From the local florist to the hardware store to the funky boutique started by a Project Runway wannabe, retail remains the heart of the American economy.

Anyone is welcome to open a shop if they have the money.

But what keeps so many independent retail business owners unable to pay themselves a decent wage can be traced back to one or more of these crucial issues.

See how many you recognize…

25 Ways Independent Retailers Hobble Their Own Success

• Choice of location by price over traffic counts and storefront visibility.
• Choice of location without thought to ingress and egress (how customers get in and out of a center).
• Owners untrained in the basics of financials.
• No knowledge of who your target customer will be.
• No idea how to market.
• A Field of Dreams belief that people will just “show up” once you open.
• Unwillingness to charge enough due to poor self-image.
• Being open when you want to be, not when customers want to shop.
• Owners who spend too much of their time out of their stores persuing other interests.
• Avoidance of the uneasy conversation, “You’re not cutting it, you’re fired.”
• Owners who have no plan when buying merchandise.
• Store shelves are filled with merchandise that didn’t sell.
• Merchandise is visible but not properly displayed.
• Outdated or minimal POS systems cripple your information capabilities.
• Store website is unimaginative, too busy or built on a template.
• Use of social media is either non-existant or poorly executed.
• You don’t take American Express.
• You don’t delegate tasks.
• You identify with your business so much, you don’t objectively see what needs to be changed.
• Displays are poorly lit.
• You have so few employees, customers can easily use your store to browse but then buy from Amazon.
• You don’t train your employees to sell your merchandise.
• Discounts are thought to be the only way to attract new customers.
• You hire people who will work a shift, not who will build the business.
• You pay your employees too little which results in higher turnover.

These are by no means all the ways small business owners shoot themselves in the foot , but they are the most significant reason many decry having a retail shop – especially in this crowded marketplace and lurching economy.

Do you have an example for one of the above? Can you think of one I missed? What do you think is easiest to fix or hardest to overcome? What did you fix which made a difference in your business? Please enter in comments below.

Checkout The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business (Wiley) to learn the system I use to makeover small businesses around the world.

That includes my first job as a janitor, then a regional manager all the way up to corporate VP and now as the Retail Doctor.

Throughout my career I’ve always heard merchants saying, “They come into my store and get all the information, and then go somewhere else to buy it.”

As a retail consultant, those responses used to infuriate me; it sounded like a losers limp.  I felt it was an excuse for them not doing better because they miraculously “knew” their customers were at a competitor’s.

I always answered, “How do you know that?”  They didn’t.

That’s all changed in the last few years…

Consider this story from a business owner who prides herself on custom fit swimwear for women. “We wait on women hand and foot with a process that takes no less than an hour most times and sometimes up to 2.5 hours to find JUST the right suit! Then occasionally there is the ONE customer who comes out with 2 or 3 suits and says, “Ok, I like these but I need to see if I can find them online for cheaper” and proceeds to write down all the numbers on the tags.”

Recently, it’s become more immediate…

A sales associate said that when she waits on customers at the fitting rooms, especially young women, at a certain point when everything fits, the dressing room goes silent.  That’s because they scan with their smartphones to see if they can find a cheaper price online.

How did she know? They told her. This leaves the employee with mountains of clothes to clean up, and no sale.

It’s not just clothing…

What about the luxury retail watch salesperson? The one who could explain all the details of why the watch is worth the premium price. The one who invests her time in hopes of the payoff? Sure you can say the best brands prohibit online purchases which voids their warranty, but a customer may not know that if the store is the first place they check for information.

Or how about anything where a customer needs to make serious choices and the retailer has invested a lot of time to learn the products’ intimate details? Could be anything from noise reducing windows to window coverings. Could be custom bedding to custom flooring. It could be fine wine to fine china. You get my point.

Contractors got tired of having people “ask for a bid” only to see their detailed list of materials and time given to have some other competitor low-ball them out of the job.  That’s why many require a non-refundable fee to get a bid.

What if a retailer charged a browsing fee or consulting fee in shops where extensive product knowledge is required? Would it make a difference?

What if you called it a non-refundable personal shopper fee that credits towards purchase within two weeks? If they returned the item later, the fee would not be refunded?

Would your employees be able to ask for it?

The dilemma many retailers are facing is, in an always-on mobile world, there is always someone always ready to undercut you. Always. And not just down the road but across the country.

Before that seemed isolated.  Now it is real. What’s the point in opening up the store if you (essentially) give the goods away?

What say you? Is charging a browsing or consulting fee acceptable to you as a business owner? How about as a customer? If not, how do you avoid the showroom effect?

About Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor

Companies from some of the very largest, to some of the smallest, from luxury brands to startups, from franchises to regional chains contact me as a retail consultant because they are looking for results to the hard challenges facing their business. An owner may have read one of my books, seen my videos, seen me on TV, heard me speak or read this blog to get a taste of my people-focused philosophy and my methods.

While every client and project is different, the ability to enlist me as a retail consultant who has a fresh set of eyes to look at the challenges you are facing results in a focused, effective and creative path to profitable sales.

No matter what your size, let’s see how I can help you.

I was exiting the Albany Airport parking lot, returning from a great weekend of retail sales training, when I noticed the three EZ pass exit lanes were closed, so I had to go to a cashier.

I drove up, put my ticket in the automated machine and the EZ pass light didn’t light up. The guy in the booth said, $36.00.  I replied, “What about my EZ pass?”

A girl in the booth behind him piped up, “You don’t have one.”

