Retail is Detail: Why Engaged Teams Grow Your Business

I knew a retail assistant whose department had put a new product on display, but customers weren't responding well. It was all she could think about for a couple of days; was there something that they could do better? Something they weren't doing? Something they should stop doing? She told me that she passed in front of the display countless times trying to put herself in the customers' shoes, and then decided that a few changes needed to be to done. She talked to her manager, and got her on-board, and it worked! The new product was alright, it was just that the display needed someone to take care of a few details.

How many employees would care about the details in your business? A better question would be, what type of employees? And the answer is simple: "Engaged Employees."

You can't monitor every single facet of your organization 24/7, at the end of the day a lot of important details in your retail organization are carried out and overseen by your employees. So let's take a look at some of the opportunities your business might be missing out on because of a disengaged population. It's important to note that disengaged doesn't necessarily mean disgruntled, you could be missing out because your employees are apathetic or simply not passionate about your business to take care of the important details.

Customer Service

What detail could be more important than customer service? But guess what, you can't actively monitor the customer interactions of every single employee, you usually learn about bad customer service incidents after they happen IF the customers care enough to report it. All business owners know the details of customer service; smile and greet the customers, be courteous and respectful, don't argue, the customer is always right, go the extra mile and respond to every request or inquiry...etc. Customer service has been drilled into every person who works in retail or anywhere for that matter, but only engaged employees care enough to make sure that every detail is taken into account to provide excellent customer service, every single time. Engaged employees think of your business as their own, they feel ownership.

Initiative/Ownership

Like the example of my friend that I started with, retail establishments are always displaying new products, changing around the merchandising, or putting on a promotion. Usually the people designing and planning, are different from the one executing; and an endeavor is only as good as its execution. If your employees are disengaged you will have mucked up executions. An engaged team however will not only make sure the execution is meticulous because of their sense of ownership, but they will also take other details into consideration like enhancements, the requirements of your specific demographics, and they will not be afraid to inform you in a timely manner if critical changes need to be made. Moreover, engaged employees will usually go beyond executing ideas, and will come to you with their own ideas and initiatives for added-value changes.

Faster Receptivity to Change

Retail establishments are forever undergoing changes; a new CRM or ERP, cash handling process, inventory management guidelines, customer service training..etc. Usually these changes come with strict deadlines for capacity building and implementation. Changes usually present a dilemma; if fully embraced and harnessed they can streamline and power your organization, yet at the same time the vast majority of people simply hate change. So usually the implementation of change initiatives can have a variety of results, ranging from signed off and implemented for compliance but not really embraced with little business impact, and fully embraced and utilized for the benefit of the organization. Guess which employees are more likely to help you achieve the latter? Yup engaged employees! Remember change initiatives contain an enormous amount of details, both technical and non-technical, and an engaged population is your biggest asset in ensuring that these details are understood and implemented. On the same note a toxic environment is absolutely the worst for implementing change.

Toxicity Sensitive Organization

When the vast majority of your organization it becomes what I call a "Toxicity Sensitive Organization", where toxic people stand out like a sore thumb, and therefore their toxicity is easier to address. The reality of some organizations is that toxicity is just business as usual, it's no anomaly, making it harder to identify and root out. Just like you can't monitor the details of all your employee-customer interactions, you also can't monitor all employee-employee interactions. In essence the details of your employee interactions decide whether your workplace is a friendly place to work or if it is a living nightmare. Increased toxicity in your organization will affect your ability to hire and retain good staff, and will feed the vicious cycle of disengagement that is holding you back from growing your business.

So how do you keep your employees engaged? Well that's a topic that we will address in later articles, but in the words of my mentor, employee engagement is all about respect, fairness, and consistency.