Leading Your Team with Joy this Holiday Season

October 10, 2013

All Posts, Customer Service, Employee Relations

Celayix, Customer Service, Employee Management, Employee Relations, Retail

Leading Your Team with Joy this Holiday Season

There’s not much ambivalence about the holiday season. It can be the best of times, and the worst of times. The hustle and hustle of the shopping frenzy is highlighted with overflowing mall parking lots, crowded stores, fraying nerves and shortening tempers. The picture of the average shopper isn’t pretty. For the people front and center, doing the greeting, servicing, keeping shelves full and displays looking nice, ringing the till, and wrapping the bounty the composure and professionalism that many maintain is medal worthy.

For almost every retail business the Christmas season is often the difference between having a great, good, or dismal fiscal year. The holidays can make or break you. There’s no question that doing the right promoting, having the hot in demand products, the right amounts of inventory that’s competitively priced, and the store being impeccably merchandised makes a huge difference on the bottom line. Most importantly, remember the impact that people have too.

Hiring temporary seasonal staff on one hand addresses the need for additional service capacity, yet leaves you leading a mostly inexperienced workforce. Finding the time and providing them your normal training regimen is unlikely, and unwarranted. It’s all about timing. On-boarding too soon cuts into your profit with higher wage costs. Bringing seasonal staff on too late will hurt sales because of poor product knowledge, customer service and selling skills.

As a retail manager you have no shortage of constraints, like time to train and dealing with inexperienced staff, or even keeping your regular staff happy. Regardless, it’s your job to lead and it’s your job to deliver results. Approach the holiday season with a sense of joy and your team will help deliver.

Here are some holiday leadership tips:

● Your attitude sets the tempo. No Scrooge’s allowed.
● Know everyone’s name.
● Good footwear – Remind everyone that wearing comfortable shoes at work during the holiday madness is the best way to go. Your feet, legs, neck and back will thank you.
● Make sure everyone know how to take breaks. Get away from the chaos, find a quiet place to relax and regroup.
● Stay hydrated! Not enough water can bring on a headache.
● Keep two working pens handy.
● Play non-Christmas music before the store opens and when you close… take a mental break from the “norm”

With sales being your number one goal consider the importance of designating someone to assume the role of Sales Floor Leader. This person makes sure every team member is free to do their jobs effectively as sales associates, cashiers, runners, or greeters.
The Sales Floor Leader should be in the position to:

● Always be on the move and ever observant in the store.
● Always be up to date about the status store sales, and conversion rates.
● Always be facing the front of the store, and being aware of the traffic entering and exiting.
● Make sure customers are being assisted.
● Be aware of what everyone on the team is doing..
● Be aware of inventory levels, and ensure they are quickly replenished.
● Deal with bottlenecks at the cash desk. Do you need extra baggers, extra cashiers, or more supplies? Don’t let your customers get stressed in line.
● Guide team members in always taking on productive tasks.
● Communicate with everyone on the team, letting them know you’re there to support the smooth operation of the sales floor. It’s all about providing the very best service to your customers.

The Sales Floor Leader is like the orchestra’s conductor.

While overseeing numerous roles, the ultimate goal is converting shoppers into buying customers. Fewer customers will leave without buying something when you make sure they are greeted in welcoming fashion, they are well attended to, the sales floor is well stocked, the store is clean, safe and presentable, your team pleasant and calm, that the checkout line is under control.

Also consider:

● Having 25 percent more people than you actually need. Some employees will have requests for time off and other unexpected commitments that could leave you in a bind.
● Creating schedules in advance. Management will have payroll visibility, and most importantly employees know when and where they are supposed to be.
● Scheduling staggered breaks and lunches. On the busiest days, buy lunch for your team. It shows everyone you care.
● Thanking everyone at the end of their shift. It makes a huge difference.
As well, don’t forget to keep your register stocked with extra tape, bags, tissue paper, scissors, stickers, pens and markers. Large bills are not uncommon, so keep more change than normal. Know your rules for voids, returns, layaways and holds.

Make it your goal to provide a great shopping experience in an otherwise hectic and chaotic season, and the team will follow your lead.

A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.” – Henry Ford

Contributed by Bimal Parmar. As VP of Marketing, Parmar manages the global marketing strategy and execution at Celayix. With over 20 years industry experience, Bimal is responsible for making sure the world learns about the benefits of Celayix’s solutions that include: advanced employee scheduling, time and attendance, employee communication as well as integration modules for payroll and billing. Before joining Celayix, Bimal was Vice President of Marketing at Faronics, a leading provider of IT solutions for the Education vertical where he helped grow revenue over 50% and launched exciting new solutions. Prior to that Bimal held senior marketing and product roles at technology companies such as Business Objects and McAfee Security where he gained significant international experience working with global companies such as Microsoft, Dell, Sony, HP, Orange, Telefonica and Ricoh. For more industry insights, please visit the Celayix Blog.

By Nicole Leinbach

Comments


Mckenna Hallett

October 11, 2013

One of the most important things that get overlooked is making sure the higher-end inventory is treated with extra care with a highly qualified salesperson. There should be a “specialist” or two on the sales floor who would keep an eye towards items of higher value that require more in-depth selling expertise. They may be called upon as an “expert” when interest is shown in something of high value. Those high-value pieces should be part of a well-rehearsed sales presentation by the best on the team to maximize any fleeting interest shown and hopefully turn that into a sale. Keeping the best salesperson(s) in gift wrapping to keep the line moving may serve a greater good short-term, but that person should be replaced as soon as possible and put back into a selling position.

Making “selling” (not aggressive – just serving as a “decision counselor” and sounding board) and actually suggesting and doing soft “encouragement closes” can put an additional 10 to 15% into the coffers.

Remember, buyers at this time of year want to be helped with the myriad of decisions they must make in the holiday season. Be Empathic. Be sure it is always “all about them” and do some actual selling and the combination is golden for them and for your store.

This time of year (most of the time actually) people really want you to sell them on why this is the perfect purchase (solution) and they want to feel good about each purchase. Help them feel good.