Home » Archives for Phil Wrzesinski » Page 28

Author: Phil Wrzesinski

How You Lead

My boys (ages 11 & 13) asked me a question about why I was so flexible and accommodating in scheduling my staff.  They figure I could schedule the staff all the worst hours and save only the easiest hours for myself.

They liked my answer.

Leadership.

There are many styles and philosophies on leadership.

Role Model
You can lead from the front, modeling the kind of behavior you want.  Going first into battle, leading the charge.  If you have a staff that needs an example to follow, this is a good approach to take.  Your staff will only work as hard and care as much as you care. Never more, usually less.  But they will watch what you do and work accordingly.

Sacrifice
You can lead from behind in a role of service, doing whatever you need to do to put them in a position to succeed.  Many coaches take this role, teaching and encouraging their players to do their best.  If you have hired a staff of compassionate, caring people, they will relish in seeing you sacrifice your needs for theirs.

Guide
You can lead from the side, constantly guiding and overseeing their progress while keeping your own shoes out of the mud.  If you won’t be there in the trenches when the action takes place, this might be the preferred role as the staff learns not to depend on you.  Teachers often take this role in preparing their students for life after the classroom.

A smart leader chooses from all three based on the needs of the staff.  It starts, however, with who you hire.  

If you are going to lead from the side because you are leaving the staff on their own, then you need to hire a staff with responsibility and accountability.  If you are going to lead from the front, then you need to hire people who want to be led.  Free thinkers won’t flourish in this style of leadership.  If you are going to lead from behind, you need to hire compassionate, service-based people who will respond to the service and sacrifice you give to them.  You also need to hire people who can take the lead, while you support from the back.

Knowing who you hired and why helps you choose the kind of leadership style that will work best for them.  That’s a pretty good lesson for a couple young boys to already start learning.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  You probably already guessed that I like to hire compassionate, helpful, problem-solving leaders.  I lead from behind, which means when push comes to shove, I’ll more often sacrifice my own needs for those of the staff.  They work harder for me when I do that. (And isn’t that the ultimate goal?)

PPS If you aren’t sure what leadership style will work best for your staff, think about what leadership style will work best for you, then hire a staff to compliment your style.

Stay Above the Fray

Mudslinging and politics seem to go hand in hand.  You’ve read enough articles about how effective negative campaigning is for political contests that you realize it isn’t going away any time soon.

Some of you have even wondered if it will work for your store.

It won’t.

Here is why…

When it is a one-time vote between only A or B, you can win votes for B by telling everyone how bad A is.  But retail is not a one-time vote between only two candidates.  Retail includes many candidates including None of the Above.  You don’t have the resources to attack each one of those options (including None of the Above) negatively.  And even if you did, the feelings people will have about you will be far from positive before they even step foot inside your door!

In a political election people will choose the “lesser of two evils” mainly because they have no other choice.

Going negative at best only makes you the lesser of two evils.  

The cool thing is that you don’t have to go negative to point out how you are better than your competitor.  Take the, “Here is what we do and why we do it,” stance.

Talk about your virtues that make you different from your competition.
Talk about why you do it that way.
Talk about how that benefits your customers.

That is the campaign that wins time and again in retail.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Not sure what are your virtues?  Read this short document Understanding Your Brand and do the following worksheets.  You’ll know better who you are so that you can be who you are better.

Politics and a Plan

The political campaign is upon us.  Let the mudslinging begin!

Don’t you hate when one side criticizes the plan of the other without offering a plan of their own?  Me, too.  But I know why they do it.  It is easier to rip someone else apart, than it is to counter with a plan of your own.

The same is true in retail.  It is easier to blame the _____________ (economy? local government? weather? federal government? competition? customer base? suppliers?) than to develop your own plan to deal with each issue.

“To open a shop is easy. To keep it open, an art.” -Chinese Proverb

The best way to be successful is to have a plan.  Have a counter proposal to any obstacle life may throw your way.

Even if all you do is think it through in your head, you are light years ahead of the shops that don’t have a plan.

