The Hardware Journal has caught up with our great friend and colleague Art Freedman to see what he is currently doing in the area of Customer Service. Attached is Part One of a process that outlines what he describes as “Business Readiness”. Part Two, which will be in the Nov/Dec issue will cover the “Business Readiness Score”. Originally developed and implemented by Art, they have been using this at Costello’s www.costellosace.com for two years, and the process has brought exceptional results.
What is “Business Readiness”?
Every time a customer shops at a retail store they are influenced by the store’s readiness to serve them. Business readiness has both direct and indirect impact. Some examples of direct impact include: (1) having the product that the customer needs in-stock and available; (2) having enough product in-stock and accessible; (3) staff available and prioritising service; (4) speed to serve a customer based on availability and accessibility of product. Indirect impact deals with the customers’ likelihood to return based on their in-store, and prior shopping experiences.
In today’s retail landscape, “customer service”, the direct interactions between staff members and customers, has been replaced with “customer experience”, the combination of the same interactions and the store’s preparedness to serve customers. Business Readiness is predictive of customer experience because it encompasses the key elements responsible for determining friendly and frictionless service, efficiency, and confidence.
Objectives:
1 Defining “Business Readiness” and why it is important
2 Five components of Business Readiness
3 The Business Readiness Score
4 The Business Readiness Process
5 Cultural benefits of Business Readiness Process and Scoring
Why is “Business Readiness” important?
– Business Readiness focuses on the elements most basic and most important to retail customers/shoppers.
– Business readiness is predictive of customer experience; customer experience is predictive of business success.
Our “Business Readiness” vision
Build and sustain a culture of consistent customer delight by:
– Training ALL team members to see the store through the customer’s eyes.
– Developing retail readiness knowledge, mindset, and execution across the enterprise. (High standards, winning mindset, initiative)
– Empowering all store personnel to participate in their store’s retail readiness. (Accountability, empowerment, inclusion)
– Inspiring all team members to strive for greater retail readiness. (Inspiration, innovation, champion change)
– Developing a culture of curiosity with other retail and nonretail businesses for the purpose of improving one’s own retail readiness. (Curiosity, continuous learning)
How is “Business Readiness” achieved? Process
– Proper handling of stock inwards on to the floor.
– Check stock levels – What’s out of stock, new or price changes.
– Execution of Walk Every Aisle Daily (WEAD) by store manager/ management team.
– Execution of Helpful Service – This means we execute our customer service philosophy with every customer, every time. It’s not enough to have a service philosophy, it has to happen consistently with every customer every time.
Remember task efficiency creates more time to spend interacting with customers. Task effectiveness allows for more frictionless customer interactions.
Culture
– Commitment to efficient processes and staff development. (Leadership)
– Maintaining business readiness as a team objective with accountability for every team member, from the first day of employment.
– Proper onboarding/training/coaching.
– Aisle accountability (everyone in store “owns” a piece of the store; “every item has an owner”)
– Develop business readiness acumen so that everyone understands what BR “looks like.”
Five components of “Business Readiness”
1 In stock:
– Strong in-stock position
– Minimal empty hooks/bins or blank pegboard.
– Ample inventory supply
2 Signage/Pricing:
– Clear communication of price, promotion, features, and benefits.
– Execution and condition of price tags and signs
– POP, branding, and services signage
3 Product Display:
– Maximise the potential for a sale
– Out-of-the-package display
– Display creativity for promotional, seasonal, and key categories.
4 Housekeeping/Organisation:
– All items in their correct locations. The absence of clutter and outer boxes.
– Neat and organised sidewalk, entry, front end, aisles, base decks.
– Organisation of overstock on gondola, overheads, warehouse, basement, front end, sea boxes. Everything can easily be counted,
– The proper treatment of inventory and assets. “$eeing Money”.
5 Customer Interactions: Executing a “Customer First” culture where every customer feels:
I. Welcome
– Warm greetings everywhere contact is initiated in the store.
II. Important
– Prioritising customer interaction over all tasks,
– Using all helpful weapons and magic questions,
– Leading customers to products (never pointing) and providing meaningful in-aisle assistance.
III. Confident
– Displaying a willingness to say “yes” to every request.
– Providing the right products and sharing the appropriate information that solves the customer’s problem.
IV. Appreciated
– Frequent expressions of gratitude and strengthening the relationship.
In Part Two of the process Art talks about implementing the process – Introducing the Business Readiness Score The Business Readiness Score (BRS) is a practical, hands-on method to teach, assess, coach, and nurture a culture of Business Readiness excellence. BRS must be performed in groups of two or more (can be done alone when assessing competitors). BRS is an essential function for a district manager in a multi-store environment; however, the process works in any store environment and with any combination of participants from senior leadership, store/assistant/department managers, store associates, or any support function personnel.
BRS have proven to be the most effective method to understand: (1) What our team sees; (2) What our team thinks; (3) How our team aligns with the priorities of the business.
Also, you can catch up with Art and his colleagues in their newly introduced Podcast, ‘Still in the Fight’, the Business Readiness topic is Podcast number four and the Business Readiness Score is Podcast number 5: www.youtube.com/@StillInTheFightPodcast
