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Category: Staff Training

Do We Need a Law for This?

There is a bill before the State Senate in Michigan called the Family Education Leave Act that allows employees up to 10 hours of unpaid time off each year to attend school functions without retribution from the employer.

My first thought was… Really?  We need a law for that?
Let’s start with this simple premise… 
Your business is only as good as the employees in it.  
Can we agree on that?  Therefore, to make your business better, you need better employees.  You can do that one of two ways.
  1. Hire better people
  2. Train your people better
Obviously, even if you do the first, you will still need to do the second to reach your maximum potential.
Wanna know a secret that makes #2 easier?
Treat your people better.
The better you treat your staff – the more you praise them, appreciate them, recognize that they have a life outside of work – the better and harder they will work for you.  That is simple human nature.  
My employees know that I will bend over backwards to make sure they can attend school events, sporting events, and other milestone moments in their children’s lives.  In return, my employees also bend over backwards to cover for each other, and make sure my business is running smoothly.  
We don’t need a law, we need better employers.  Be one of those better employers.  It is good for your business.
-Phil Wrzesinski
PS  Some people cannot be trained better no matter how hard you try.  Fire them and go back to #1.  Sometimes, however, it isn’t the training or the person that is at fault, it is the culture.  You determine the culture by who you hire and how you treat them.  

What Would You Do With…?

What would you do with 60 copies of the book Hiring and the Potter’s Wheel: Turning Your Staff Into a Work of Art?

  • Would you use them to prop up a table leg or two that is out of balance?  
  • Would you use them as a door stop to keep the front door open when the wind blows?
  • Would you try to sell them and make some money?
  • Would you give them out as favors at your next big gathering?
  • Would you wrap them and give them as thoughtful gifts to anyone you knew who did a lot of hiring?
  • Would you have a contest to see who could stack them in the most interesting way?
  • Would you create a wall covering with the book jackets?
  • Would you use them to start a bonfire on your next camping trip?
  • Would you use them to hold down the floor or hold up the dust?

What would you do with four hours of time with an award-winning, creative-thinking, trend-setting retailer whose store was named One of the 25 Best Independent Stores in America?

  • Would you use him to train your staff to take Customer Service to levels you never knew existed?
  • Would you use him to give you one-on-one advice on your marketing, your inventory management, your hiring & training, or your financials to help you find the extra $10,000-$20,000 you know is hidden in there somewhere?
  • Would you have him help you uncover your Character Diamond so you will have a blueprint and guide for every single business decision going forward?
  • Would you get him to write you new advertising copy that will drive more of your type of customer through the door?
  • Would you share his talents with other businesses in the form of a seminar or workshop that helps everyone become stronger, raising the tide for all the boats in your area?
  • Would you ask him to bring his guitar and harmonica for a little performance?

What if I told you that you could have both for only $1200?  That’s it. 


Twelve hundred dollars gets you:

  • Sixty copies (one case) of my book Hiring and the Potter’s Wheel for you to use as you please.
  • Four hours of my time and business knowledge to help you succeed.

I’ll pay my own way to travel to your location (Continental US only).  I’ll pay for my own room for one night.  I’ll bring the books, handouts, and whatever other resources available to me to help you meet your goals.


What are you waiting for?  Contact me.  (Or share this with someone who could use it.)


-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com


PS  In case you’re wondering if this is a good deal…  I typically charge $1000-$2000 plus travel expenses for a one hour presentation.  Books sold separately.  This deal is two-fold.  First, to help spread my book out to the world.  There is a lot of bad hiring going on right now that this book could remedy.  Second, I love to help others.  The more I get to do that, the more inspired I am to do more.

What Do They Know?

Your customers know a lot.  You know that.  They often know as much about your products as you do, and usually way more than the part-time neighborhood kid you hired to answer phones and wrap gifts.

Where did they get that info?

From that most informative and reliable source… say it all together…

…their friend!

