Home » Staff Training » Page 29

Category: Staff Training

Smoothing the Rough Spots

Wow, what a fun ride!

Last June I published my first book, Hiring and the Potter’s Wheel: Turning Your Staff Into a Work of Art. The book has received wonderful praise from store owners and HR people alike.

And sales have been phenomenal! I have shipped copies all over the world.

I set a pretty high goal for myself, to sell enough books in one year to pay for all the expenses of printing and design. And I’m really close. I only need to sell 10 more copies of my book by June 22 to reach my first year goal.

Anyone responsible for the hiring and training of others will benefit from reading this book. Plus, it makes a far better and more useful Father’s Day gift than a tie.

To whet your appetite, here’s another excerpt from the book…

Chapter 14 Lesson #7 Smoothing the Rough Spots
“Nothing is so strong as gentleness. Nothing is so gentle as real strength.” – Frances De Sales

As Mary smoothed the rough edges of her bowl she pondered what lesson she could learn from this step in the process. “If I’ve put them in a safe place to use their skills, what roughness will be left?” she thought. A smile came to her face. “Evaluations! I’ve got to make sure there is time for evaluations during and after the safe zone period. Even though they are using their skills, there will still be rough edges needing smoothing.

“I know,” she thought, “I can take the training skills checklist and do follow-up evaluations on each skill just to make sure there are no bad habits, no rough spots. Oh yes, and the evaluations must be completely positive – show them what to do right, rather than harp on what was done wrong. They’re still fragile at this time. Yes, fragile. That’s what Peter meant. The bowls, while dry, are still fragile and need to be safe. The trainees, while trained, are still fragile and need to be in a safe environment where they can learn from their mistakes. It all makes sense,” Mary concluded.

Peter wandered the room checking up on everyone’s bowls, looking for missed rough spots. By the end of class he deemed every bowl to be ready.

“Okay, put the bowls safely on the rack. On Wednesday we fire them for the first time.”

“The first time?” Mary asked.

“Yes,” Peter replied. “On Wednesday we are going to do what is called ‘bisque-firing’. This will harden your bowls so that they won’t be so fragile.

“By the way,” Peter continued. “We will not be meeting here. All of you are invited to my studio. I’ve put the address and directions on these little slips of paper. Unfortunately, the directors here at the YMCA will not let me build a kiln inside the Y, so we’ll use my kiln at the studio. See you Wednesday.”

Get your book today!

Phil
http://www.philsforum.com/

PS All orders online will get a signed first edition. (So will books bought in the store, as long as I’m working that day:-)

It Took a Surgery to Learn This

My wife has been harping on me about this for 18 years.

“The store is too big,” she says.

“Your plate is too full,” she says.

“There are other people who can do that,” she says.

You know what? She’s right!

I used to think I was pretty good at delegating. My father? Not so. He didn’t like to teach so he would rather do it himself. I like to teach, so therefore I teach it and delegate it.

Or so I thought…

The Staff is Capable
But over the past two weeks, while I sat at home recovering from surgery, I finally had a revelation. I have an extremely talented staff capable of far more than the responsibilities I have given them so far.

Not only did they keep the store running smoothly, they came up with some ideas on how to do things better. Not only did they keep the customers happy, they came up with ideas to draw in more customers. Not only did they step up when I needed them, they showed that their potential is still miles higher.

I need to give them more to do.

The Toughest Part
But let’s face it. Delegation is hard. You know the excuses…

  • They won’t care as much as me

  • They aren’t as skilled, experienced, talented (insert your own adjective here) as me

  • It will take me longer to teach them than to do it myself

And still you’re paying them to work for you. So make them work for you.

Maybe they won’t care as much as you. What may surprise you is when you give them ultimate responsibility for the success or failure of a project they will care a lot more than you expect.

Maybe they aren’t as skilled as you. But how do you build those skills? By using them. With a little time, they can grow to your level, and possibly beyond.

Maybe it will take longer… the first time… but there will probably be a second time, a third time, and so on. Make the investment today and it will pay off down the road.

Reap What You Sow
Your staff is your largest expense after inventory. And if you treat it like an expense, you’ll get what you pay for. Your staff is also your largest asset. If you treat it like an investment, you will reap the benefits beyond what they cost.

See if you can delegate one new responsibility each week for the next four weeks. That’s my plan. Excuse me while I go check on our new Birthday Club we’re hoping to unveil in a few weeks.

