Never End Staff Recruitment

Do you occasionally post in your store a sign reading something like, “We’re a great place to shop, aren’t we? We’re also a great place to work. Please ask for a job application if you’d like to learn more.”?
     Don’t post the sign continuously. If you’re a small retail business, your staff turnover shouldn’t be so substantial that you’re hiring nonstop. A sign implying you do goes against the sign’s claim that you’re a great place to work. Still, even if you’re a one-person operation, always have in mind people to hire. For the short term, the one person needs a break and, if he or she never takes a break, will likely need backup when he or she falls ill. For the long term, prospective employees could become prospective purchasers of the business when you’re ready to sell.
     Are you be ready to replace employees who accept jobs elsewhere or return to school? Now is the time to start building your list of candidates. If you wait until there’s an immediate need for new faces, you’re likely to have to settle for lower quality than you should have on the selling floor, at the cash registers, and in the back office.
     The signage I’m suggesting takes account of the fact that people who shop frequently in your store can turn out to be excellent employees. They know the store well, and your staff have had an opportunity to interact with them. Your frequent shoppers are also members of your store’s community who will praise your store and defend it against criticism.
     Retail experts at University of Manchester and the Association of Corporate Treasurers suggest current and past employees as another source of recruits. Here’s my adaptation of the list of steps they’ve found to be successful:

• Research. Ascertain what your current and past employees are saying about you. Ask them, listen to their conversations, conduct exit interviews with departing employees, do internet searches on your business name. 
• Remedy. Address the causes of negative word-of-mouth from staff. Some of this might involve explaining to your employees why what seems negative actually helps keep jobs for them. 
• Inform & motivate. Equip your employees with information which will interest the right kinds of people for your store. Then incentivize by pointing out the advantages to your current and past employees of you having high-quality store staff. 

For your profitability: Sell Well: What Really Moves Your Shoppers

Click below for more: 
Recruit Staff from Your Shoppers 
Matchmake with Social Media

Resolve to Investigate by Attribute Type

When you ask an ongoing customer how things are working out with a product the customer purchased from you a while back, the customer might reply that they are disappointed with certain aspects. Or an ongoing customer, with no prompt from you, might say they’re dissatisfied with a past purchase.
     If either of these happens, assess whether the characteristic of the product leading to the customer’s disappointment is a “resolvable attribute” or an “irresolvable attribute.” Researchers from Indiana University and University of Pittsburg say that this distinction affects how you should respond.

• Resolvable attributes are those which can be corrected or repaired. The noise filtering characteristics of hearing aids could be corrected with an adjustment by the audiologist. A broken heater in a car often can be repaired. 
• Irresolvable product attributes are those for which correction requires purchase of a replacement item. The size of the hearing aids and the car’s acceleration power are irresolvable attributes. 

     Whether an attribute is resolvable or irresolvable comes from how the customer thinks about it. If the rotating food platform inside the microwave oven stops working smoothly, it might be least expensive to replace the entire microwave unless the rotating food platform is still under warranty. As another example, your customer who is a tinkerer might welcome the challenge to come up with a way to eliminate a nuisance.
     How the customer classifies the nuisance might not be the same as how you, the retailer, think about it. Therefore, it’s important for you to investigate the customer’s thinking. More fundamentally, when a customer expresses disappointment or dissatisfaction with a past purchase, find out which specific attributes are leading to the negative appraisal.
     The Indiana/Pittsburg researchers tracked the experiences of 17,000 automobile owners during the manufacturer warranty period. They found that for attributes considered resolvable by the consumer, the consumer would be anxious until the shortfall was remedied. However, for dissatisfactions the consumer viewed as due to irresolvable attributes, the consumer learned to live with the problem and so, even when nothing was done, would become less anxious.
     The implications for your action:

• With resolvable attributes, work with the ongoing customer to at least minimize the nuisance. 
• With irresolvable attributes, let sufficient time pass so that any residual anxiety motivates a purchase decision and is not directed at you as the cause. Then propose purchase of a new product which will eliminate the nuisance. 

