With the Holidays Right Around the Corner, A Holiday Staffing Plan is More Important than Ever

The holidays are right around the corner and retailers have more planning to do this year than in many years in the recent past. This is because the economy continues to improve and back to school shopping spending this past month is a good indicator that this holiday season is going to be a busy one. 

Retail Wire recently reported that the U.S. Department of Commerce reported that in August of 2012 retail sales in the U.S. were up 4.7% and July 2012 sales were up 4.4% over the 2011 retail sales numbers. This is a very positive indicator for retailers across North America.

In fact, Retail Wire went on to cite a study by Hay Group where 75% of retailers are estimating an increase in sales this holiday season and have a plan to handle increase in business. 36% plan to hire additional seasonal staff, which is an increase of 10% over 2011.

Ecommerce sites like Amazon make it so easy for customers to do their holiday shopping online so if bricks and mortar stores want to have a bigger slice of the holiday shopping pie, the customer’s in-store experience is more important now than ever.

The key to having sufficient staff over the holiday season is to have a plan and resources in place. Having too little staff will cause you to lose sales and customers. Having too many employees will cause you to have high overhead cutting into your revenue.

The holiday season and holiday planning has always presented challenges to retailers with respect to holiday staffing,  in our experience, because retailers must plan based on what they anticipate will happen. Holiday staff will be needed to ensure that: 

1.       Distribution and merchandising is in order and that products are in stock and on the shelf.

2.       There are sufficient cashiers in-store to keep line-ups under control.

3.       There are resources to ensure that holiday displays, décor and experiential marketing campaigns go off without a hitch.

This represents a huge cost to retailers not only in the cost of labour but also in the cost to hire and train seasonal staff. A very common mistake we see retailers make is underestimating holiday traffic and then trying to get their holiday staffing in order at the last minute.

Some retailers will turn to temp-employment agencies to fill the gap, however the challenge there is that these employees’ experiences will vary and many end up requiring significant training which many retailers do not have the time or infrastructure to accommodate during the holiday season.

Merchandising companies offer better holiday staffing solutions to retailers because merchandising companies will generally have a workforce of their own highly skilled retail employees. When a retailer is planning for the holiday season, they can work with a merchandising company to create a holiday staffing plan and then receive the staffing resources to implement it. Because employees of merchandising companies offer already skilled retail staff, this greatly minimizes the burden to retailers as the seasonal holiday staff provided by the merchandising company will require less training. Also, holiday staff provided by merchandising companies have more of a sense of ownership in you being successful. Finally, as you move into the holiday season and start to see what your sales will be, a merchandising company can easily increase or decrease the volume of staff as needed.

It is already October, so if you haven’t started your planning for holiday staffing, now is the time - as waiting could impact your sales potential during this crucial time.

For more information about holiday staffing planning or if you need assistance with your planning or staff over the holiday season, please contact Storesupport at 905-847-6513 or visit www.storesupport.ca.

Merchandising Companies are the Resource for Staffing Up Over the Holidays

As a retailer, you are no doubt aware of the strains created by the holiday season. The surplus traffic that is inevitable can be daunting, and often the only solution is to increase your staff on a temporary basis to meet the needs of customers. But what impact does this have on your customer service standards, retail merchandising and your bottom line? Does hiring new staff for the holiday season actually create higher customer satisfaction, and does it mean a better productivity rate?

In order to keep customer satisfaction and customer loyalty up during the holidays, maintaining a sufficient staff is necessary – but there are 2 ways to go about doing this. Both need to be carefully considered in order to determine which option best meets your needs as far as customer service and retail merchandising are concerned.

The seemingly effective go-to option of hiring seasonal staff is one of your choices. But what are the actual costs and benefits of this? More than likely the negatives far outweigh the positives.

Recruitment costs – since the first step to hiring a seasonal employee is recruitment, make sure you factor in all of the costs for recruitment. How would you advertise the position? How many applicants will you interview, and who will do the interviewing? How much time will be spent on background and reference checks? These things all take time and money – things that could be spent more productively elsewhere.