What? You thought I was going to say Internet?  Okay, yes, the Internet is where that information is held. But the information she tends to trust the most is reviews from other users.  Her new best friends.  People who claim to have used your products and are now experts on those products (even though they never read the instructions, even though they may have used the product in ways it was not designed, even though they may have a slant against or for certain brands, even though they have nothing to compare this product to, even though you have no idea if they are a shill for the brand.)

So let me ask you… Are you reading those reviews, too?  Are you looking at what other people are saying about the products you sell?  Are you finding out what the end-users believe is the downside of your product?

You should.

Your staff should, too.

Then when she brings it up, you’ll be prepared.  Or even better, you can talk about the downsides right up front.  Not only will it reassure her that you know what you’re talking about, it will reassure her that you understand both the pros and cons of the product and won’t sell her anything unless she knows, too.

It is a great way to create trust with your customers.  Plus, when she sees that you read the same reviews she read, she feels more of a personal connection to you.  You’re her type of person.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  Trust is the most precious commodity you can build for your store.  Own that trait and you’ll own more than your share of the market.  Talking willingly and openly about the downside of a product, is just one way to create trust.  To learn more about how to build trust, read my friend Tom’s book, Currencies That Build Credibility.

Schedule to the Peak

I just received my Profit Survey back from the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA).  Every other year they have toy stores submit their financials to help us see what the Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss might be for a typical indie toy store.  It is a fascinating document full of amazing facts and percentages and one of my favorite benefits of belonging to ASTRA.

Going through all the numbers, it is fun to see how a store my size (the largest family-owned indie toy store in America) compares to other stores.  For instance, we buy from more than twice as many vendors as the typical toy store (540 versus 230).

The number that is always fun for me is the breakdown of payroll.  My payroll is much higher as a percentage of sales than my fellow toy stores.  It isn’t because I give myself a big bonus.  Owner payroll is significantly lower than other stores.  It is because I have a big staff.

Maybe too many people if you look at what other stores do.

But there is a purpose for that.  I like to schedule my staff to the peak.  In other words, when the peak moment of the day happens, I want enough staff here to handle it easily and smoothly without a single drop in levels of service.  The hard part is trying to guess when that peak will happen.  As you know in retail, there are no certainties on when the customers will show up.

So I schedule more than enough staff to handle the average moments, knowing that I will be able to give customers a great experience even when we’re “crazy busy”.  Sure, it drives up payroll costs.  But it helps me save it in other areas.  WOW Customer Service brings Word of Mouth, which saves on advertising.

Still not sure it is worth scheduling that way?

Think about it from a customer’s perspective.  If you don’t schedule to the peak, here is what your customer sees.  She doesn’t know what your peak looks like.  All she knows is that you don’t have enough staff to help her right now.  Your staff might tell her, “Sorry, we got really swamped.  We’ll be with you in a moment,” but what does that tell her?  Some of those customers will think, Wow, that is great that they are so busy.  Others will think, Wow, they didn’t expect to do much business. I wonder how things are going.

Schedule to the peak and when that busy moment happens, she might think, Wow, they expected to be busy.  This store is the happening place.

Just make sure when it isn’t the peak that you have plenty of projects to keep the staff occupied so that they always look like they are working.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  Make a checklist of everything that needs to get done for the day and give it to each person on the staff.  Challenge them to see who can do the most on the checklist without ignoring a customer.  Reward your winners.  You’ll get more people trying to accomplish more on those checklists every single day.

What Your Employees Really Want

Don’t you love it when the keynote speaker tells you to do three things and you’re already doing them?

I had that experience last Wednesday at the ASTRA Marketplace & Academy.

Our closing speaker was Barbara Glanz.  You might remember her from the YouTube inspirational customer service video Johnny the Bagger.  Barbara talked about a number of topics, mostly on the culture you create in your workplace.  I had three basic takeaways from her presentation…

Create a Positive Culture
Barbara recommended that you start every employee meeting with what went right rather than what went wrong.  Share the positives first because it puts the staff into a good, high-energy mood.

Yeah, we’re doing that.

Recognize Your Employees Have a Life
One of the number one things employees want from their bosses is to be recognized as being human beings and having a life outside of work.  How often do we neglect that, worrying only about what they can do for us instead of what we can do for them?