Click below for more:
Use Dissatisfaction as a Selling Opportunity

Offer Bonus Packs of Virtue, Discounts on Vice

With a bonus pack, you offer more of the product at no additional price. With a price discount, you offer the same amount of the product at a reduced price.
     University of Utah researchers find that with healthy food items, shoppers prefer a bonus pack to a price discount, while the preference is for a price discount when the shopper identifies the food as unhealthy.
     If an item is a vice, the price discount helps the shopper to justify the purchase. Getting an additional quantity, even if at no additional monetary outlay, would seem overly sinful.
     However, with items not considered unhealthy by the consumer, there is a general preference for bonus packs over economically equivalent price discounts. To understand why, consider a field experiment conducted by researchers at Texas A&M University, University of Miami, and University of Minnesota:
     The site of the experiment was a small retail store in a suburb of a large city. The product in the experiment was a 9 oz. container of Fruits & Passion hand lotion, which at the time of the study carried a regular price of $13.50. The nature of the experiment was to reduce the selling price to $9.00 and advertise a special sale in two different ways at different times:

• “35% price discount.” Actually, it was one-third, or about 33.33% off. 
• “50% more for free.” The pro-rated price for 6 oz. was $9.00, so the extra 3 oz. was at no extra charge. 

     Sales of the product during the “50% more for free” weeks were about 75% higher than sales during the “35% price discount” weeks.
     Why? Probably because 50% is a larger number than 35%, even though the true economic gain for the purchaser was the same. Consumers are, in general, not good in making sense of percentages. A couple of the researchers who did this Fruits & Passion study had previously found that consumers will choose a double price discount of “25% off plus an additional 20% off” over a single discount of 40% off. If you calculate 25% off and then take the 20% off from the remaining 75%, you’ll find that it leaves 60%, which is 40% off!
     In your store, offer bonus packs of virtue and discounts on vice. When selling items which include both utilitarian and indulgent components, emphasize the discount on the indulgent, thereby giving the shopper permission to purchase them, too.

Click below for more: 
Bundle Utility, Discount Hedonism 
Try Out Dollar Over Percentage Discounts

Knock Out Rage from the Old One-Two

In boxing lexicon, “the old one-two” is a left-hand jab followed immediately by a right cross. Because of its effectiveness in knocking out an opponent, the old one-two often eliminates rage in the ring. But according to a research study from Australia’s Griffith University, University of South Wales, and University of Queensland, a different kind of old one-two often precipitates rage in the retail store.
     The one-two here consists of:

• A customer complains to a retailer about what the customer perceives as a failure in adequate service. 
• The customer concludes that the retailer’s response to the complaint is offensive. 

     One important contribution of this research for retailing practices is the reminder that the retailer has an opportunity to head off rage by ensuring the response to a complaint is considered adequate by the customer. You won’t always be able to satisfy every customer, but try.
     A second important contribution of the research is identification of the most common reasons the customer considers a retailer’s response to be inadequate:

• “What you did made me lose time, money, or both time and money.” Knock out rage by acknowledging the customer’s loss. 
• “You’ve insulted me by considering my complaint to be unimportant.” Start by assuming the customer does consider it to be important. Listen attentively. 
• “You’re violating rules of fairness.” Many consumers carry into retail transactions a strong sense of right and wrong. Whenever a customer complains about a service failure, ask “What might I do to make things right?” 
• “I want to be in control of this situation, and you’re not letting me.” Resolving a complaint is a collaborative process. You can’t let the complaining customer take complete control. However, you can allow that customer to feel a sense of control in the situation by not rushing the process. 
• “What you’ve done jeopardized my physical well-being.” This one is limited to items you sell which could injure a customer or someone the customer cares about. If you sense this is the customer’s concern, ask lots of questions. Then tell the customer you’ll review your procedures to take account of what you’ve learned and you’ll tell the customer what changes you make for the future. 

     A third important contribution of the research was in indicating that particular rage triggers for North American customers concern loss of resources, while for East Asian consumers, rage triggers are more likely to concern threats to self-esteem.