Training – so every employee needs to be trained. How much time is spent – both by the new hire and the employee doing the training – doing this? And how long does it take. Furthermore, according to a study done by Investopedia, if you are hiring just for the holiday season, chances are that employee will only ever reach about 25% of their potential before the season is over. It isn’t until around the 5^th week that an employee reaches even 50%, and it takes on average 13 weeks to reach even a 75% productivity rate. Knowing this, it is undeniable that training often costs more than the benefits of having the employee there.

High turnover/reliability – how can you ensure that that employee you have hired to work for only a few weeks in interested in doing the best job for you? Often you cannot. More often than not, as a seasonal employee, your new staff member is more interested in quick cash than long-term career goals. Relying on this may leave you in a lurch or lead to decreased morale or a high turnover rate (which could then result in further recruitment and training costs…).

So what other options are there for staffing up over the holidays while still maintaining a high degree of customer service and retail merchandising standards during this busy time? Relying on a third party partner that specializes in retail and provides staffing resources to meet your needs is often a much better choice. The right partner will be able to provide highly trained, experienced retail staff even on short notice. Since these staff members are employees of the third party partner, they have already been checked, hired, and trained, which means you can avoid the hassle. Since they are permanently employed by the third party partner, you know that they are experienced at retail, reliable and will work with your existing staff.  Partnering with this type of organization will also remove the burden of training, turnover and scheduling so that you can focus on what’s most important, your customers.

Hiring staff for the holidays doesn’t have to be a headache – working with a third party retail partner that can provide you with the resources required will allow you to overcome the stress while maintaining a strong bottom line.

For more information about how to best staff up for the holiday season and how to keep customer service and retail merchandising in check, please contact Storesupport at 877-421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca. We are your third party retail resource for this holiday season. 

Getting Control of your Product Distribution and Retail Merchandising Over the Holiday Season

We all know how busy the holidays get at retail, and we all know how detrimental maintaining good customer service best practices are. For a brand at retail, keeping the customer happy is crucial, especially with regard to product distribution and retail merchandising. 

We have all heard those retail merchandising holiday horror stories that illustrate just how “fun” holiday shopping can be – but if you are a brand located in a retail environment, you know that keeping control of your product distribution and retail merchandising over the holiday season is critical for your bottom line. 

For example, it is undeniable that the holiday season often results in empty shelves or un-stocked product. So how can you combat this? Working with a merchandising company can help you deal with your holiday product distribution woes. By providing access to staff that can navigate the retail space and ensure your product is located on the shelf and accessible to clients helps to alleviate the stress of dealing with holiday hardships. Regular run-throughs ensure that retailers are not letting your product distribution fall to the wayside during the holiday rush, meaning your bottom line does not suffer from distribution issues.

Also important is making sure that there IS stock in the back. If a customer comes in during the holiday season looking for your brand only to find it out of stock, they often have no choice but to switch brands. Working with a merchandising company can help eliminate this by sending consultants to retail to ensure product distribution is up to date and that sufficient product exists in the storeroom.

Yet another important part of product distribution and retail merchandising during the holiday season – pricing. With so many sales taking place over the holidays, sometimes your brand pricing may be lost in the shuffle. If a customer comes in looking for the best deal and your product has not be marked down as you expected, this could result in lost sales or lost customer loyalty. Working with a merchandising company eliminates this by sending out consultants to check pricing and product placement. Ensuring that prices are marked down may not be a retailer’s top priority, but it is yours, and thus it becomes the top priority for your merchandising company.

Another issue that arises during the holidays to negatively impact product distribution and retail merchandising is having too few staff on hand to handle customers’ needs. We all know how difficult it can be to find help at retail during the busy holiday season, but think about the impact of this if you are a brand at retail. Enlisting the services of an experienced merchandising company that can provide the staffing necessary to keep up the customer experience will allow you to ensure that your brand is receiving the recognition it needs and that your loyal customers remain happy.

