).”

“Oh! Well, see, here’s the thing,” I take another drink and pause as I think how I want to say this, “Customer service jobs are a lot like musical taste. Some people like Rock and some like Hip Hop. Some people think classical music is the bee’s knees and some people LOVE Jazz. And none of those people are more or less right than anybody else. Customer Service, and that’s what we are. We’re in retail and our job is to help the customer find what they want and make sure they leave happy. Now, I’m not being a smart-alek or a jerk when I say this because we need all sorts of people in this world, but if you really believe that customers are annoying then maybe Customer Service isn’t your calling. Now, I’m not saying it is or it isn’t, but if you dislike the customers then maybe a job where you don’t have to work with customers is a better idea. We’ve got custodians that have almost no interaction with customers, and if you’re interested in a transfer I’ll see what I can do.” I stopped to take another drink, holding up a hand to indicate I wasn’t finished yet.

She interjected, back-pedaling quickly, “I didn’t mean they’re annoying…” I swallowed my water quickly, shaking my head.

“No, I get it. You’re asked the same question over and over again, day after day and it gets repetitious right?”

“Exactly!” She said, pleased to see I understood.

“Perfect! That means you have new customers who haven’t asked you yet. This is the perfect time for you to help someone new and impress them with how we’re able to make this the best shopping experience they have all week. We have to answer those questions with a smile. It may be the fifteenth time you’ve heard that exact same question this week, but it’s probably the first time they’ve asked you today. Please, answer it like you care about the person asking it. Smile, nod a little bit, lean forward slightly, look at their face at least even if you don’t want to make eye-contact, and then, when they know they have your full attention, help them. Answer their question. You now know something about them you didn’t know before. Next time you see them, remember that question and call back to it. Mention it in someway, let them know you remember them and their question. Let them know the product’s not in, or hasn’t come in yet, or did come in, or we got something similar or that you’re still keeping an eye out. That does a lot of things. It lets them know they are important to you. It lets them know you haven’t forgotten them. It also, and this is the key part that addresses your question directly… it stops them from asking the question again. You’re anticipating their need and addressing it pro-actively. EVERYBODY likes that.”(1)

We then went on to talk about the various questions and I suggested they practice giving directions to the store coming from different directions because that’s one we get a lot and maybe they could jot down directions and put the different directions in our Pass Down Log so we could all help each other. (That was fresh in my mind because I had to interrupt the meeting to take a call and give directions to the store.)

I won’t lie… I will be watching for more chances to help that employee quit thinking Customers are a nuisance to be handled rather than an opportunity to be taken. There have been customer complaints, but I suspect most of the crew is willing to come around to my way of thinking.

(1) Two of the people at the meeting “got it” and I could see them nodding in agreement with me as I spoke. Two were thinking, and I’m SURE they were thinking it, that I don’t know what they have to deal with on a day to day basis since I’m all supervisory and I’ll come around to their way of thinking soon enough. Now, I know I know what they go through. I’ve worked in this store as Sales Associate and Manager for 7 years. Someone remind me to link to my meeting outline and see if I can’t dig up the source. It’s pretty good and I use it all the time in all my meetings.

This is part 2 in my short series of posts revolving around my job change. They’re a cross between a farewell letter to my managers and a helpful advice from a lame-duck district manager. I’m torn between looking forward to the challenge of it, missing the people involved with my old job, and obviously the income change will take some getting used to. When you go from being over 11 stores to being over 1 there’s a definite change in disposable income! This post will be about the priorities of a manager. My last post was a bit rambling, but was supposed to be about the manager needing to advocate for their store. My hope is that these posts give me a sense of closure to a job/position I’ve held for 10 years that I’m walking away from now.

Priorities.

We pay attention to the things our bosses pay attention to. Sure, the memos from the office and from our boss may talk about things like improved customer service, better cleaning, more consistent branding, and being friendlier, but what do the bosses talk to us about when they come to the store? What does the office send follow up things about? What are they looking at? What gets us in trouble? What are we accountable for?

If they talk about the customer service part of things only at employee meetings, but then the rest of the time we talk to them harp on us that our paperwork isn’t legible or how many widgets a week are we cranking out then we have to assume that customer service is something we talk about, but widget cranking is the important bit. If we get in more trouble for forgetting to fax a piece of paper whose information is already available on the computer somewhere else than we get into if we’re rude to a customer then it’s obvious where priorities are. They’re on the paper.