Tonight, before you go to bed, say to yourself, “If _________ happens, our plan will be to do ___________.”  Pick one issue every night and think it through.  The next morning spend a few minutes writing it down.  Then you’ll be ready for anything that comes your way.

In spite of a bad economy, some businesses thrive.
In spite of the government, some businesses thrive.
In spite of the weather, some businesses thrive.
In spite of the competition, some businesses thrive.
In spite of a shrinking customer base, some businesses thrive.
In spite of supplier issues, some businesses thrive.

Be one of those thriving businesses.  Have a plan.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS If you want to win my vote, don’t tell me what the other guy will do.  Tell me what you’re going to do (and how it will benefit me).  Wouldn’t that be a fun campaign if both sides took that approach?  Yeah, they tell us that will never happen and that is not how to win an election.  But what if…

PPS  Whatever you do, however, don’t you start mudslinging your competition.  While it may work to win an election, it never works to win a customer.

Convenience Trumps Price

In case you need more proof that not every customer shops on price, a new study on Back-to-School shopping by WSL/Strategic Retail shows that only 26% of customers are chasing BTS price promotions to do their shopping.

Instead they are shopping based on Convenience.  Seventy five percent are going to stores where they believe they can get everything all at once, regardless of the price.  Sure, most of them are going to a big-box discounter, but that isn’t the issue.
The key word here is Convenience.  What are you doing to offer that to your customers?  Do you have services like online shopping with same day delivery?  Do you offer a wide selection that covers everything your customer needs?  Do you have an easy-to-get-to location? Front door parking? Delivery?  Personal shoppers?  A fast checkout?  Free gift-wrapping? (Heck gift-wrapping, period.)
Convenience comes in many forms.  The convenience stores that dot every other corner were designed to make shopping quick and easy when you only needed an item or two.  You paid more for a roll of tape or a gallon of milk, but you saved time and hassle.  
Personal shoppers used to be a sign that your store was expensive.  But what is the fine line between a helpful employee and a personal shopper?  You already have the helpful employees. (Right?)
Convenience trumps price.  That is why people will pay more for a bunch of screws at Wal-Mart than at the local hardware store – because they were already at Wal-Mart for BTS shopping.  
You have convenience built into your model in many ways.  The study shows that now is the time to play them up.
Phil Wrzesinski
PS  Not all conveniences are the same.  Be specific about how you are convenient, and more importantly, how it benefits your customers. (We offer free giftwrapping so that you are never late for the party.)

Yes, I Forgot

The first phone call this morning was a guy wanting to know more details about the play we were hosting this afternoon.

Play?  You sure you’re calling the right place?

He was.  A month or so ago I had agreed to allow the Michigan Shakespeare Festival’s Shakespeare for Kids program to do a performance of Snow White here at the store.  I wrote it down in my calendar but forgot all about it.  I never mentioned it to the staff.  I never put up flyers, sent out emails, posted it on Facebook.

I forgot.

At this point some store owners would panic.  Some would fret about the missed opportunities.  Some would beat themselves up over it.  Some would wallow in the mistake.

I’m not that kind of guy.

I went to the grocery store and stocked up on waters.  I printed a few quick and simple signs.  I got on Facebook.  My staff posted the signs around the store, made a special display of Shakespeare books, and made a stage and seating area for the performance.

Before too long, the phone was ringing off the hook.  By 1pm we had a few dozen children sitting on the floor, another couple dozen adults sitting in chairs, and three fabulous actors putting on a wonderful show.  The kids laughed, made bird sounds, became trees and a few even got recruited to be dwarfs.

Parent after parent came up to thank us for the event.  There was a line to sign our Guest Book.  And the kids had a ball!

Lesson?  Sometimes you make mistakes.  Sometimes you forget.  When you do, you can take two paths, one of woe or one of WOW.  Yes, we might have gotten a bigger crowd if I looked at my calendar more often.  More importantly, those customers who were in the crowd had an awesome time and never knew of the mistakes I had made.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  No matter what, never lament the customers that aren’t there.  Celebrate the ones who are and make it as special for them as you can.

PPS  And always look at your calendar at least a few days in advance.