As I reached to get it I said, “That’s ridiculous, of course…” But she cut me off. “Then you don’t have any money in it.” That really pissed me off ‘cause I knew I had just checked it two days earlier.

“Yes I do…” But she cut me off again. I had no choice but to give the guy my credit card. As I did I said to the woman, “Great customer service on an early Sunday morning.” She started to say something when I interrupted her, “Would you just go away?”

She did, but not without saying snidely, “I hope you have a great Sunday.” To which I felt compelled to answer, “It will be, once I pass this booth.”

OK, so I’m sure I provided fodder for the rest of her day. What a jerk I was! I was so RUDE.

I’ll acknowledge I could have let it roll off my back. My bad. 

But the RUDE category is everywhere in retail coming from the need to be right by employees. And not out of nowhere…

We’re hiring people who look at providing solutions and quick tweetable answers by jumping to conclusions.

Like customers are something to be dispensed with.

Without selling skills, you are crippling your chances to compete.

One retailer I know divided their customers into good ones and “pain in the asses.” Once the retailer realized it was what his crew was bringing to the table, he found his customers got nicer.

One of my Robert Graham shirts and yes, a mermaid

Contrast Miss Tollbooth to the Nordstrom I visited last month looking for a new Robert Graham shirt. I asked the guy if he had any of the bolder designs like I was wearing. He said he knew what I meant. After a quick scan of the racks, he energetically said, “I’m with a customer, but if you can give me a few minutes, I’ll go in the back and check. What size do you take?”

He could have simply said, “No, we don’t get those louder prints,” or simply, “No.” But his whole answer allowed him to first understand how he could solve my problem, not get rid of me. Those are selling skills.

That’s what’s missing in many retailers nowadays. We’re not pains in the asses, we’re customers, just like you, trying to get through our lives the same as you. No better or different.

I ended up getting that shirt elsewhere, but because he took the time to understand what the possibilities might be before he was resigned to say no, I’ll of course, be back to Nordstroms again.

Retail means you serve the customer, not make it EZ on yourself. Telling people you are right only bolsters only your self-image. It never helps the customer.

If you want to make more sales, you have to earn them by upgrading your selling skills.

What say you? Do you have an employee who answers a customer with “No” or “We can’t do that,” before finding alternatives? Have you been a customer and stopped dead in your tracks with an employee who jumped to conclusions? Please share in the comments below.

There are a lot of retailers that do the same thing on their sales floor.

While that may have gotten them by in the past, it won’t build the big sales necessary to thrive.

While I think it applies to a lot of retailers from the garden center all the up to the luxury jewelry stores, an important example is the independent hardware store…

A customer comes in, employee asks, “Can I help you?” Customer says, “I need to find this part.” Employee says, “No problem,” and heads off in front of the customer to the appropriate area without speaking to the customer; “Keep up and follow me” are implied. They arrive at the item, confirm the price, customer says “Thanks,” and proceeds to the checkout line.

But just fulfilling customers’ requests doesn’t bond them to you. You need to establish an emotional connection to your brand. Some call that customer service but others think the claw approach is customer service.

The reasons the claw approach to retail or so deadly is that it is one step away from the Internet, one step from point and click.

If that’s experience in your store, you are more likely to be at risk to the Amazon price checking apps, or low average ticket. Why? Because if the customer doesn’t ask for it, it isn’t sold.

That’s why so many family hardware stores are in danger of going out of business.

Old Joe

Sure they have old Joe who can find the washer for the faucet built in 1924, but the new faucet sits. Or the water heater. Or expensive paint.  All lines the hardware retailer brought in with hopes of meeting more needs of their customers.

Customers go to the big boxes for the more profitable items either because they don’t know the independent has the item or the hardware store doesn’t leverage the goodwill they have with their customers in a compelling way.

Book Trained, Not Necessarily People Trained

That can come about because the employees are hired for their ability to play a grand game of Clue.  Their knowledge is paramount about the minutest detail. So only the employees whose sense of well-being is stoked by being able to find that one item are valued.

But the missing element is the desire to make the sale complete with other items the customer didn’t ask for, but could certainly either use or want. Sure, training is probably given on adding on, but it fundamentally isn’t their model of operations.

Instead of touting “cash mobs,” Pinterest or Facebook “likes” as effective, the hard work an independent retailer has to focus on is a massive rebooting and refocusing their efforts that values more than product knowledge; it values customers as human beings first, product details second.

Three ways hardware retailers can reboot:

• Focus on how the initial interaction between customer and employee should happen. Analytical personality styles are the ones most comfortable problem solving but the most challenged in inter-personal relationships.  Give them the tools and scripts they need to be able to feel safe talking to customers.
• Focus on how to dialogue with a customer, not just problem solve.Instead of looking at the employee as hero, make the goal be that the employee is a partner and together they solve the problem.
• Focus on how to move more merch, not add more products. Hardware stores in particular have aisles and aisles of interesting stuff to browse. The trouble is, without a clear merchandising plan with a customer focus, the customer feels “looking around” at all the options will take too long.

Are independent hardware stores ready for for a reboot? Yes.

Are they willing to make the changes necessary? I hope so…

Not a hardware retailer?

I’ll bet several of these points pertain to you as well…

With the proper retail sales training, smart retailers will be able to raise average ticket, sell more profitable wants along with the smallest necessities. And not have to claw their way to profitability.

About Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor

Companies from some of the very largest, to some of the smallest, from luxury brands to startups, from franchises to regional chains contact me as a retail consultant because they are looking for results. An owner may have read one of my books, seen my videos, seen me on TV, heard me speak or read this blog to get a taste of my people-focused philosophy and my methods.

While every client and project is different, the ability to enlist me as a retail consultant who has a fresh set of eyes to look at the challenges you are facing results in a focused, effective and creative path to profitable sales.

No matter what your size, let’s see how I can help you; click the Take the first step button below to contact me.

Jon Severson mural in the lobby

So based on the case study, these are some of the things you might look at in your own business:

• Are you concerned with getting people in and out quickly – instead of building a relationship with them?
• Do you make sure your business is a place people want to return to? Start with the things they will see or touch.
• What do you need to purchase to upgrade and differentiate yourself from the competition?
• What stock have you wanted to buy but were afraid you didn’t have the customer base to justify it? Maybe you need to court a different customer…
• What systems can you put in place to make your business remarkable?
• Are you monitoring what your employees say and do to sell your merchandise? Do they have a cowboy culture where everything is negotiable? If so, how’s that working for your profitability?
• How are you keeping your face in front of your customers? Are you communicating through a variety of channels on a regular basis?
• Would partnering with competitors help you all grow your businesses?

Now the story concludes …..

Phase 4

Never stop upgrading
To give the property a unique surfing persona, we contacted artist Jon Severson and bought the rights to have his work made into murals for the common areas and guestrooms. The property was re-landscaped and new furniture was added for the balconies.

A separate computer desk was added to the lobby so guests could print their boarding passes and check e-mail. Fresh flowers were ordered for the guestrooms, lobby, and breakfast room. An apartment building next door was purchased to provide suites.

Phase 5

A Moment of Clarity
As property revenues increased over the years, the nagging question about our brand alliance loomed larger and larger.

It all came to a head when the chain’s inspector showed up for the usual inspection…

One of the owners had taken him around to show him all the improvements since his last visit, including the Severson murals, the large flat-screen TVs, the remodeled breakfast room, and other guest amenities.

Expecting a top-notch review, the front desk and housekeepers awaited the best inspection score ever.

That’s when it fell apart…

The inspector began his report with a picture he had taken of the underside of a hinge that had a bit of rust on it. The owner became incensed at his lack of consideration of the extreme makeover.

No one had installed crown mouldings like that, had murals like that, presented a unified upscale image to that brand’s customers like that! No, for the sake of a rusty hinge behind and underneath a bathroom door, the inspector chose to point up something no guest would see.

The owner stood up  and said, “Get off my property!” The stunned inspector said he was just doing his job causing the owner to repeat the command again. The inspector packed his things and quickly got in his car and left.

The owners reviewed their agreement to see how quickly they could debrand from the chain and sent the letter off that week.

A few months later, the new brand debuted with a red surfboard in its logo. Frequent travelers commented they always wondered why it had been aligned with the previous brand.

The Results

You Like Us, You Really Like Us
Beginning in 2002, the front desk agents started getting a new response to one of the standard questions, “How did you find about us?”

“TripAdvisor,” they answered.  That day we went online to see what they were talking about.

Lo and behold, we had been reviewed a couple times and they liked us, they really liked us!  In fact, the reviews quoted the reservation and checkin speeches because the benefits mentioned in those speeches resonated with our guests. Out of 17 hotels, we quickly rose to be the #1 hotel in Newport Beach, where they still stand today ten years later.

Award Season
Fast forward to 2006 – we received a call from TripAdvisor telling us the hotel had won the Top Travelers Choice Award.

Fast forward to February 2012 – the hotel received word from TripAdvisor that they are the number one rated hotel in Orange County, California, that’s number one of 381 hotels and inns representing 19,574,187 rooms.

While one of the owners has retired, the other enjoys a reputation second to none.  The front desk staff and housekeepers, some who have been there twenty years, are deservedly proud of their hotel.

Hats off to the owners who nearly twenty years ago embarked on a customer-focused program that continues to deliver the goods. Their investment of time and money cannot be overstated.

What it takes to succeed hasn’t changed; it’s about being customer focused.

As these owners proved, when your passion runs deeply, you can compete.

Recap For Retailers, Restaurateurs  and Hoteliers

• Know what you have to work with.
• Acknowledge your limitations.
• Act “as if” until you are what you aspire to be.
• Know you probably need to raise prices.
• Look at your competitors to help grow your market.
• Know that without training, your  employees will probably  turn to a discount to get the sale.
• Learn your customers but don’t be afraid of focusing on more profitable ones.
• Success begets success.
• Always be upgrading.
• Find ways to stay in touch with your customers and remind them of you – not just a sale.
• Form your marketing around benefits to the customer, not features.
• The world is changing fast; if you base your operation on how you’ve always done it, you’re missing it.

One final thought, imagine what that award-winning hotel could have provided to the brand that couldn’t see the forest for the trees…just sayin’…

I hope you enjoyed this story, and I would love to read your comments below. If you missed the first parts they are here:

• Part I – What Retailers Can Learn From a Hotel Makeover
• Part II – How to Get Business – 11 Lessons From a Business Makeover

About Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor

Companies from some of the very largest, to some of the smallest, from luxury brands to startups, from franchises to regional chains contact me as a retail consultant because they are looking for results. An owner may have read one of my books, seen my videos, seen me on TV, heard me speak or read this blog to get a taste of my people-focused philosophy and my methods.

