To me, the key to successful retailing is when your frontline team and leaders are all working together in harmony. This collaboration is so powerful and generates a massive positive feeling for customers, who can sense the harmony in the store. I’ve experienced this a few times when I go in store, there is a positive energy, team members are smiling, customers are doing the same. The whole buzz of the store is positive and this draws in even more customers.
Contrast this to other stores I visit, there’s no atmosphere, no positive vibe and team members are working in isolation. There’s a harshness about the atmosphere, customers are generally serving themselves and team members are busy doing tasks. The results, fewer sales and less customers feeling attracted to stay longer or come back.
As you can see a massive difference, and it has a lot to do with collaboration.
Here are 3 tips to improve collaboration and 1 tip on what not to do:
1) Limit top down decision making – when it comes to improving customer service, often the frontline team have a much better idea of what is needed as they talk and interact with customers frequently. Limit the ideas coming down from management and instead challenge the frontline team to review and discuss how things can be done better.
2) Get out of the office – this applies to all levels of the business. Leaders need to spend more time in the store, not just serving but observing the interactions between team members and customers. This builds the level of awareness, so leaders know what is going on and can either maintain what’s working and improve what’s not.
3) Walk the walk – This means leaders have to lead the collaboration by encouraging team work, recognising when team members help each other out and be the cheerleader of the great things that happen in a store on a daily basis.
4) Allow negativity to fester by not dealing with poor performance – If there are no consequences for poor performance or negativity among the team, collaboration will fail. Team members need to be inspired to work at their highest level and respect their fellow team members. This is nearly impossible if they look around and see poor performing team members that are not meeting expectations and nothing is done about it. Accountability must exist on all levels and be part of the culture.
The key is to be consistent with all of the above points.
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.