Phil
www.PhilsForum.com

PS There will always be some things you don’t want to delegate. I love teaching the Shopping for Baby 101 classes at the store, and I’m pretty darn good at it. If it’s both a strength and a love, keep doing it. Everything else should be on the table.

Teaching Your Staff to Connect

Let’s plan a staff meeting together…

Every meeting needs to have a goal.

Our Goal:

This will be a successful meeting if… The staff learns a better way to create relationships with our customers.

Doug Fleener, the Retail Contrarian, believes you should find out three things about a customer before you try to sell them anything. That way you know more about the real needs of the customer, not just the surface needs they might readily ask.

Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor, teaches that the easiest way to make a connection is to find a point in common and share about yourself because you become more human and memorable. (“I see Johnny had a soccer game today. Did you win? You know, my son plays soccer, too. What league are you in?”)

I believe that customers enter stores like Toy House because they want solutions. Maybe it is a gift idea, maybe it is to solve an educational issue, maybe it is to complete a project, maybe it is to fulfill a desire. Our job is to help them define the problem before we can find the solution.

The Task:

So we need Tasks – activities that help us teach this skill of relating to customers. Let’s brainstorm…

Task Idea #1 – Show a Movie
Movies are fun. You could search the web and check other resources for movies that either teach
customer interaction, or show lousy interactions from which you can learn. (Google “lousy customer interaction videos” and you get 8.6 million choices)

Task Idea #2 – Lecture
Give a talk about the importance of interaction, how making connections makes you more real and trustworthy. Quote Mr. Phibbs, or Mr. Fleener, or George Whalin, or any host of other retail consultants on why making such connections are important. Give examples of good connections versus bad connections. Ask for critique of the bad ones, how they could have been done better.

Task Idea #3 – Play Games
Since the key to learning is asking questions, steal this game from the TV show Whose Line is it Anyway? One person starts by asking a question, but you can only respond with another question. Pair off your staff and have them see how long they can keep it going until someone goofs. Trade partners and do it all over again.

Another game is to have your staff try to find ten things they have in common with each other person on the staff.

Task Idea #4 – Role Play
Split up the staff into pairs to do simple role play. Make one person the customer. Give her a typical customer profile. Have her enter the store and have another staff person interact with her with the goal to find out three things about the customer before showing a product. After each role play talk about what was awkward, easy, could be done differently. Continue until everyone has played both roles at least once.

Task Idea #5 – Bring in an Outsider
Hire someone to come in and teach these skills. Sometimes an outside voice makes it stick better with the staff than hearing your same voice time and again. For a skill like this, a person who teaches Networking Skills is a good alternative to a retail consultant. In fact, maybe even a better alternative because the same principles of networking apply to meeting and relating to customers, and there are tons of people who teach Networking (contact your local Chamber).

That’s a pretty good list, five potential Tasks that could lead us to reach our Goal. With a little creative thought you might come up with a few more ideas. The more the merrier.

To pick one you have to ask three questions…

  1. What are my constraints? (Space, Time, Money, etc.) Eliminate any Tasks for which you do not have/cannot get the resources necessary.

  2. What will be the most effective Task? (Pick one)

  3. What will be the most fun Task for my staff? (Pick one)

So now you should have two Tasks from which to choose. Look closely at the Task you picked for question #3. Will it accomplish the goal? If yes, then run with it. If no, then go with the Task from question #2. (note: if the answer to #2 and #3 is the same, you’re golden:-)

The Plan:

You know what you want to accomplish (the goal) and how you’re going to accomplish it (the task). Start your planning. What else do you need? A date and time. A place. Any props necessary (a projector for a movie, a stage area for role play, rules to games, etc.). Collect everything you need to do your Task.

You also need questions. Questions that lead your staff from doing to learning. The technique I use is the What? So What? Now What? method.

  • What? These are the concrete questions. What did we do? What happened when…? How did that work?

  • So What? These are the abstract questions. What did we learn? What did this teach us? Why did we accomplish this?

  • Now What? These are the application questions. How do we apply that lesson to our situation? How does that compare to here? What can we do with this knowledge?

Write down two or three questions of each type appropriate to the task you have chosen.

Then post your plan. Put out the agenda. As much or as little info as you wish. Extroverts just need to know when and where. They’ll do their best thinking then. But Introverts need a little more. If you want feedback from them, you need to give them a topic so they have time to formulate thoughts prior to the meeting. Introverts do their best thinking beforehand.