While every client and project is different, the ability to enlist me as a retail consultant who has a fresh set of eyes to look at the challenges you are facing results in a focused, effective and creative path to profitable sales.

No matter what your size, let’s see how I can help you; click the Take the first step button below to contact me.

This debate features Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor and Kevin Graff from GraffTV discussing bricks and mortar retailers, the effects of mobile shopping and in particular the Amazon price matching app.  Here is the video to watch and an edited transcription below.

So, the most profitable items you have in your store are the ones are that are going to be scanned. I’m not talking about a little widget for four bucks down at the Five and Dime, I mean the really expensive stuff, consumer electronics or those kind of things. That’s my point.

Kevin: Well, interesting perspective, and I’m not so sure that I could disagree more than with anything that you just said.

Bob: Perfect.

Kevin: I mean, I think there’s some truth to what you’re saying, as there always is, but I think common sense and history tells us that we will be just fine as we go through this. I think what Amazon is doing, and it’s not just what Amazon is doing, it’s what everybody’s doing around this show with mobile and social this, and connect to that, and e-com that’s been around now for a little while. It keeps advancing and it keeps growing in terms of significance, but look, retailers adapted. If nothing else, retail is a survivor. We’ve survived the arrival of the mall. We survived the arrival of big box retail.

Bob: I’m not that old, but OK.

Kevin: Do you remember the invention of the cash register? Monumental shift in how we did things.

Bob: I don’t think that’s the same because then it was just there for your four walls, and now, here for your four walls, Amazon accounts for 20% of all purchases online. That is huge; that is globally what they do.

Kevin: 20% of all purchases online, but not 20% of all retail purchases.

Bob: Well, that’s the whole point though, is that it is so trusted that they, by default, become the trusted player.

Kevin: Are you going to scan me to see what you can get me for online?

Bob: It’s only pennies, folks at home. You can check that out, Graff Retail TV.

Kevin: But if it’s what this is going to do, and this is the good news. The reason I’m happy to see things like Amazon’s price check come out in mobile and all of its different formations come out, is because from a consumer’s point of view, and we’re all consumers first and foremost, what it drives is a better shopping experience period.

Bob: Really?

Kevin: Absolutely.

Bob: How do you see that?

Kevin: Well, think about this. Every time, I’m up in Canada, I always say the best thing that ever happened to Canadian retail was the arrival of Walmart. Walmart arrived in Canada in 1994.

Bob: Made everybody up their game.

Kevin: Everybody had to up their game, but we took a look at the retailers that were most threatened by them, retailers like Canadian Tire. If you saw what they were then to what they are now, it’s a classic example of what’s going to happen inside. So, is there going to be some shake-out? Yeah, there’ll be some shake-out, honest, but there’s always shake-out. At the end of the day, the consumer wins.

Bob: But retail, we just heard today, is responsible for one in four jobs in America.

Kevin: Absolutely.

Bob: So, if we took a hit of, let’s say, 20% of people go mobile or something, into this one player…

Kevin: Right. Well, we re-allocate those jobs obviously. I’m thinking somebody’s doing all this programming and picking and packing…

Bob: Doesn’t take it, doesn’t take that many people. Here’s my thing.

Kevin: I’m not the economist on this, Bob.

Bob: Here’s my thing. So there you are, you’re our number one sales person for widgets.

Kevin: Right.

Bob: OK, you’re working with Bryan over here and he’s working with widget central and you’re the number one guy, you’re a commission-based guy. You finish the sale and you’re like, “Great, I’ll take it,” and he says, “Wait a minute, let me just get out my scanner.” He scans it…

Kevin: Absolutely.

Bob: He finds he can get it for $300 less, throws it in your face and says, “Are you going to match price?”

Kevin: Absolutely.

Bob: So, a lot of debate is going to be about this because right, a lot of retailers will say. “Well, we will match.”

Kevin: Absolutely.

Bob: So, how often can you do that?

Kevin: Now, it will be policy driven at that stage of the game.

Bob: And what does this guy want to do? Does he want to work in that environment still?

Kevin: Well, see, and that’s the thing that changes it. So now, how does a retailer evolve against that? And you see it out there right now but in different formations where one retailer will sell one item for one price, another one will sell that same item for a completely different price in town, and still sell lots of it. Case in point, take …

Bob: But you have to go there. That’s my point.

Kevin: Think about it. Go into the mall, you can buy a pair of Levi’s jeans, right, at Walmart, $5 cheaper than at the Levi store in the mall, but the Levi store in the mall still sells hundreds and hundreds of jeans at $5 more. Why? Because they give you something more that you can’t get at the Walmart store.

Bob: I’m totally with you.

Kevin: That’s what happens with retail.

Bob: But when I’m in that “something more” Levi’s store, and I’m in it. I had that experience and gosh, they loved me, and I know Cary.. .

Kevin: Absolutely.

Bob: She’s so wonderful, and she does it, and then I go, well I think about it, and I scan it, and it’s free shipping and returns. That’s what I’m saying…

Kevin: And is it a game changer? Yeah, it’s a game changer.

Bob: It’s a huge game changer though.

Kevin: What’s rule number one, and I know you say this to all your clients out there. You’re not going to be all things to all people.

Bob: Absolutely not.

Kevin: There is going to be that bottom feeder that’s going to look for that lowest of lowest of lowest price out there. I get that. Absolutely.

Bob: Tell me you’re not going to be a bottom feeder.

Kevin: You’re the guy that crusades against Groupon all the time, are you not?