Even during the holidays – or especially during them – it is critical to keep customers happy to maintain customer loyalty and brand recognition. It does not take much for a customer to switch brands if they feel ‘wronged’ by a brand that they were previously loyal to.

For more information about product distribution and retail merchandising over the holiday season, or at any point during the year, please contact Storesupport at 1 (877) 421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca.

Merchandising Companies Ensure That Brands Keep at the Same Pace as Their Customers

There are many challenges to be faced by brands who locate their products at retail. Good customer service, product location in-store, and employee compliance are just a few of the things that merchandising companies deal with in order to help you secure your place at the top.

The role of merchandising companies is to show you how to be the most effective in selling your product. 

When you are trying to keep up with the changing retail market, it can be difficult to know which strategy is best to adopt. Knowing which route to take in order to keep current customers loyal, while at the same time attracting new customers, can be a challenge. Merchandising companies can help you ensure that you keep your brand current.

Customer satisfaction research studies show that those customers that are loyal to a certain brand will continually purchase that brand, even if there is a slight increase in price. However, if a brand fails to keep up the pace and meet the needs of a constantly evolving market, customers, especially younger customers, will grow impatient and quickly move on to a competitor’s product. Merchandising companies work with you to make sure that you are keeping pace, and meeting the needs of the changing market.

The human mind is both emotional and rational, and so it is important to keep emotion as part of your overall merchandising strategy. Relying solely on fact-and figure-based strategies can severely limit your ability to reach your target market. Merchandising companies will show you how to implement merchandising solutions that employ both a fact-based and emotionally driven merchandising campaign that is much more appealing to consumers.

An engaged customer is a loyal customer. Merchandising companies ensure that brands keep pace by catching the attention of a brand’s consumer by making sure that product placement is efficient, that brand presentation is effective, and that staff at retail are promoting your product well. 

Keeping up with the newest trends and appealing to what is current is essential, and merchandising companies will show you what kinds of strategies to implement in order to do this. By working with a merchandising company, you will be more capable of appealing to the customer through the adoption of the newest market tactics, ensuring that you do not fall behind.

In-store demonstrations or samples, product placement and mystery shopping are all ways that merchandising companies work to make sure that your brand is receiving the attention in needs at retail. Helping you maintain control of your retail presence is an important part of your business, and merchandising companies will help you achieve it!

Falling behind with current trends can spell disaster for your brand, but utilizing the services of a merchandising company will help keep you a step ahead, meaning more brand loyalty and a bigger consumer base.

For more information about the benefits of working with a merchandising company and how it can help you keep pace with customers, or to learn about any of the services provided by Storesupport, please call 1 (877) 421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca.

Retail Marketing Solutions Must Include Retail Customer Experience Management

Customer experience management has become one of the most important retail marketing solutions that both retailers and brands are investing in today. There are many factors that contribute to a positive customer experience. The customer experience begins at the point when a customer becomes aware of a brand or product and extends through the life of the relationship that the customer has with the brand or retailer. 

The goal of customer experience management is to move customers from being satisfied to loyal, and then from loyal to being advocates of the brand. Customer experience management involves strategy, process modelling, technology, design, strong management and optimization of the end-to-end customer experience process. 

Today’s consumer experience must include service, convenience and product availability. The pillars of the customer experience that must be considered with a customer experience management strategy include: 

How easy are you to do business with? The way employees of brands and retailers interact with customers is very important. A customer’s experience at retail should leave them feeling that they have been treated as an individual and genuinely cared for. Product knowledge is important in this area, and ensuring that representatives in-store are able to knowledgably speak with and answer questions about your promotion asked by prospective customers is very important.

How attractive is the proposition that you are making to your target customers? Are you running competitive promotions and marketing them in-store and online so that customers are aware of them?

Are your products accessible and are you ensuring a smooth purchasing process for your customers? Systems and processes are important because they make the purchasing process smooth, convenient and organized. This means that your products must be consistently accessible to customers, both easy to understand and to purchase.