The Surprise:

Have some unexpected element planned in your meeting that will be a pleasant surprise. Maybe a gift certificate to a local restaurant given to the staff person who does the best in the games. Maybe a special treat like a pizza party as soon as the meeting is over. Maybe a costume that you wear as part of the Role Play. Maybe lottery cards for everyone just because you thought it would be fun.

Surprises make meetings more memorable, and it is not just the surprise they remember. The surprise becomes the anchor which triggers memory of the meeting and its lessons.

The Summary:

Your meeting will be a success. You’ve pretty much guaranteed that in your planning. But to make that success long lasting you need to write up a summary. What did we do? What did we learn? Try to use quotes from the staff as much as possible. Pictures are good, too. If any further action steps are required, list them. If certain future tasks are assigned, list them.

Then post the summary where all can see it.

That’s all it takes to have a successful staff meeting.

Are you ready?

Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com

PS Yes, I go through this process for every staff meeting I plan. Believe me, it gets easier the more you do it. But for starters, here’s a worksheet I use for planning. It’s just one of the many Free eBooks I’ve written with your success in mind.

Don’t Bring Me Down

At the trailer on the Manistee River where my family spent many a summer vacation there was a printed piece of fabric full of cliches. I loved reading those phrases and spent many a night asking my dad to explain what they meant.

One of my favorites was “Before you run in double harness, look well to the other horse.”

There is a reason we haven’t done a lot of collaboration marketing and promotions. Quite often the other horse wasn’t up to our speed. We weren’t willing to use (lose) our reputation because of an inferior partner.

We are All in Double Harness
The Shop Local movement has challenged all that. To get the benefits of a Shop Local campaign we have to allow ourselves to be defined under the umbrella of all local businesses. We have to allow ourselves to be defined by the local florist, the local shoe store, the local tailor, and many other businesses over which we have no influence or control.

That’s scary.

Especially when I read stories about local retailers failing their customers like this one by Rick Segal, this one by Cinda Baxter or this one by Bob Phibbs.

I’m not sure I want to run in harness with all those other businesses.

At the same time, however, I really don’t have a choice. The Shop Local movement is here to stay, whether it gains a lot of momentum in our area or not. We also face the issue of being defined as a downtown business, so I’m lumped in with all other downtown businesses and the perceptions they are giving customers (good or bad). And I’m a specialty toy retailer and specialty baby product retailer.

That’s a lot of horses tied together. And if we all run well, we can travel far. But if we don’t…

I’m Counting on You, You’re Counting on Me
We are in double harness whether we like it or not. And it raises the stakes for all of us. Not only do we have to do right by the customer for our own sake, we have to do it for every other retail channel we represent.

Makes you realize that more customer service training isn’t such a bad idea after all.

-Phil

Built-in Advantages

Some businesses have built-in advantages.

The big box chain stores have the advantage of Price through buying power and a bully position to demand and extract better pricing out of their suppliers. Some have the advantage of Convenience, too. Great locations and one-stop shopping.

The Internet sites have the advantage of Convenience. Shopping in your pajamas from the comfort of your own home. Some have the advantage of Price through low overhead. Warehouse space is cheaper to build than retail space.

And those two channels are fighting big time for customers who value price and/or convenience.

Independent Retailers rarely have either of those advantages. We work on tighter margins to stay price competitive. We pay higher rents to try to be convenient. And although good to have those things, the one area where we do have the built-in advantage is Experience.

To be successful, we have to out-Experience the competition.

We can offer not just good customer service, but outstanding, bend-over-backwards customer service, the kind that gives people something to talk about.

  • Have a problem? We’ll fix it.

  • Have a special need? We’ll take care of it.

  • Have a desire? We’ll fill it.

We can know more about the products than even the most savvy Internet researcher. And it isn’t just important to have knowledge. We can know how to apply it.

  • Let me tell you why the folding mechanism on that stroller is better for you.

  • Did you know that this game teaches skills that will raise your child’s math scores?

  • The manufacturer recommends this age because younger children don’t have the hand-eye coordination to be successful.

We can WOW our customers every time they step through the door.

  • Yes, I’d be happy to carry that out for you.

  • I’d like to give you this free gift as a token for shopping with us today.

  • Of course we deliver.

If your store isn’t built around the concept of Experience, you’re missing out on the one built-in advantage you have that your big-box and Internet competitors don’t. And if you aren’t actively working every day to improve your Experience, you’re not only hurting yourself, but every other indie retailer in your town because you’re teaching customers that Experience isn’t that important.