Bob: I am. That was another discussion which we’ll have up here, too.

Kevin: But not everybody is going to be that bottom feeder, when you look at how this shapes out.

Bob: But that’s not a bottom feeder. If you and I were going to buy a plasma TV, and we had a great experience at Best Buy. You cannot tell me you would not be curious with that $3,000 system, you would not be curious what Amazon was.

Kevin: Absolutely, but at Best Buy they’re also going to show me the best way to be able to install it.

Bob: They should do it.

Kevin: Or they’re going to provide an educational component to that, and I can’t get all of that online. That’s the differentiating factor. You’re not wrong, this is going to be  challenging.

Bob: Well, and you’re not wrong either. This is the debate. This is why we wanted to have this debate is because this is what we’re not hearing in a lot of the booths here, right? We’re hearing that if you’ve got a tablet, baby, everything’s great.

Kevin: Absolutely.

Bob: You’re going to be fine. If you’ve got a virtual wallet, if you have a little app, everything’s great, and you and I both, because Kevin and I are very similar personalities in that we both think it’s about the person, the humanity…

Kevin: Absolutely.

Bob: …that moment that somebody walks into your store.

Kevin: That’s what we’re probably not seeing enough of around here. It kind of gets lost in the noise of all this technology and all this IT, and this is all really great, and I think it’s all really cool, and it’s important. I’m not here to say that’s not important. I’m not living under a rock in the past, but what I do recognize is that we’re just going to continue to find better ways in retail to represent it. If we want to be bricks and mortar retailers, we’ve got to start creating better shopping experiences in there, and that’s going to come by adopting some of this technology inside the stores.

Bob: With the employees though, not instead of them. That’s my thing.

Kevin: Exactly, but there’s going to be some stuff that we’re going to do in the absence of employees that’s going to make the shopping experience better, but I’ll tell you, everybody’s going to step up their game from an employee perspective. So whether it’s staff coverage, whether it’s staff ability, whether it’s staff knowledge, all that’s going to pick up.

If traffic counts are going to go down into your store, you better get your conversion rates up and you better get your average sale up.

Bob: Because the people that really want to be there, really want to be in your store.

Kevin: Absolutely, and the fastest way to be able to do that growth in your business is going to come through your staff. Get them off their butt, get them waiting on some customers, teach them a little bit more, teach them how to sell, teach them how to drive.

Bob: And hire them better, to start with.

Kevin: Right.

Bob: But they really need to enjoy going in there and meeting another person.

Kevin: Yeah.

Bob: That’s kind of shocking.

Kevin: Why would you want to work in retail, if you didn’t, right?

Bob: That’s a great place for us to end.

So what say you? Is the Amazon price check app a gamechanger? Do you expect bricks and mortar to thrive? Please enter your thoughts in the comments below.

If you haven’t downloaded my special report: Bricks and Mortar Retailing At Risk in the Digital Age, you can still do so here.

My thanks to Marge Laney at Alert Technologies and our cameraman Brian Laney who made this all sound and look great!

This interview features Marge Laney with Alert Technologies and Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor discussing how fitting rooms are a missed opportunity for many apparel retailers. Here is the video to watch and an edited transcription below.

Marge:            No, actually, exactly the opposite is true. The only reason the brick and mortar apparel retailer exists today, and will in the future, is because of their fitting rooms. And the reason I say that is, back in 2003, Envision Retail, a consultancy in London, did a study. They found that over 70% of people who use fitting rooms buy, versus the people on the sales floor that just browse and not use the fitting room, only would buy 28% of the time.

They just redid that survey last year, and it was stunning to see what happened. In 2010, only 10% of the people that browse the sales floor purchase, compared to 28% in ’03.

Bob:            That’s huge.

Marge:            I thought about that for a long time. I thought what is going on? My answer: Online. The browsers aren’t coming to your store anymore. The browsers are going online. The browsers are staying home, and they’re staying in their jammies. They’re getting online and they’re buying there. So what does that tell us? That tells us that the customer that walks through your store is there to fit and feel your stuff. And it’s so important that you engage that customer and drive them to the fitting room every single time.

Bob:            But that’s hard to do, isn’t it? An awful lot of people say, “But I don’t have the staff for that. I’m going to go through and add all these fitting rooms? How do we know they’re in there? Am I supposed to look under and see feet?”

Marge:         You’re exactly right. That’s why they need to start looking at their fitting rooms in a different way.

Bob:            And to build on that, aren’t most people looking at fitting rooms like this is loss prevention?

Marge:         Absolutely. Even here at the NRF show, I’ve talked to people in the aisles that have fitting rooms and they’ll tell me that they’re just sort of a pain. That they’re, as you say, a loss prevention nightmare, hard to clean, hard to service, etc. But what they don’t see is that it’s the highest conversion zone and that they should be addressing that.

Bob:            But whose read Envision?

Marge:         Exactly.

Bob:            I mean, is that something that’s big?

Marge:         And they, well, this is their business. They should make it their business to understand, and that’s why I’m the fitting room evangelist.

Are fitting rooms something you look for? When you use them, do you secretly scan the items to see if they are cheaper online? What would a good fitting room experience look like for you? Please add your comment below.

My thanks to Marge Laney at Alert Technologies and our cameraman Brian Laney who made this all sound and look great!

This interview features Ben Sprecher from Incentive Targeting and I discussing how technology can be raising the bar for customer service to unattainable heights, in particular the buy online, pickup in store movement.  Here is the video to watch and an edited transcription below.