Because my staff work retail, they aren’t exactly giving the 1% a run for their money.  I’d like to pay them more, but with the limited resources there is only so much I can do.  To give back, I focus on two things.

First, much of our staff trainings are on life skills more than Toy House-specific skills.  I want them to walk away with more than they brought to the job.

Second, at the beginning of the year I offered each member of my staff some money towards a goal they have set for themselves.  It could be used for dance lessons, for computer training, for a gym membership, or some other personal goal.

Make Their Jobs Interesting
People want to work where jobs are fun, where work is interesting, where they get challenged to achieve, where they know they are making a difference.  I think this is an area where all indie retailers can improve.

  • We definitely have jobs that are fun.  
  • Most of our customer base comes to our store by choice, not necessity, which makes for a much more pleasant time.  
  • We sell fun and unique products not found in every discount warehouse.  
  • We have the ability responsibility to have meaningful interactions with customers.

Sometimes, however, we neglect to show our staff how we do all this and why it is important.  Two things you can do to remedy this…

  1. Share all your customer reviews with your staff.  Let them know when they make a difference.
  2. Give your staff important tasks and let them run with those tasks.  They’ll take ownership, be more invested in the outcome, and see firsthand what a difference they make.

Three for three.  Heck, even I’m impressed.  Thanks, Barbara!

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  Need help making the job more fun?  You can start by making your staff meetings more fun.  Culture takes time to build.  Make small changes and you will eventually see bigger results.

Working ON or Working IN?

The big dilemma for most independent store owners is…

How much time should I spend working ON my business versus working IN my business?

I am going to be moderating a panel discussion at the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association Academy & Marketplace this coming Sunday on that topic.  I have asked my panelists to answer three basic questions…

  1. How do you divide the work between yourself, your managers, and your staff?
  2. What are your guiding principles for your management/leadership style?
  3. How do you learn to “let go”?

I’m curious.  How would you answer those questions?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  I’ll give you my answers next week after the panel.  Don’t want to give away the presentation quite yet.  (And yes, look for an eBook on the topic later this summer.  Maybe your answers will be part of it.)

Better Than Brainstorming

I just finished reading an amazing book, Imagine by Jonah Lehrer.  His was not the first book, but simply the most recent to dispel the notion of brainstorming, how it has been proven to be one of the least effective methods of creativity.

I admit, I was a brainstorming junkie.  As a typical extroverted, talk-to-think person, I bought into the concept, and often wondered why my staff couldn’t come up with as many great ideas as I thought they should.  My first breakthrough in weaning off of brainstorming came when I had my staff plan an event for us back in May.  The ideas they came up with were far better than any we would conjure up in our meetings.

This morning I put the final nail in the coffin of the traditional brainstorming by trying a new twist based on some ideas from Lehrer’s book and others who have helped me along the way.  Instead of the typical shout-out-ideas-while-I-write-them-on-an-easel-pad session, I split the staff up into partners with one rule – it had to be a new partner with whom you had not previously been paired.  I gave them a pad of paper and ten minutes to come up with as many ideas as possible for a new event we are considering.  After the ten minutes they brought their ideas to the group where we shot down the ridiculous ones immediately and added to the good ones.

By the time I was done we had pages upon pages of notes and people fired up wanting to get started.

Not only was the quantity of ideas better, not only was the quality of ideas better, the staff was motivated and ready to take up arms to get the best ideas off the ground right away.  Contrast that to your last brainstorming session.

Hi, I’m Phil.  I’m a recovering brainstormer.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  I used four new ideas this morning that I believe made the difference…

  1. Team up in small teams – collaboration is good and helps take the pressure off the individual without bogging down the process when too many people have to agree
  2. Pair up with someone new – fresh is best to get new and interesting perspectives
  3. Shoot down the obviously bad ideas right away – everyone knows they are bad, let them die a quick and noble death.
  4. Expand on the really good ideas right away – strike while the iron is hot!

Pulling for Karen

I’m pulling for Karen.

I wasn’t at first.  But now I am hoping Karen succeeds.