Click below for more: 
Cool Down Customer Temper Tantrums 
Show Complainers Respect, Concern, & Empathy 
Face Your Fate About Service Delays

Present Identities Via Wedding Gift Registries

Wedding gift registries are a nuptial ritual. Recognizing this, researchers at University of Notre Dame studied how retailers use these gift registries to increase pleasure for family and friends deciding which items to purchase.
     The researchers concluded the best pleasure comes when the retailer uses the process to help people shape their desired identities. Grandma might feel best selecting a wedding gift which verifies her role as the family historian. The fiancée’s older sister scans the list to find a kitchen appliance in order to subliminally say she’ll always have the younger sister’s back. Aunt Ellen picks an expensive silver set so she’ll be seen as wealthy. However, Uncle Fred, who happens to be tagging along, says he’s willing to have them spend big on the gift, but insists they buy something at the store which isn’t on the list. Uncle Fred wants to support his independent thinker self-image.
     When a wedding couple opens a gift registry with your store, encourage the couple to include a broad range of items. Your objective is to allow different family members and friends to affirm different sorts of identities. 
     The value of doing this transcends wedding gift giving. Researchers at Southern Methodist University and University of Texas-Austin watched what happened when people from UT were assigned to purchase a present for someone who wanted an item carrying the logo of UT archrival Texas A&M. The reactions were compared to those of a comparable group assigned to buy a gift emblazoned with the UT Longhorns logo.
     If selecting the item for the Texas A&M fan, the shoppers fidgeted, chewed on their lips, and averted their eyes. They crossed their arms, as if to distance themselves from what they were doing, and at the cash/wrap, they actually stepped away from the item, as if to say to anybody watching, “Don’t think this item represents who I really am.”
     The Notre Dame researchers contend that gift-givers’ desires for retailers to help clarify identities is greater with wedding registries than with gift lists for other occasions. The researcher’s reasoning is that marriages form new family ties, requiring establishment and revision of roles.
     This makes sense. Still, there are additional occasions in which the roles played by family and friends are prime for revision. Consider that about three years ago, Debenhams, with its 153 department stores located across the UK and Ireland, launched a divorce gift registry.

Click below for more: 
Sell Identify Affirmation to People 
Meet Needs of Divorce Market

Mobilize Your In-Store Erotic Capital

For top customer satisfaction, which of the following three do you think is most important in retail sales associates?

• Appearance the shopper considers to be sexually appealing 
• Displays of emotion the shopper considers to be appropriate to the situation 
• Questions or advice the shopper considers to be helpful 

     Researchers at University of Adelaide, University of Queensland, Peking University, and PetroChina Pipeline Company sought an answer to that question with studies at a retail store. They concluded that the third factor—the helpfulness of questions or advice—impacted customer satisfaction most strongly.
     They also discovered that the three interact in ways other researchers have called “erotic capital.” Sales associates who display appropriate emotions and ask helpful questions are more likely to be judged as sexually appealing.
     The London School of Economics researchers who coined the “erotic capital” term go beyond facial beauty and physical fitness to include confidence and interpersonal skills. They also acknowledge that what’s defined as sexually appealing and as acceptable salesmanship differs among cultures.
     A number of those researchers urge salespeople to mobilize their erotic capital to best advantage. Pay attention to grooming. Choose work clothing that fits both the body and the situation. Master the mechanics of charm. And don’t forget to bathe regularly.
     Actually, it may be in the assertive presentation of strengths and the strivings to compensate for shortfalls in physical appearance that the best salespeople are created. Not exactly what Sheryl Sandberg is saying in her current best-seller Lean In. But not wholly incompatible with it, either.
     Take as an example symmetry. We are genetically programmed to like left-right symmetry in people’s physical appearance. Evolutionary biologists say it’s because an irregular body on the outside can signal abnormal chromosomes inside. In most cultures and organizations, the symmetrical are more likely to be selected as leaders.
     But a study at Aston University, University of Lancaster, and University of Birmingham, all in the UK, found that work teams have a 20% advantage in performance outcomes when led by someone whose earlobes don’t match perfectly. The researchers explain by saying those without symmetrical features must develop skills in persuasion, and this means recognizing others’ needs and appealing to others’ emotions. That’s why the teams led by those with mismatched ear lengths, wrist widths, and finger lengths were more productive.
     To sell their ideas in the workplace, those with less than ideal symmetry mobilized their erotic capital.

Click below for more: 
Be Provocative, But Don’t Offend 
Lob Lots Over the Net with Funny Earlobes