Ben:            There are no isolated silver bullets in retail. Right? It’s all about getting the right collection of solutions together, and the collection, not just of technology solutions, but collection of people solutions, process solutions, store format solutions, all of these things together, are what you need to do as a retailer in order to get the most out of any one of these components. So, we were using the example of the person approaching the coffeehouse, ordering their latte. If you, as a retailer, provide that capability where they can pay on their phone before they get there, they can order before they get there, and they have to wait in the same damn line, you haven’t solved any problems for that person. But if you, as a retailer, say, “We have a new way to talk to our shopper in a very targeted, very personal way, in a very limited and quiet way, in a way that they respect and they want,” you also need to turn around and provide the supporting infrastructure within the store to make that a great . . .

Bob:            That can be a huge cost

Ben:            But it can be a huge opportunity. Right? If you think about the value of being able to have that express line sitting next, the red carpet line if you will . . . so you have the long line over here, you have the red carpet line over there. And the people in the long line notice the people in the red carpet line keep showing up, picking up their coffee, walking out of the door. Every single one of those people would say, “How do I sign up for that, man?”

Bob:            Dude, as a coffee guy from years and years ago, I’m telling you, you would have people livid that that happened because not all of them are going to be on their smartphone. And what happens on the day Janie forgets her smartphone to order it? Now she’s got to be in that line. But she’s telling the barista, “But you already know me. I’m always in the express line.” I guess, that’s one of the things . . .

Ben:            And this is where there is that transition. Right? It’s a complicated transition in that world.

Bob:            Yeah, but nobody’s adding staff for that. And I think – to the point of the shop online and pick up at the big boxes – management is saying, “Well, look, we already have people pick stuff up in our store anyway. Why wouldn’t they just be able to use existing employees?” Which makes sense. Wouldn’t you agree? I mean, if you were in your office, that makes a lot of sense – until you’re the guy waiting for two hours to pickup your TV.

Ben:            Right. It makes sense in terms of the spreadsheet of how many staff do I need for the store. What it doesn’t make sense in terms of is, how do I make sure that particular experience that consumer has is one that not only says, oh, I’m not just in New York across the street, but in other places in the country I’ll drive a half mile out of my way, to make sure I hit the coffee shop where I can get my coffee instantly as I show up on my way in the door, with no problems. People will change their behavior for really great retailers who do really great targeted customer things for them. And the people in that long line who, the first time they see that happen get a little bit upset, the person at the front of that register can’t be like, “Oh, dude, sorry, it’s, you know, your problem.” They need to be saying, “Oh, this is a great new program we have in place. Here’s what you do.”

Bob:            That’s not going to happen. I’m just looking at the operations behind that, especially a barista who’s being pay is dependent on being tipped. So now, your best customers will be going to the express line.  Talk about coming up with an unequal system in your store. It’s like the haves and the have-nots. I think that’s really dangerous, because I think retail is kind of a great democratizer. So, it becomes that . . . and let’s face it, the statistics last week out of The New York Times was that 1% of the people are driving 90% of the bandwidth in mobile. So, it’s a much smaller target than anyone’s saying. I mean, if this was 90% of the people had a phone and they could do it, great, but I don’t think that’s not where we are right now.

Ben:            The reason that bandwidth is being consumed by a very narrow group of people is because, I think, we collectively, we the technology industry, we the retail industry, we everyone have not provided the really great, compelling next generation of experiences on the phone that are so easy to use that everybody can use them. Smartphones are rolling out like crazy. Everybody is getting them. People are forced to buy the data plan. They’re spending $120 a month, anyway, but all they’re doing on that thing they’re occasionally checking their email.

Bob:            I’m often just looking at a map.

Ben:            Looking at a map. Yesterday there was a great session that Cognizant ran where they were talking about building the store of tomorrow today. They pointed out that we are at the point now where mobile web browsing, minutes per day in the United States, has passed stationary computer web browsing, in minutes per day.

Bob:            But what is that mean, though?

Ben:            What’s happening is people are shifting where they think about interacting with information, and they’re starting to do it much more on their phone. You’re right, there’s definitely a steep curve there. There are a lot of people doing a lot and most people doing very little.

Bob:            I guess my thing would be balance, Ben. I want to stay with the coffee house, because I think between that and the shop online and pick up in store is a big deal, because what I’m hearing is that it really is an integrated business but it’s almost a different business if you’re going to be doing the mobile with the cool technology. You really have to set it up that if this is always going to be on, then it’s almost like your store has to always be on too, right? That that customer could come in, and they have to be able to have that same always on experience, and then . . .

Ben:            Or have to have the right expectations set from the very beginning. Right? If that always on experience is available during rush hour in the morning and rush hour in the evening and lunch, then when you go into the application not at that time, it needs to say, “I’m sorry, you can’t place your advanced order right now through this application.” So it really has to be sensitive to be aware of not just the who and not just the marketing side of it, but the where and the when of each of these interactions with the shopper.

Bob:            And I’ll go to the next one, which is the operational issues that support it, because that’s the one I think that we’re missing.

Ben:            And the operational issues to support it. You can’t have a disconnect.

Bob:            People are raving about it like, “What a horrible experience.” I’m, like, “Really? You had to wait a half hour.” “But I ordered online.” Right? So . . .

Ben:            Right. It’s mis-set their expectations. They’re setting the wrong expectations and not executing on it.