Karen was our bus driver for a fifth-grade field trip to Gettysburg, PA, Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC.  And she was the worst tour bus driver I have ever encountered.

Missed turns?  Every. Time. We. Got. On. The. Bus.  We saw places in Washington and Baltimore that aren’t even on the maps.  And this was with a GPS device sitting next to her.  The big joke was that the GPS was programmed with an I-hate-bus-drivers mode.  On our way out of Washington, we made not one but two turn arounds where we got off the highway and went in the opposite directions.  We had to cancel one item on our itinerary because of all the lost time from getting lost.

Curb Jumping?  A few of us were ready to warn nearby pedestrians every time we got on the bus to watch their toes.  In her defense, there were a couple tight turns I would not have wanted to attempt.  But many of the curb hops were in bus lanes.  Someone in planning thought there was enough room for a bus there.

Whiplash? There was no problem with the Don’t-stand-while-the-bus-is-in-motion rule.  Standing while she drove was taking your life into your hands, or at least the part of your anatomy that was about to be lurched into the seat back nearby.

At one point we were all roasting because the air-conditioning was not turned on.  Our leaders did not want to distract her to ask about it because they had seen her inability to drive and turn on switches at the same time (assuming she knew which switch to turn on).

As we said goodbye (riddance?) to Karen for the last time, however, I learned something that changed my mind.  This was Karen’s very first trip behind the wheel.  She had her license, passed the tests, but never had actually taken a group out on tour.  Yet they sent her out with a group of fifth-graders on a tight schedule to three very busy areas, including one famous for its gridlock (both traffic and otherwise).

That is in direct violation of Step #6 in my process for creating strong, long-lasting employees.  Step #6 simply says… Give them a safe place to practice their new skills, a safe way to get on-the-job experience.  

Karen should have been making the simple drive through the night from Jackson, MI to Breezewood, PA and back again.  Get a few of those under your belt before you try to tackle a city like Washington, DC.

It would be akin to you training a brand new person on the staff and then handing her your most difficult customer under the most difficult circumstances right out of the chute.

Karen’s company did not do her any favors.  It will now be up to her own strength of character and how bad she wants this job, that will determine whether she decides to stay in this profession or moves on to something else.  She might end up being one of the best drivers ever.  She might walk away feeling like a failure. The worst is that she might walk away even though she could have been one of the best drivers ever, all because her company put her in a position to fail.

Don’t do that to your employees.  Set them up for success.  There is a simple, intuitive way to do it.  I’ve written it down for you here.

In the meantime, I’m pulling for Karen to succeed.  Wouldn’t you?

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  Kudos to the adult chaperones and leaders on this trip.  The kids never fully knew what was going on (other than the constant lurching and curb-hopping).  And at the end of it all we had a safe and successful field trip.

I Didn’t Do It

Last Saturday we celebrated National Train Day.

We had a face-painting booth.
We had a huge train cut-out for photos.
We had train-shaped cookies.
We had train whistles to give away.
We had a train coloring contest.
We had three train play tables out around the store.
We had train storytelling.
We had an electric train display.
We had a model railroading expert talking about train history.
We had a prize drawing for trains.
We had train stickers for the kids.
We even had railroad tracks made out of duct tape lining the floor and leading the kids to every station.

Not a single idea there was mine.  Oh, I am not saying I couldn’t have come up with those ideas (although I might not have had as many).  But I purposefully chose to let my staff run this event.  All I did was make signs as requested, send out an email and press releases, and post to Facebook.

The staff did all the rest.  

They found the cookie baker, the story teller, and the face painter.
They picked the coloring pages, the demos and the prizes.
They made the decorations, manned the stations and made the announcements.

All I had to do was walk around and snap photos, talk to customers and have fun.

The smiles on the customers’ faces was constant and beaming.  The smiles on my staff’s faces was brighter than ever.  But the smile on my face was biggest of all.  All of the team building, all of the staff trainings, all of the coaching was paying off.  They took ownership of the event and made it one of the best events of the year.

Today the staff is still buzzing about it.  More importantly, they have a higher sense of pride in the store and the experience of our customers.  They took ownership of the event and that has translated into ownership of the job they do here.

