Counter Offenses

Q: One of my pet peeves is sales clerks making personal phone calls while they're supposed to be waiting on customers. I've seen this a lot in stores I've visited recently. How can I prevent this type of behavior when I open my new bath shop?

A: It's important for you to come up with some preliminary job descriptions and employee guidelines before hiring your first employees. That way, anyone coming to work for you will have a good idea of the duties they are expected to perform and the standards of customer service you want upheld. Keep in mind, however, that until your shop has been open for some time you'll face many unknown factors. Be prepared to adjust your expectations as time goes on, hopefully with input from your employees.

All retailers want their staff to be hospitable when a customer approaches. But what should they be doing when there are no customers? Computers have a standby mode, but humans aren't similarly equipped. Retailers need to think about what causes employees to engage in unproductive behavior such as personal phone calls, nail filing, knitting, reading romance novels, and other less-than-professional activities. The simple answer, especially in small shops, is usually boredom.

Not only does boredom lead to activities that distract from customer service and increase the risk of shoplifting, but it can also lead to employee pilfering and job dissatisfaction. It's a problem that many stores face during slower times, and there is no magical solution.

Your primary concern should be making sure that customers are taken care of promptly and courteously. Nothing should deter employees from greeting a customer, offering assistance, and ringing up sales in an efficient and friendly manner. This is the sales staff's highest priority at all times, and you can set an example by stopping whatever you're doing when a customer needs help.

In order to be available when a customer needs to check out, it's usually necessary to have one employee "anchored" to the checkout area. Of course you want your staff to dust, unpack merchandise, and assist customers on the sales floor, but all activities in other parts of the store must be planned so that someone is keeping an eye on the checkout area, and greets new customers entering the store. If more than one employee is working, they can rotate handling this responsibility.

Some store-related tasks can be done behind the register, such as pricing small items, putting together gift sets, straightening counter displays, stuffing bags or envelopes with promotional items, and calling customers about special orders. Most employees will welcome the chance to do something meaningful when they're not busy, because boredom also makes time drag.

But you might not be able to come up with store tasks to fill all your employees' time, so you'll need to decide what other activities are acceptable. Reading product literature and trade magazines, for example, will help increase the staff's knowledge of the products you sell. Perhaps you don't mind staff members writing letters behind the counter, or doing schoolwork. Personal phone calls should be discouraged, however, because they tie up the store's phone line and are too great a distraction. It's not difficult to quietly put down a piece of knitting when someone enters the store, but all customers hate to hear, "I gotta go, Joe, some guy just walked in."

Q: Some days, I get the feeling that my sales staff doesn't find their work very challenging. I've tried contests and prizes to keep their enthusiasm level up, but during the winter months they seem to slip into a funk. Any ideas?

A: Employee lethargy can result from a lack of variety in a day's work. Although there's a limit to what employees can do while waiting on customers, consider allowing your staff to try something different during down time. Display work, for example, allows workers to use their creativity. If you give them a chance, you might find that your sales staff has hidden talent.

When you're ready to delegate responsibility for some of the store's displays, you'll have to accept the fact that relinquishing control means that not everything will be done exactly the way you would have done it. Amateur visual merchandising efforts may not live up to your standards, but it's important not to undermine your employees' confidence by redoing their display right away.

Brainstorm with your employees about ideas for upcoming displays. Discuss what merchandise you want to promote, and the important elements of good visual merchandising, such as color, symmetry, and design principles. Stress the importance of having enough merchandise to make a statement, and let your employees know what fixtures and signs are available. Most important, be open to new ideas, so you're not just asking the staff to carry out your concepts. You can always ask to approve a sketch of the display before giving your go-ahead.

As added incentives, I offer a $1 an hour bonus for window displays and post a sign giving credit to the employee who did the display. I also keep a record of all window designs in a store album, and duplicates of the photos are given to the employees for their own portfolio, so they can see the progress they've made in their visual merchandising techniques.