If the District Manager calls and expects the person answering the phone to drop everything, including the customer they’re waiting on to help them with whatever special project they’re working on that tells the person answering the phone that the customer is second to the DM. That’s the slippery slope we start down as DMs when we get full or ourselves. I tell my employees all the time, please, if you’ve got a customer put the phone down and wait on them. I’ll hold while you help them. I don’t even mind holding! What I mind is if I hear they’re doing both because then they’re doing neither very well. I’m not a fan of multi-tasking.

So, when you’re working the store and 12 boxes of who knows what comes in and you start ignoring customers to get the product checked in and put out you’re doing exactly what you have to do to keep your boss off your back. It says right in the rules & regs or policies & procedures, that we’re not to leave product sitting around un-checked in. The problem with that is… the trainees see that. The Sales Associates see it. Then they assume that their work, their assigned tasks, their widget polishing, or gadget alphabetizing is the same as receiving all those boxes… something that’s more important than the customer. We teach them that by what we do, not what we say. None of us say, “ignore the customer to get your work done,” instead, we do it while saying not to.

I ask that we hit the floor and offer to help customers periodically and get an amazing amount of push-back. It makes me mad to have Sales Associates tell me, “customers don’t want us to talk to them.” ARGH! When the SA’s say that I don’t want them to talk to me! That’s for sure lol. Don’t just stand behind the counter and wait for them to come to us but a lot of people do exactly that, saying, “Well, I’m polishing widgets, or ordering gadgets” so I don’t have time to wait on the customer. And that’s just not true! It’s so frustrating to me to see it. That’s when I go do it and then go back to what I was doing. I try and show, by example, that you can indeed stop doing something to go help customers. Helping customers shouldn’t be an interruption to your ‘real job.’ It should BE the real job!

I can tell you now, after having met with, visited with, and talked about priorities with the new bigger than big shot that priorities need to be customer first. Your new DM is that way too. We’ve been “getting better” for a long time now. It’s time to “get great” at it! Not just at employee meetings, but all the time. It’s what I intend to do in my new job to increase sales. I hope it works immediately. One of the areas we can continue to grow and beat the competition is outstanding customer service. I don’t mean to say that it’s not better today. It is. But better isn’t good enough any more. It really is time to get great. It’s also an area where first impressions are hugely important. If a DM walks in and sees customers on the floor and people checking in product or polishing widgets or whatever, and never talking to the customer they’re not going to know that you JUST got back from making the rounds, offering to help them all, and helping them. They’re going to only see that the customer is being ignored right now, at the moment they turned on the live surveillance cameras or walked in the back door. We have to not just make sure we are providing great customer service, but we actually have to look like it! Not just to the cameras, but to the customers.

When the customer walks in and sees us busy behind the counters and a floor full of people they immediately think we’re too busy to help them. If we all shout the greeting at them without looking up at them and making eye-contact that doesn’t mean anything. Shouting our greeting with offers to help before they’re even in the door all the way may meet the letter of the law in regards to greeting customers but it’s not the intent. It’s not a greeting or welcome that is meant. It’s a pro-forma going-through-the-motions greeting that is as insincere as it sounds, and as someone who’s heard lots of them… There are a LOT of bad sounding greetings out there.

I hear people now clamoring that the product must get checked in, and their store sees hundreds of people a day and how the heck do I expect them to pretend to sincerely greet each and every one of them? The thing is I don’t expect you to pretend to be sincere. I want you to feel it. I can’t make someone like customer service, but if you don’t you shouldn’t be doing it.

There will be the occasional customer you DO have to fake it with. The man with the nervous tick where he ALWAYS coughs into his hand before reaching into his pocket to get his cash. That guy, I have to pretend to like him. I don’t like him. I don’t like him at all! He makes me sick, sometimes literally as well as figuratively. But I greet him like I’m happy to see him because he’s my customer and I want him to stay my customer. The lion’s share of the customers, I am glad to see. And I never mind a break from receiving product to talk to customers. It’s a break from the receiving. I’d rather wait on customers than work on receiving product any day of the week. I was a shipping clerk at a warehouse for a year or so. It was so boring I quit. The other end of that, receiving clerk… not my cup of tea at all. I’m in this job for the customers. If you’re not then maybe it’s time for you to consider a different job too.