It is. You can do it. So make it so.

-Phil

Are You Working ON Your Business or IN Your Business?

Morgan Freeman’s character “Red” said it in The Shawshank Redemption, “You either get busy living or get busy dying.” Never have more truer words been said about retail.

So what are you busy at right now?

Are you busy coming up with new ways to market your business?

Are you busy evaluating your inventory mix to make sure you have the right items, the right amount of items, the right prices?

Are you busy measuring your financials to make sure you have enough cash flow, are keeping expenses in line, and building profits for the future?

Are you busy training your staff, teaching them how to please your customers and make their experience both memorable and worthy of talking about?

If you want to get ahead, you have to spend just as much time working ON your business as you spend working IN your business. Maybe even more.

Here are some simple things you can do to find more time to work ON instead of IN.

  • Don’t waste your time stapling, folding, cutting or hole-punching. If you don’t have a staff person in need of a simple project, give it to your kids or grand kids. (And if that isn’t an option take it home with you and do it while you catch up on your favorite show).

  • Don’t micromanage. Train your staff how to do it. Then empower them to do it. Even encourage them to come up with their own ways to do it better.

  • Don’t ever say or think “it would be quicker for me to do it myself.” The first time, you’re right. But if you teach someone else how to do it, the first time will be your last time.

  • Hire somebody. Let them do all that day-to-day stuff that bogs you down. Not only does it free up your time, but it forces you to work ON your business just to find the money to pay them.

And if you aren’t sure where to begin working ON your business, think about it as a three-legged stool.

  • The seat of the stool is the products. Without the seat there is no need to prop it up.

  • The first leg, then, is the marketing. What are you doing to get people in to see your products?

  • The second leg is selling. How well trained is your staff? Do they know the benefits of the products?

  • The third leg is the financials. How is your cash flow? Profit? Inventory levels? Expenses?

Pick the wobbliest leg and get to work. (Let me know if I can help).

-Phil

Word of Mouth, Hidden Talents, and Smiles

I plan every staff meeting the same way, by finishing this statement:

This will be a successful meeting if…

For this morning’s meeting it was:

  1. If the staff has a better understanding of how to truly create Word of Mouth in our customers, and how close we are to offering over-the-top experiences that customers will talk about.

  2. If the staff finds one new way to use a hidden talent of theirs to offer a unique customer experience.

  3. If the staff bonds.

Simple enough.

We started with a quick presentation on Word-of-Mouth (1), the same info I give in my Main Street Marketing on a Shoestring Budget presentation.

After that, we broke into small groups and had everyone share one talent (2, 3) they had that the rest of the group probably didn’t know. Then, with the help of the group they had to brainstorm a way to use that talent in the store (2).

For example, if your talent is cooking, we have children’s cookbooks. Why not take one home, try out a few recipes and bring in something you cooked from the cookbook? Wouldn’t that be pretty cool to have actual dishes from the cookbook to sample before you bought the cookbook?

Not only did we come up with some pretty good ideas, the staff got to know each other a little better. And those ideas will lead to a better customer experience and more Word-of-Mouth.

It all started with the goal. Do you have a goal for your next meeting or are you just passing along information? If it is the latter, send them a memo. The best meetings all start with a goal and are built around fun ways to reach that goal.

-Phil

PS The Smiles reference in the title was because at every meeting we share Smile Stories. It is at the core of everything we do, so we reinforce it at every meeting by sharing how we have met our ultimate goal in the past month.

PSS Having trouble coming up with a way to reach your goal? Start with this simple Meeting Planner Worksheet. Still having problems? Send me an email with your goal and I’ll tell you what I would do.

Measuring Success

Last night was graduation for the fourth class of the Jackson Retail Success Academy. Eight weeks of Monday nights building the foundations for their success, culminating in a presentation by each student of what they learned and how they were going to apply it in their business.

How Would You Measure Success?
At the opening night I asked each student how they would measure success. How would they know if they had learned what they needed or expected to learn?

As they gave their presentations I went back to their comments the first night about measuring success. With each student I asked the question, “Based on how you said you would measure success, was this class successful for you?”

Some enthusiastically said Yes! Others said the content of the class made them completely rethink how they would measure success.

Most importantly, they all had a stick against which they could measure success.