Bob:            And even if a brand set that expectation, though, do you think a customer would listen to it? Because we customers are an impatient group. I’m talking over you right now.

Ben:            If it set all the way to the very front of the experience. One of the greatest experiences I had was with the Registry of Motor Vehicles in Massachusetts. Now, I don’t think anybody has ever said those phrases together before.

Bob:            No. I don’t think so. Any of you out there? No.

Ben:            When I had to do my most recent driver’s license renewal, I went and checked. I could look at each one of their locations and find the current wait time at each one of those RMVs online. I was able to change the one I was deciding to go to. That’s incredible. I knew that I was heading for a half hour wait, but I knew that I wasn’t heading for the hour and a half wait. Right? And so was I happy with that half hour wait? Damn straight.

Bob:            The expectation was set.

Ben:            Because the expectation was there right from the beginning.

Bob:            That might also be interesting if you were doing the application, we’re staying with the coffee house idea, that maybe it would say, “And there are six people in line right now.” That would be cool.

Ben:            A little camera there. You could see what’s going on in the coffee shop right now.

Bob:            All right. So, I think we’ve solved the world’s problems here with this. But anything else? Final thoughts come to mind about setting the customer expectation high or low and . . .

Ben:            At the end of the day, it’s all about respecting the customer, about talking to the customer in a way that values the incredible intimacy of this channel of talking to them, and that is targeted to who they are, to what they buy, to where they are, to when they are. When you start thinking about saying less and saying the right things instead of saying more to everybody and the wrong things, those are the retailers that are going to win. The retailers that are going to lose are the ones who treat this like printing in the newspaper, like broadcasting on TV.

Bob:            And that’s the stuff that could spook them, right? That’s the stuff that could spook customers, like, wait this isn’t any different. You’re just vomiting on me with your same stuff.

Ben:            It does not take very long to totally ruin a relationship, right? But it takes a very long time to build a good one.

Bob:            Excellent point an good place for us to stop.

Retail Consultants featured are part of the Retailwire Brain Trust Panel

The challenge

A regional chain was being challenged more and more by big box and online sales. The CEO came up to me afterward a speech and asked me, “How can we work with you?”  I asked him to call me. During the conversation, it seemed there was a great spirit of nurturing in the stores, but not much selling.   I’ll let the CEO take it from there…

The situation

“When I saw and heard you speak, it felt like you slapped me out of a dead-lock – and really challenged my thinking. You see, we had become bogged down in survival. And it wasn’t a healthy place to be… Not for me as the leader or my team. I needed someone to help me work on a new direction for my business and help me hear and observe what was going on. I was looking for a shift change in who we were. I had a hunch you could help us with your bluntness and track record.”

The prescription

To get to the true performance issues, we needed to find the root causes. Many of these root causes were buried in the organization’s structure. The “training issues” and interpersonal silos were masking why these problems were showing up time and time again.

We held a meeting with staff and heard things that needed to be changed and updated and looked at – and behaviors that had to stop- namely the discount game of both prices and people.

We wondered if they had the right people in the right jobs and were their personality styles allowing them to play to their strengths? We had every employee take the personality quiz and shared the results with the team while teaching the four personality styles and what their strengths were. “As you stated over and over, “NO MORE KUMBAYaaahhhhhhh. We needed everyone to perform, not survive so performance standards were set with ways to monitor.”

The results

“We aligned our staff into better responsibilities, changed our marketing plan, put together a training program and re-trained 200 employees using your comprehensive sales training program with several training lessons on product knowledge.”  Their customers rewarded their efforts with an 18% increase in sales and lower turnover rates. Several new stores were built and acquired.

“As it rolled out, we experienced a huge culture change with both resistance and excitement at the same time. Yes, some people were let go and some people didn’t want to change and left on their own. But we achieved what we wanted. Within months a new standard was set.”

The lessons for you

• It’s great to have a nurturing environment and you can still sell and be genuine.
• Survival isn’t a place you can grow your business from. Address issues and change the culture.
• Personality styles are very real and helpful to get the right people doing the job they are best suited for.

Have you undergone a culture change as a leader or employee? What one thing would you do again differently? Please comment below.

About Bob Phibbs, the Retail Doctor

Companies from some of the very largest, to some of the smallest, from luxury brands to startups, from franchises to regional chains contact me as a retail consultant because they are looking for results. Their successes are all theirs.

While every client and project is different, the ability to enlist me as a retail consultant who has a fresh set of eyes to look at the challenges you are facing can result in a focused, effective and creative path to profitable sales.  No matter what your size, let’s see how I can help you as a retail consultant that gets results.

This interview features Ben Sprecher from Incentive Targeting and I discussing how location based marketing can be used for a lot of things but if overused by anxious marketers they could spook customers to drop the whole thing.  Here is the video to watch and an edited transcription below.

Bob:            Ben, one of the biggest things that people are talking about is mobile marketing, right?

Ben:            Right.

Bob:            So if I get them to opt-in with their phone number, then I can send them messages when they’re walking by my store or if there’s a sale or something, right?

Ben:            Sure.

Bob:            I think a man’s phone is their castle. I invite you in on the idea that I can control when you talk to me. So the idea that somebody could, as I’m walking by, send me a little, “Hey, come in and get a $3 dollar widget or something,” I think that’s really spammy. I think you have a different opinion.

Ben:            I do, a little bit. First of all, I think that we are at a very important moment right now. We are at the beginning of what I’m trying to call the “great convergence,” the “great mobile convergence,” and there are five key components to that. Conveniently I’ve come up with an acronym called CLAMP.