A Customer Service Story You Gotta Read…

My friend, Cynthia Compton, owns 4 Kids Books and Toys near Indianapolis.  Her store, as many toy stores do, offers to host birthday parties.  The kids come in, do crafts and activities, have fun and (hopefully) spend some money in the store.  Yes, there is a fee the birthday family must pay.  But the true hope in a service like this is to get the kids (and their parents) into the store, a chance for them to try out the store’s products, and to make the kids and their families feel good about the store.

In another word – Branding.

“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.” -James D. Miles

But what do you do when the customer wants a birthday party not at your store, without all those benefits?

In Cynthia’s own words…

 Just got back from a “remote” birthday party. We offer on-site parties to our customers if they want us to do them. This family has two autistic kids, and the noise and stress level of our store is too much. So I did a party in their living room for the boys and 2 friends. I whispered for two hours. It was a very nice time…

…we had a rabbit party. I borrowed some rabbits from a kid who raises them for 4H. We spread a tarp on the floor, and I brought a bunch of cardboard boxes to make tunnels. I had two big fat white rabbits that were used to handling, and then a hutch full of little grey babies. The boys made salads for the bunnies, we rolled balls for them to chase, and we ate carrot cake cupcakes. Oh, and I had short white lab coats with their names embroidered over the pocket, and I borrowed some stethescopes so we listened for rabbit heartbeats. It was really fun. Something I couldn’t have done with a lot of kids, but 4 was perfect. One of the birthday guys is pretty hard to reach, but he let us put a rabbit in his lap, and hold one of the babies up to his cheek. Mom was pleased, the bunnies were good, and no one got bitten (which was my nightmare on Friday night.)

When Cynthia was asked how she came up with this idea, she replied…

I met the kid with the rabbits at the farmers market this summer, and so the bunnies have been on my mind. She brings them every week to her family’s stand (we get eggs from them) and usually has a different hutch of babies. I’ve been wanting to do something with them, and this opportunity just presented itself. The birthday boys don’t have any pets, and bunnies are quiet….. It just kind of came together. It was probably a huge business risk from a liability standpoint, but we all survived the day.

She didn’t get the kids into her store.  She didn’t get the kids’ friends and their families into her store.  She didn’t get to show off any of her products.  But tell me… Do you think that family will sing her praises and promote her store to everyone they know?  You bet!

That, my friends, is WOW Customer Service.  How far are you willing to go to make a customer’s day?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  I know Cynthia and, yes, she is simply that nice and helpful.

It’s All in the Packaging

Joshua Bell is a world-class violinist who demands $100 or more per ticket for concerts at places like Carnegie Hall.  As a social experiment he played in the Washington, DC subway to see if people could tell the difference between a virtuoso and a street musician.

As expected, most people walked right by him and his $3.5 million Stradivarius violin, not recognizing his talent in the halls of a subway.

It’s all in the Packaging.

Our city council passed an ordinance to collect a fee for rainwater management.  It has received huge opposition because it looks and smells like a tax.  The county government is even suing the city government over the legality of the fee, claiming it actually is a tax.  Few are arguing whether city needs the money.  Mostly they are arguing about how the city went about getting it.  Had they called it a tax, promoted the necessity of it, and asked permission, it is hard to say where the vote would have fallen.

It’s all in the Packaging.

There is a retail store I know that is closing.  After a lengthy struggle with their city council over the sign ordinance, they were two years in business without a sign.  During the closing sale a customer remarked, “You would have been more successful if you had a sign up.” (Facepalm)

It’s all in the Packaging.

Two cake mixes sit side by side on the grocery store shelf.  They have the same ingredients, probably even made in the same factory.  One has a recognizable name, a woman who has symbolized fine baked goods for decades.  You instinctively reach for that package, even though it is 35 cents more than the unknown box sitting next to it.

It’s all in the Packaging.

Packaging makes a huge difference in the way people perceive everything around them.  Packaging drives purchasing decisions.  Packaging drives value decisions.  Packaging drives voting decisions.  Packaging makes the difference between good idea and great success.  Packaging is the single most influential element of business.

How much attention are you placing on the way you Package your business?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  Replace the word Packaging with Branding and go read this post again.  Get it?  Here is a quick way to understand how to re-Package your business for long-term success.

