This is a perfect day for retailers to think about how important their employees are to their success. We are usually so consumed with advertising, displays, store layout, scheduling, overhead dilemmas, and the other myriad of things that keep us distracted daily that we too often forget the role that our employees play in our little drama.
Of course, employees can be good or bad and we tend to spend the largest amount of time dealing with the bad ones, but much of that is the responsibility of the retailer. Think about how you hire, how you train, how you pay, how you encourage, how you reward and how they will grow within your operation.
Too often, we hire to fill a need, put them out on the floor with too little training and expect too much from them. This only leads to their frustration and alienation and eventual termination. When this happens, we all lose time, money, and enthusiasm. Your employees are not a separate group of time wasting, money grubbers; they should be brought in to be on a path to be future managers. Your policies should be clearly delineated from their first day onward. Your support, training and encouragement should begin at day one as well.
Remember that your store is not just about great merchandise. While that brings in new customers, the old ones are coming back because of relationships. The first thing your customers see when they enter your store should be the smiling, welcoming face of your employee. What they will remember about your store once they are gone is the service they received from that employee. Will they come back because of that employee? If you do your job properly, you can bet they will!
So, while merchandising is a very high priority, you can let myotbplan.com help you plan and control your buying. Then you can spend the time needed turning your sales staff into ambassadors of good will for your store and every day will be a happy labor day.