Bob:            CLAMP?

Ben:            CLAMP. So you’ve got couponing and deals.

Bob:            You know how I feel about that.

Ben:            You’ve got loyalty. You’ve got analytics. You’ve got mobile marketing, and you’ve got payment. If you look around the show floor here, you’ve got companies like PayPal over there, Google over there. There are a number of companies who are looking at this giant convergence of all these different key areas, that have been very separated in the past, onto the mobile platform. The power of that is not simply that you have all these different components in one place. It’s by pulling them together, you can make a much better go of giving the shopper what they want.

Bob:            What do they want? Isn’t it just coupons and deals? Isn’t that what we’re making our smartphones into?

Ben:            The shopper wants relevance, right?

Bob:            So what does that mean to you?

Ben:            It means a couple of things to me. First of all, it means making sure, and for marketers this is a very counter-intuitive statement, but it means saying less. It means communicating less. Up until today, every new marketing vehicle, whether it was direct mail, radio, TV, whatever, has been perceived by marketers as another megaphone to shout at their shoppers.

Bob:            Absolutely. Which is like the guy in high school with all the zits on his face saying, “Look at me. I’m important,” but we don’t care, right? We care about us.

Ben:            We care about us, exactly. Up until today, every marketer has treated it, with some exceptions, as a new vehicle, a new megaphone to talk to their shopper. Now we are starting to have an incredibly powerful computer that is with us all the time, that has incredible capabilities and knows where we are, knows what time it is, and knows who we are.

Bob:            But still you’re programming it to be kind of spammy. I mean you’re saying if somebody’s within 300 feet of my store, then project this message or this image or try to get the rat to the cheese to come into my store, right? It’s not really personalized.

Ben:            It absolutely can be, and that’s the challenge to marketers today, is we all need to pull back and instead of saying, “Oh my God, I’ve got a new little megaphone that somebody’s got with them all the time,”‘ say, “I’ve got an incredibly powerful, incredibly personal way to talk to somebody, and I need to respect that and respect them and use it only for good, never for evil.”

Bob:            But that’s a whole new way to think, isn’t it? It’s like copywriting.

Ben:            It’s completely new.

Bob:            Beginning copywriters are all about “look how great I am, I do this, and I do this, this and this.” Yet we know that no one reads copy like that. They really look at how can he help me solve this problem?

Ben:            That’s exactly what it’s about. So when you have somebody who is walking down the street, if their phone chimes every 12 seconds as they walk by stores, what’s going to happen? They’re going to opt out of that entire thing, right?

Bob:            So one thing could kill the whole deal for them opting in to text messaging.

Ben:            Exactly.

Bob:            It wouldn’t just be that one store.

Ben:            The entire medium is at its infancy right now, and the entire medium has the potential to either tip in potentially the greatest way marketing has gone in human history, to be a little bit grand about it, or to be yet another way that you get crappy, spammy offers from everybody you walk by. What that’s about is saying less. It’s about using the information and the power of that medium to filter instead of to broadcast.

Bob:            That’s a whole different way of thinking, right?

Ben:            It’s completely opposite.

Bob:            That is not in evidence around here, I’m sorry.

Ben:            Well, I think that there are . . .

Bob:            I mean it’s a one size fits all. Just use our platform and you can do what you’ve always done.

Ben:            Say anything you want to, do whatever you want.

Bob:            Right. You can take your Valpak coupon and you can now make that into a Groupon coupon, okay, great. But there’s got to be more to it because that’s the thing that iPad promised, and that’s what got everybody so excited. Like the first time you saw Facetime and it was two people who were deaf, talking. That was a moment. You were taken aback, “I never thought of that.” But that took somebody to really turn it upside down, and I don’t think we’re seeing any good examples in mobile. Have you seen any examples where it has been customized and relevant and interesting, besides the work you probably already do?

Ben:            So to speak in sort of general terms, I’ve seen some of those articulated as “vision direction.” So again, if you look at Google and PayPal as companies who are trying to think many steps ahead here about where exactly is this whole thing going? The story that PayPal is showing at their booth is someone going to a coffee shop, he is being given not just any offer when they get anywhere near a coffee shop, but the phone knows them through loyalty as somebody who likes vanilla lattes, and they know they’re five minutes away on their walk from the coffee shop. So now is the time to tell them, “Get your order in right now. Do you want your normal vanilla latte?” That is something that anybody wants to receive. So, done right, focusing not just on the who, but the where and the when . . .

Bob:            But I go to the next level, even if it’s an execution issue, that’s all great. Ben, you’re 5 minutes out and you want to do it, except there’s already of line of 20 out the door. So your expectation, just go with me, is that when I show up, my drink is now first, and that may not happen.

Ben:            This is where the Retail Doctor comes in, right? This is about where you go and you help the retailers to understand that customer service means a different thing, a little bit, in an era where there are many different ways where your customers are interacting with you.

Bob:            This is a great idea. We’re going to take this up in the second, which is that idea of customer service has a new meaning.

If you haven’t downloaded my special report: Bricks and Mortar Retailing At Risk in the Digital Age, you can still do so here.

My thanks to Marge Laney at Alert Technologies and our cameraman Brian Laney who made this all sound and look great!

So what would it take for you to not allow a company you previously opted in with to sms you?  What creative uses for mobile marketing do you see?

Please add your comments below.

Retail Consultants featured are part of the Retailwire Brain Trust Panel