Going Stickless
Too often we go forward with our business without having a stick, without having a way to measure our success. We plan our advertising based on the pitch from the latest ad salesperson. We base our product selection on the neatest thing our sales rep brings to our attention. We train our staff only after they make a major mistake.

Then we wonder why we aren’t getting the results we think we should. We wonder why our business seems to be sitting out this economic recovery.

Define It
Don’t leave it all to chance. Set a bar or a goal or simply a stick by which you will measure your progress and your success. Finish these sentences for your business:

I will have a great product selection if…

My advertising plan is designed to…

My staff will consistently…

Then set about figuring out how to make those sentences come true. Once you know how to measure, then you know what to manage. That is the true key to success.

-Phil

The Weatherman’s Curse

Once again the storm wasn’t what we expected. Depending on your source, we braced for 3, 4, 5 or even 6 inches of snow last night.

At best I shoveled an inch and a half off the drive before heading to work this morning

My boys were devastated. They had already put their brains into “snow day” mode. Right now they hate weathermen (as do all their teachers who have rooms full of snow day kids).

The poor weatherman has over-promised and under-delivered once again.

Fortunately for him, however, he gets to keep his job. We don’t often get that second chance.

Mistakes Happen
If you have a retail store it happens. You will over-promise and under-deliver. Maybe it is a special order that didn’t arrive in a timely fashion. Maybe it is a product that wasn’t as advertised. Maybe it was a bad day for one of your employees and the great customer service you advertise wasn’t there.

How do you handle those moments?

I think the best thing to do is say, “I’m sorry. We made a mistake.”

No matter whose fault it is, no matter that you did everything right but your vendor failed you, your shipping company goofed, or your employee was totally misunderstood, it is still your mistake. So own it.

The customer doesn’t care about all that other stuff, the excuses. She put her trust in you and you failed her. So say you’re sorry, admit you made a mistake, then go about trying to fix it. That’s all she wants.

  • An apology
  • An admission of guilt
  • A solution

Give her those three things and I promise you the sun will come up tomorrow. Heck, I’m certain of it. My weatherman told me it would.

-Phil

Plotting the Course and Raising the Bar

We all do this. Plot our course for the next year. We are all busy making Sales Projections, Expense Budgets, and Marketing Plans.

But have you done a Training Plan?

Raising the Bar
Have you worked on a list of skills you want to teach or improve in your staff? Have you made a list of strengths and weaknesses for each individual and your store as a whole? Have you chosen a topic where you wish to raise the bar in your customer service this year and then plotted a course for training the staff to that new level?

One mistake I used to make was to think that just by telling the staff where I wanted them to improve, they would figure out how to do it. Big whoops!

You need to not only identify where to improve but also figure out how to train to that new level.

One Topic per Quarter
It takes time for your staff to grasp new concepts. It takes time for them to learn something new and be able to implement it in their daily routine.

Therefore, I always pick just one topic each quarter on which to focus. Then I plan all my trainings during that quarter on teaching the staff more about that topic. If we are successful in raising the bar then I will pick a new topic for the next quarter and plan all those trainings around that topic. If not, I go back to the drawing board and find new ways to teach the first topic.

For instance, last year we focused much of the year on Communication – communication between employee & customer, communication between employee & employee, communication between employee & me. Yeah, it was a big topic and took up most of the year. And we made great strides in raising the bar on the first two. (But unfortunately not the last point. Somewhere I failed. If the staff doesn’t learn, it is never their fault, always the fault of the teacher. So I’ll figure out something new and keep working on that point this year.)

Moving Forward
The focus at the beginning of this year will be on improving our merchandising skills. I could just tell the staff to do better, but nothing much will change. Instead, we will be working each month on a new skill such as how to use signage (who it is for, what it should say), building attractive endcaps, thinking like a customer.

My goal is to eventually empower the staff to recognize the difference between a customer-friendly display and a stocker-friendly display and know that they have the authority to make changes as necessary to keep the store fresh and exciting and move more merchandise.

But without a Training Plan, this doesn’t get accomplished.

Training Plan Made Easy
Sound like too much? Make it simple on yourself.

  • Write down a list of your staff’s overall strengths and weaknesses.
  • Pick two items on that weakness list and prioritize them.
  • Teach something on that highest priority until the staff gets it. Then move on.

You’re the leader. So go lead the staff exactly where you want them to go.

-Phil

PS Need help planning your meetings/trainings? Here is a FREE eBook on how to do that easily and effectively. (Don’t forget to download the worksheet too – but read the eBook first!)