“You cannot propel yourself forward by patting yourself on the back.”
~ Steve Prefontaine, runner.

There are three points of contact that are super-important for the retail customer.

1) What does the approach to the store front look like? Awning, lighting, windows, doors, employees/customer hanging at the door smoking, ash trays, garbage on the sidewalk.

2) How does the store look, smell, sound, feel from 10 feet inside the door, the Launchpad? Radio too loud? Can customer get a feel for where they’re going from there? Can they identify an employee from there? Have they been greeted? Is there a stink from air fresheners, cleaning products, how well is the store lit?

3) At the cash-wrap. Is the cash wrap area cluttered? clean? professional looking? Is the employee’s lunch all over it? Is the employee’s receiving/shipment work all over the place? Are there customers lounging at the counter area hanging out with their friend? Will the customer feel OK about taking their wallet out there or not?

Store Front:
If the store front is shady looking a customer may never walk in the door. Got a lot of cans leaning up against the wall? Are there wrappers and cans on the sidewalk? Do you provide an ash tray? Where is it? Is it a smelly nose-sore? Maybe it’s easier to sweep up cigarette butts than walk past an ashtray that’s been rained on and is now giving off a cloud of wet ash smell to any who walk past. Do you have an awning? Do the birds know about it? Are they parking themselves on top of it covering the awning with their erm… leavings? Who wants to walk under that? If it’s lit are all the lights lit? If half the lights work that’s not half right. That’s all wrong. Are the glass windows and doors cleaned and finger-print free? If your store looks dirty from the outside there’s a good chance I won’t go there.  Here in town there’s a tattoo shop that I’d like to visit. They have body jewelry and ear rings and I’d like to get some. Outside their door are three lawn chairs where they and their friends sit and smoke. I’m not walking past that.  As a 40 year old man I’m probably not their target customer, but I’m A customer… or I would be if I didn’t have to walk past extras from West Side Story to get into the place.

The Launchpad:
It’s called the Launchpad because it’s from here that the customer launches into your store or scrubs the mission and leaves. This is the area where they assess how your store looks and feels to them. If the radio’s too loud people will leave.

That’s just sound. How does it smell? I didn’t shop at Bed Bath, & Beyond for YEARS because it was so overpoweringly smelly. Granted, that’s their thing… but I’m a guy (again, not their target audience). An air freshener over the front door may be a great idea two minutes after they walk out but it’s not cool to walk into the cloud of cherry or vanilla scented concentrate right after it’s shot out of the dispenser. Is the front area cluttered? Are there tall walls of grid wall or walls of displays blocking the view of the store? If so it makes it hard for the customer to see where they want to go. It also makes it less appealing because it’s not open. People don’t like to feel closed in or trapped in stores/shops. They like to know there’s room to move around and that they can be seen and see other people approaching. I’m not talking about merchandising or sales or end caps in any of this. I’m talking about the experience, the comfort level of the customers. Is there a visible employee that they can identify in case they need help or want help finding something? In some shops it can be off-putting to walk in and find you’re the only one in the store. I’ve let out a soft, polite, “Hello?” before wondering if I’d stumbled upon a murder scene and didn’t want to round a shelf of spices only to find between the cracked pepper and the vanilla beans the dead body of the  Penzey’s employee. Florists are the worst for this in my experience. It seems I only enter a florist when they are in the cooler, probably hiding the body of the last customer.

Cash-Wrap:
Last chance time. By now the customer is ready to pay and leave. Is there room to put their purchases? Is the counter cluttered and buried in potential add on sales so that it’s a huge confusion of product and cruft? Is this the only work space the employee has? Some times it’s impossible to put your purchases on the counter because there’s a UPS box there where the employee is unpacking and receiving shipment. I get that work happens that isn’t customer related, but just like the view should be unobstructed for the customer, surely the employee can see the customer approach the counter and make room for the one who brings money into the store? A quick smile and apology is all it takes, making me wait as you finish receiving your box of Jelly Bellies and ignore me isn’t endearing me to you as a retailer, and I love my candies! Oh, and shift change? Not my problem. Don’t make it my problem by making me wait 5 minutes while you do it. I get that shift changes happen, but you know what else happens? Customers… we’re paying, don’t say “It’ll be a while. We’re at shift change.” Are there friends or family lounging at the counter hanging out at the counter chatting? If I’m making a purchase I won’t be if you’re visiting at the counter or worse if I have a question I don’t want to feel like I’m interrupting.

