ARE YOU READY FOR PEAK TRADE?
Here at School of Retail, we are loving that Spring is in the air but does that mean it’s really only 15 weeks til Christmas?!
If you’re thinking ‘Yep, product sorted’ but ‘People? Hmmm maybe not’ then here’s our top tips to getting your teams willing and able to provide the best experience for your beautiful customers in what is arguably the most important quarter of the retail financial year.
1. Recruit people that will add to your culture
Be creative in how you recruit for your stores and remember to ‘hire the smile’, you can always train the skill.
2. Get your aces in their places
Plan out your hours and rosters in advance so you have the best shot at achieving your sales targets. Rosters should reflect capability not availability. Move your teams around so you have a good mixture of people that work well together and love making customers happy.
3. Set clear goals
Make targets about customers not dollars and keep repeating the message so teams are clear on what success looks like.
4. Coach for success
Teams thrive when they are coached on their skill of how to make customers happy. Embed a culture of continuous improvement where coaching is expected daily and is never a thinly veiled reprimand.
5. Give regular feedback
Recognise all the right behaviours so they are replicated – research shows it’s 10 times more effective than reward itself. And be brave - have the hard conversations when you see the wrong behaviour. Nothing builds a toxic culture like the perception that poor performance is tolerated.
With that being said, if you’d like to get your aces in their places before the peak period really kicks off our Retail Leaders Series is a 10 week course that will that will set you up for success in time for the silly season.