It’s Our Policy

When you hear a sales clerk say they can’t because “it’s our policy” don’t you just want to throttle them?

Cinda Baxter of The 3/50 Project wrote a wonderful blog on exactly that topic and called those the three worst words to say to a customer, based on an experience that many of us will find all too familiar.

I started to comment on her blog about how I train my staff to deal with such issues and decided it was worth sharing to everyone.

You have policies.  You teach them to your staff.  You ask them to follow those policies.  You even have reasons for each of those policies.  But every now and then a customer makes a valid point for bypassing those policies.  Before your staff blurts out those three bad words, do you empower them to make policy exceptions on the fly?

I do.

I teach my staff our policies, especially the why behind each policy, but then I let them make adjustments to meet our one and only true goal – to make the customer smile.  The only thing I ask is that if they bend a policy to get a smile, they have to report back to me what they did.

Sometimes they absolutely nail it and do the right thing by the customer (and because of it I sometimes have to adjust the policy).  Sometimes they do things that I wish maybe they hadn’t done.

Either way, I always praise them for first making the customer smile.

Then I praise them more for taking initiative.  Then I praise them for what they did right.  Then, and only then, will I offer suggestions for how they could have done it differently.

By doing it that way I continually empower them to take initiative.  I continually empower them to make our customers happy.  I continually empower them to think on their feet and make smart decisions.  The praise is the key to the empowerment.  Fear of criticism is what holds most people back.  Heaping praise on them makes them want to do it more.  Heaping praise on them followed by suggestions for doing it better makes them want to do it more and do it right.

The end result is that the only time my employees every say the phrase, “It’s our policy,” is in response to, “Wow, you guys are all so helpful!”

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  Policies are really only guidelines.  Remember that the most important goal of any transaction is to earn another transaction down the road.

Get the Wizard for FREE!

You all know I am a huge fan of Roy H. Williams, aka The Wizard of Ads.  I have trained at Wizard Academy and owe much of my success to the lessons I learned there.  I am also a devoted follower of Roy’s Monday Morning Memo.

For me it all started with his book Wizard of Ads, the first in a trilogy that I read cover to cover to cover to cover to cover.  Best set of business books I have ever read. Period.

Right now you can download all three books in pdf for FREE!  Yes, FREE!  (Don’t ask me why.  The Wizard did not tell me, nor do I get anything for telling you.)

Just go to…  http://www.rhw.com/youll-laugh-youll-cry/

Now!

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  If you want the printed version, go here.  It will cost you $25 plus shipping.  Either way, your ROI is through the roof on this.

Are Your Staff Experts?

Of course they are experts!  You trained them to be experts.  Here is an easy way to prove to your customers that your staff are experts.

I saw this at The Harvard Book Store.  Each staff member made a recommendation including a little card with a reason why they suggested that particular book.

Two things impressed me about this.

First, they have a lot of staff with a wide variety of backgrounds.  I knew just from looking at this display that I would most likely find someone that could help me.  Trust is a huge factor when you are going after the Relational Customer.

Second, the staff knew their stuff.  I only had a few minutes to spend in the store and I spent most of it reading their recommendations.  They had excellent reasons for each book, which only added to the trust factor for me.

Staff recommendations are a simple way to prove your mettle to your customers.  Just be sure to do it right.  Here are four things to do when setting up a staff recommendations section in your store.

  • Make sure everyone on the staff does it.  Go big or go home.
  • Make selections from a wide variety of departments.  Give every customer a reason to stop and see.
  • Give good reasons for each suggestion so that a customer will know instantly if that is the product for her. Explain who will benefit from the product and what those benefits will be.
  • Make sure the items are in stock.  Quick way to destroy trust is to get a customer sold on a product you don’t have.

You have spent hours training your staff to be experts.  Make sure your customers know how smart (and helpful) your staff can be.  Staff Recommendations are one easy way to do that.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS The only downside to this display was that it was tucked out of the way.  I only found it because I was getting out of another customer’s way.   It was up front, right by the door, but tucked behind two big poster signs for new book releases.  Make sure yours is easily visible.