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Bob Phibbs Retail Sales Blog

3 Do’s and Don’ts For Empowering Your Employees

How you treat your employees can have a huge impact on your company. A quick search of YouTube reveals videos of employees doing disgusting things to food and throwing iPads.

Attitudes and behaviors are largely determined by how employees feel about the person they work for, and the employee training they’ve received from the company. If you treat employees like they’re disposable, they’re likely to return the favor.

If you invest the time and effort to treat them like valued employees, then they’ll feel empowered to invest the time and effort to build a career with your business. Continue reading 3 Do’s and Don’ts For Empowering Your Employees »

Retail Pricing Strategies: Six Mistakes To Avoid

Retail pricing mistakes happen when the customer is charged the wrong price. You need to charge a price you can make a profit on. Of course, this means that a retailer must be extremely aware of their pricing strategy to ensure that their pricing is done accurately and in a timely manner.

Failure in this seemingly simple matter can lead to all sorts of problems, from unintended “loss leaders” that sap profits, to confused customers who become indignant if a wrong price cannot be honored.

Here are six pricing mistakes that retailers should avoid:

1. Phony savings

A recent story about JC Penney illustrates one of the top pricing mistakes for retailers: placing price tags that are higher on top of originally tagged items that were lower. Continue reading Retail Pricing Strategies: Six Mistakes To Avoid »

Greeting A Customer: Should A Smile Be Required?

How your employees should be greeting a customer is a frequent topic among retailers.

Today, RetailWire discussed What is the Significance of a Smile? The topic was based on a report from the UK, The Lost Art of Loyalty which found:

59% said a smile and a friendly hello was the most common reason why consumers feel loyal towards small and independent retailers.

That’s good.

But only 54% of small and medium-size businesses stated their business employed this practice.

That’s bad.

Or is it? Continue reading Greeting A Customer: Should A Smile Be Required? »

10 “What” Questions Retailers Often Ask About Retail

What does great customer service look like?

When done right, great customer service creates and exceptional experience and shouldn’t really look like anything. It should let the customer know that for those few minutes, they are the most important person in the world. They are treated with an open heart by the employee who is open to meeting new people, sharing something about themselves and helping someone. All of that should be so seamless that all the customer thinks when walking away or hanging up the phone is Boy! That was an exceptional experience! Continue reading 10 “What” Questions Retailers Often Ask About Retail »

Millennial Generation Employees: 5 Reasons Why They Quit And Tips To Avoid It

The truth is, Millennial generation employees leave managers, not companies. If you are wondering why you can’t keep good employees – especially Millennial generation employees – here are five reasons and solutions:

Your onboarding process.

In the old days, you’d give an employee a handbook, let them shadow someone for a week, and you would feel they were trained. Most of them, however, were still really winging it.

That isn’t going to work in 2013.

Why? Millennial employees are much less concerned with working for a company for a long time. When it gets boring, most will move on to another company before you’ll have time to write them up. You can’t just let them be a warm body who just shows up, takes out the trash, and stocks the shelves. Continue reading Millennial Generation Employees: 5 Reasons Why They Quit And Tips To Avoid It »