Would you like your staff to take ownership?  For a limited time, for only $1200 I can show you how to get them to buy-in and work in your store so that you can work on your store. (Plus you’ll get 60 signed copies of my book Hiring and the Potter’s Wheel: Turning Your Staff Into a Work of Art).

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS The first step for a great staff is to hire the right people.  But you already knew that.  What you might not know is how to recognize those right people when you find them.  That’s why I wrote my book.  I found a way to find the right people consistently.

Buy the Book, I’ll Speak for FREE

(I know you know someone who could use this.  Please share it with that person.)

My book, Hiring and the Potter’s Wheel: Turning Your Staff Into a Work of Art comes packed 60 books to the carton.  What would you do if you had 60 of these books?  Do you know some businesses who could use help hiring and training a better staff?

60 books at $19.99 equals $1199.40.  I want to make you an offer.  Round it off to $1,200 even and I will throw in 4 FREE hours of me.

Yes, that’s right.  Buy one carton of books for $1200 and I will show up at your door anywhere in the continental USA and give you 4 hours of my business knowledge to use as you see fit.

If you are a Radio Station…
You will get 60 books to give to your clients that will help them hire and train a better workforce, thus ensuring they will be in business (and buying radio ads from you) for a long time.  If you think about it, that’s a far more memorable gift than the mug, candy or flowers you have been giving them.

Plus, you will get me teaching your sales staff how to sell your product more effectively, how to create killer campaigns for your clients, and how to craft powerful messages that drive serious traffic to their door.  Plus you can use me to help mentor your favorite clients, teaching them how to powerfully brand their business, and how to uncover their core message that will resonate strongest with your listening audience.

If you are a Chamber of Commerce, DDA, or Shop Local organization…
You will get 60 books to strengthen the quality of employees in your district, making your core businesses rock solid and recession-proof thus increasing your influence and the size of your district.

Plus, you get to choose from a vast array of training programs that will rock their worlds and make your businesses the envy of all the surrounding communities.  You can even ask me to show you how to plan Staff Meetings that people WANT to attend.

If you are a Trade Organization or Buying Group…
You get 60 books to help your members make hiring decisions and develop training programs that will turn them into the shining stars of your industry.  When they see how great your stores are doing, you will have other stores begging to join your proactive organization.

Plus, you get four hours of some of the best retail ideas on everything from Inventory Management to Customer Service to Pricing Strategies that put money in your members’ pockets (so that they can pay their dues on time.)

If you are an individual store…
You get 60 books to give away to all your business friends and family for Christmas.  You can even sell them in your store to get your money back if you want.

More importantly, you get four hours to pick my brain.  Use me to help train your staff on the kind of customer service that gets talked about.  Use me to help craft your marketing campaign into a traffic-driving force.  Use me to look over your financials and help you find lost profits and put them back in your pocket.  Use me to teach you how to make staff trainings fun again.

If you are a Nationally Syndicated Talk Show Host… (Stewart? Colbert? Kimmel? Dave? NPR?)
You get 60 business books that are soon to be the talk of the nation.  Heck, I’ll bring extra books so that you can hide one under every chair in the audience.

Plus, you will get a guest who is as comfortable behind a microphone as you are.  You get a savvy businessman who knows retail, has opinions, and is not afraid to share them.  Not only did I host my own radio show for three years, I have plenty of camera time sitting in the guest chair.  Plus, you will get top-notch ratings from the Jackson, Michigan market.

You buy 60 books and I’ll pay my own way to get there plus one night in a hotel*.  And you get to choose what business training you want for your purchase.

I have four full cartons of books ready and waiting to ship to the first four people/groups who contact me.  Send an email to phil@philsforum.com to set up your four hours of kick-ass, kick-starting presentations and trainings.

-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS  If you want more than 60 books or more than 4 hours, I am more than willing to negotiate.  I will be happy to work with your schedule as much as possible.  Just remember that I have my own store to run, so we might both have to be flexible to schedule something.

*PPS This deal is good for USA travel only (unless you want to pay for the flight, too).