As I have mentioned many times, the current retail environment is certainly challenging. It is critical that retailers get so many things right just to retain their existing customers, let alone gain new customers. To achieve that, they have to stand out, consistently.
What I find though, is retailers who continue to make the following mistakes, costing them dearly in many ways. Frustrated customers, team members who are constantly being let down and not feeling supported to be the best they can.
Here’s a list of these 5 common mistakes:
1) Avoid training their staff – as they might leave! The counter of this of course is – but what if they stay!
2) If they do get some training, it’s only done once – because that works. Training has to be ongoing and followed up by the store manager or it just disappears.
3) Promote the best sales people into the role of store manager – it’s a vastly different skill set so this often backfires in two ways – sales suffer because the best sales person is off the floor and the team suffer as the new store manager struggles to motivate the team.
4) Failure to teach their store managers how to coach their team by setting clear expectations, following up and holding their team accountable – so their team perform how they want to and the store results suffer. Unless the team know what the expectations are, receive training to fill any gaps and then support back on the job, accountability and performance is low.
5) Set KPI’s and don’t clearly share them with their team and how they can influence their own and the store’s results – leaving a big disconnect between setting targets and actually achieving the stores and individual’s goals.
Store managers who avoid these mistakes, have a focused and motivated team that consistently achieve their targets and create amazing experiences with customers.
Roger Simpson – CEO, The Retail Solution and Author of “The Ultimate Retail Sales Experience” With over 35 years’ industry experience, Roger Simpson is recognized as Australia’s #1 Authority on customer ROI in the retail industry and as a global expert on staff coaching, customer service, and selling skills.