There’s a lot going on that doesn’t involve prices, competitors, competition, or how product is displayed.  It’s the appeal of the store and the experience of the store itself. None of this is new. It’s old stuff that everybody knows and hopefully everybody does, but when you find a place that doesn’t you’ll notice right away… and you probably won’t shop there too many times.

I shop a lot at amazon.com and I rent movies through netflix.com. Those two sites know me. They know what I look at, what I buy, and what I watch. Subsequently, when I go back they’re able to suggest other things I may like as well.

Once upon a time our town had a comic book store and the people who worked their knew their comics. They knew them to the point they could, if I bought MongoDROID Issue 17 they could suggest that I might also like Mongopolypse Issues 12-16: The Chubby Rain* mini-series. This sort of product knowledge that they had was what kept me coming back to their store.

When I used to go to GameStop here in town the staff there was able to help me pick Nintendo DS games based on what I’d bought in the past and subsequently returned. They knew what I’d bought and kept and were able to suggest games that I might not otherwise have considered (anything with an animal in it I would never choose to buy on my own). Their expertise in their area was what kept me coming back as a customer. It wasn’t great prices or anything like that. I wanted to talk to someone about something that interested me and get feedback and suggestions. (the staff now isn’t as good as what they had before so I don’t shop there. I went in yesterday while waiting for a hair appointment and they ignored me while I looked at a game system, not a game, the system… that’s a big sale they didn’t even try for. It’s why they get no more of my gaming dollars.)

I don’t make any purchase over a hundred dollars without first finding out if there are amazon reviews on the product. Seriously. I use the wisdom of the masses to help me buy things. I was looking at car stereos today at a local car stereo shop and got some part numbers. I’ll look them up for reviews before I buy. Not because I don’t trust the guy. He was pretty helpful and the information he had on my old stereo matched up with mine. But we don’t have a relationship yet. I don’t know if he’s motivated by commission or trying to sell out old product or trying to help me, so I’ll consult Amazon.comand Crutchfield for information first. That relationship is something that is important to consumers. Hank Hill references it when he talks about “his car guy” in an episode where it turns out that through his masterful negotiation skills he’s paid “Sticker price” for years. That’s a case where the salesman was a jerk. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the establishing trust, having a specialized knowledge and expertise, and having a desire to help the customer get what they want.

When you’re in retail, and I am… if you’re a smaller specialty shop this is what your employees have to do. They have to know the product in the store. They have to engage the customer and find out what they’re looking for, what they’ve tried, what they liked and didn’t like about previous purchases, and try to figure out what is in stock at that moment that will help the customer right then. If it’s not something that’s in stock at the time the sales person needs to be VERY good to have the customer come back to them. If I tell the customer, “Oh, you mean the widgetmaster 2000? That’s EXACTLY what you’re describing and sadly, we’re out of stock but should have some by next Thursday for the low low price of something reasonable,” the customer is now armed and able to go to Internet.storefront.not.me.com and order it there… and I lose out. It’s not their fault. It’s my fault as a retailer for being out of stock.

This is a clarion call for all those boutique type stores out there, those one-shot type stores that do one thing… if you’re not going to do it well, you’re not going to do it long. That comic book store I was talking about? I thought they did things REALLY well. Knowledgeable staff, big selection, no competition within 100 miles to speak of, and plenty of local events to keep people coming in. They went out of business anyway. So, if you’re NOT doing it not just good, but really good, you’re not going to be doing it for long. Sometimes, even if you are doing it really well the ball bounces the wrong way and places go out of business. There’s no reason to be in retail if you don’t like retail. Honestly. There are so many other jobs out there, why do one you don’t like?

*Two points if you know the reference and give it in the comments.

PS: What’s the picture of the bowl of Trix have to do with anything? Nothing, but isn’t it bright and colorful?