Retail Today with Bob Phibbs, The Retail Doctor

Do you have a loyalty program or an app or something like that? I hope so because people who have joined your list voluntarily, whether they're a customer or someone's that familiar with you, is the cheapest way and cheapest group to whom you can advertise. But a lot of times we forget about it. We might have an email list, but maybe it's on your website and we don't really think about it. So you...

When it comes to scheduling your employees, do you reward people who are able to get higher units per transaction, who are able to sell more per hour? I hope so because if you're just putting whoever can fill the shift, the chances are you're putting somebody like a race horse in the middle of a pasture, right? If it's not that busy and you have a great salesperson, you're squandering that. Likewi...

Are you looking to get higher sales? Then get out of the bad habit of asking somebody, “What can I help you find?” Because the more you are just like a product, you're just interested in that one product. The more you're basically a warehouse for other people. Look, people go online to buy an item, they go into a store to discover items. So the power is instead of finding out what the product is,...

Have you ever found yourself accountable for your actions? I know when we watched the Olympics, you know that's probably the ultimate accountability is when we see someone get the gold medal that they did it. They did all the things it took to be a champion, and yet when we come into our brick-and-mortar stores, a lot of times people don't want to hold employees accountable. They want to be their...

Are you stuck in a rut and can only sell things that are on sale or have a coupon or maybe you have some time, an endless promotion? We used to call them loss leaders, and while there are some aspects that can get traffic to your store, those days are pretty much gone because there's always somebody cheaper, especially on the web. What you want to do is to limit promotions and coupons because they...

Do you ever hear about the power of positive thinking? It all sounds good and a lot of people ‘poo poo’ it and say, “Oh, it doesn't really matter,” but you know what? There really is something to getting what you put out there and one of the things I always say is it doesn't matter what time of the year, if this is the fall or the winter or whenever when you reach for the door, whether you're goin...

If you're a manager and owner of a retail brick-and-mortar store, the most important thing you can do is to make your employee's day and then they'll make your customer's day. So many times we don't give that attitude. We don't have that feeling. We don't have that focus. And so, we pretty much just have your employees go and do tasks, move this from here, pick this order from the web, go over her...

Do you set a goal for your crew when you go in today? If so, you're on the track to making more sales. If not, well, you're probably squandering something because goals give us something to look forward to. For example, if I was to say, “Hey, we're going to go on a cruise to Greece. We’re leaving at 10:55 on the U.S.S. (I don't know, some name of a ship) and we're going to go around from here to L...

If you're looking to attract more customers to your store, make sure that you don't forget about your parking lot or maybe some windows towards the back that are kind of covered.  You can put up great signs that are inspirational, so “you could be a cook, you can be a cook, you could be the hero,” and with one picture of what it is, but your goal is to not just say it's 20% off this weekend. Custo...

Today, I want you to watch how your employees sell your merchandise. Are they starting off at the bottom with whatever's cheapest or on sale? If so, my guess is they're probably also saying, “This is good enough,” or “It's a really good value.” And the problem with that is your more expensive merchandise just sits there until it's marked down. Your goal, when you're selling merchandise that has se...

Do you hate working with somebody that just on the schedule today? If so, it's probably time for them to be gone. I know that seems harsh, but you know, that's the first indicator I have that something is wrong in the relationship. And while I certainly counsel people, you want to take this person aside, maybe take them out for a cup of coffee, see what's going on, chicken with them at some point,...

Are you one of those retailers that's given your associates tablets or something else as a training tool or as the ability to check stock or something? If so, be careful because your employees’ eyes are going right to the tablet and that makes shoppers feel uneasy because that doesn't feel like you really have focused in on them. I was at a conference not that long ago when this one retailer was t...

Have you ever really thought you trained somebody and then only discovered that they really didn't listen or they weren't doing well? That's probably because what you did was confused. Exposure to training exposure would be like, “I'm going to show you a D major scale on the piano,” and then you would expect the person to be able to play Billy Joel's Piano Man. That was just exposure. They just ha...

Have you ever had one of those experiences when you go into a store and it feels kind of slimy because the person is trying to find out if you're really going to buy something? “What brought you in today? Do you have a budget? What are you looking for? Did you see our ad?” Yes, that's exactly how they sound. If you're looking to grow your retail sales, you want to avoid being slimy and trying to p...

  Do you know one of the things customers hate the most is having to repeat themselves? I was at a store the other day, actually at a Starbucks and I said, "I'd like a black iced tea, no water, light, ice, no sweet." And the girl said, "What can I get you?" I was like, "I just told you." And she goes, "I think you wanted an ice coffee." It was like, "Uh, no." So, one thing I want you to think abou...

Do you know how to tell if your store is healthy? Well, there are certain key performance indicators that your POS system probably has but maybe you don't look at every day. The most important are the average number of items going out the door. That's the one that your crew can most impact. So, if they've got a 1:1 or 1:2, essentially you have people who are clerking whatever people come in and as...

So many times I have people say it's hard to get good employees these days, and absolutely it is, but you know what, it always has. One of the things that I always look at is the past behavior of someone. So, if someone has worked at another retail store, or somewhere where they've sold something, I'll ask them to describe a sure sale that they lost, and why they lost it. Now, you might have to sh...

You know, brick-and-mortar retailing is all about face time, right? So I want you today to think of taking a piece of paper and holding it between you and a buddy, face to face. Now act like that is something you're describing to the other person. Now I want you to move where you're more shoulder to shoulder and hold that piece of paper out in between you, it could be a piece of merchandise as wel...

Let's face it, there are fewer people walking in your brick-and-mortar store, and that's because any trip we save by buying online through Alexa or something else is one less going into your community. So, how do you make up the difference? Well, you have to get more out of the people that are walking in your door. So that's why you want to be able to cross sell, to be able to say, “Buy this item...

Do you know what lazy retailing sounds like? "Can I help you? How are you? Looking for something special?" Those kind of lazy things your employees are saying are not going to build your sales. In fact, they turn most people off pretty quick because, well, it just doesn't feel normal. It doesn't feel natural. It sounds like it's an impersonal thing you've said a million times. Even if you've said...

A lot of times people forget one of the most basic things you can do in a brick-and-mortar store to attract customers is to have a great window display. The problem is too many people just want to put a bunch of junk in the window. If you're at a mall location, maybe you're gonna just put a bunch of junk in the front. That makes shopping feel like work. The secret to having a great window is going...

You know, many people say, "Oh, we give great customer service." And then I ask them, "Well, what is great customer service?" And they're like, "Oh, we get an official order out." And I'm like, "No, that's not great customer service." Great customer service is making the person in front of you feel like, for those few minutes, they are the most important person in the world. Yes, it takes training...

When people are trying to build sales, they always tell me they need to lower their prices, and I'm saying, "No. What you need to do is to be able to have your employees be able to challenge people's perceptions." An example I always use is garden hoses. You go into a home center and there they are at $9.99 and then there are others that are sitting there for $50 and $75. And the problem is that s...

As retailers, we all wish we had more time at home, and the problem is, is that when we're home, we just come up with all the tasks we have to get done on our days off. The problem with that is when we get back to our stores, that's what we put in charge of just doing tasks. I'm here to tell you that tasks aren't going to make you more money, but training will. Your most important thing you can lo...

A lot of times people ask me, "How do I attract more customers?" And one of the most basic ways is making sure your location looks like a friendly place. A new restaurant just opened not far from me, and they didn't change any of the plantings. And they're all in grasses and some things that looked kind of dead, no color. And the problem with that is it doesn't get anyone's eyes and frankly, it lo...