Here are some interesting statistics to take into consideration:

1.       Companies that committed to service excellence demonstrating strong capabilities outperformed their competition by 81%. Source: Peppers & Rogers Group

2.       The top two drivers for investing in customer experience management are: improve customer retention and brand loyalty (42%), and improve customer satisfaction (33%). Source: Aberdeen report – “Customer Experience Management: Engaging Loyal Customers to Evangelize Your Brand”

3.       A customer who has a bad customer experience will tell 9 to 15 people about their experience. Source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs, Washington, DC

4.      80% of North American companies plan to use customer experience as a form of differentiation. Source: Forrester’s The State Of Customer Experience

5.       86% of customers who had a bad experience with a company stopped doing business with them altogether. Source: Harris Interactive, “Customer Experience Impact Report”

6.       For every customer complaint, there are 26 other customers who have remained silent. Source: Lee Resource Inc.

7.       Customer churn is caused by customer feelings of poor treatment 68% of the time. Source: TARP

8.       It takes 12 positive service experiences to make up for one negative experience. Source: “Understanding Customers” by Ruby Newell-Legner

9.       91% of unhappy customers will not willingly do business with your organization again. Source: Lee Resource Inc.

10.   Attracting a new customer costs 5 times as much as keeping an existing one. Source: Lee Resource Inc.

Retail marketing solutions that enhance the customer experience can include:

·         Ensuring that your products are in-stock and on the shelf at all retailers where they are available to be purchased

·         Ensuring that your products are in the area where a customer would expect to purchase them

·         In-store promotions through product demonstration and visual marketing displays

·         Mystery shopping to identify issues at the retail level that could be impacting your customers’ experiences

·         Additional sales support at the retail level, and more

Retail marketing solutions should be considered by brands and retailers because the stakes are so high. There have been studies that draw a direct connection between the customer experience at retail and the profitability of the retailer and brands that sell their products there.

For more information about how you can improve your customer’s experience or for information about our retail marketing solutions, please contact Storesupport at 1 (877) 421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca

Canadian Mystery Shopping Providers Tell Brands What Is Really Happening At Retail

Relying on retailers to keep you informed about how your brand is doing at retail, or waiting until your sales profits come in, can be very problematic. A good way to avoid this is by relying on Canadian mystery shopping providers, as Canadian mystery shopping providers tell brands what is really happening at retail.  

How can you determine how well your brand is doing, and how it is perceived by your targeted demographic? Canadian mystery shopping providers can find out. By placing mystery shoppers in the retailers where your brand is being sold, you are able to determine how well that retailer’s staff knows your brand, and what they are telling your customers about it. Are they giving the correct information to the consumer? Is your product being re-stocked in appropriate intervals? Is your product kept in the most efficient location? A Canadian mystery shopper will answer these questions. 

In the retail food industry, the retailer’s primary concern is not always your brand, and very often no incentives exist to push them to see that your brand is being marketed effectively. Canadian mystery shopping providers will solve this problem by identifying any problems in-store, and giving you the intelligence required to address them.

Canadian mystery shopping provides invaluable retail intelligence that helps you stay on top of the competition. Those companies that do not utilize the services of Canadian mystery shopping providers often have no idea how their product is being marketed to consumers, meaning they then have very little ability to influence how their products should be marketed. By taking advantage of services offered through Canadian mystery shopping providers, you can ensure that your brand is receiving the attention it needs in order for your business to profit.

Keeping customers happy is the key to consumer loyalty and retaining customers. Canadian mystery shopping providers allow you to determine the level of customer service being delivered by the retailers who sell your brands. Canadian mystery shoppers can reveal whether or not employees are following procedures, and can also help you to identify and measure how effective staff training programs are.

Canadian mystery shopping providers can also give you valuable information about how consumers feel about your product. Canadian mystery shoppers can find out why your current customers choose your product over your competitors’. They can also determine how potential customers feel about your product allowing you to cater to meet their wants as well. How well does the packaging advertise what customers are looking for? Is it attractive and eye catching? Canadian mystery shoppers can find out.

Thanks to Canadian mystery shopping providers, your ability to know the customer’s perspective can greatly impact your ability to increase sales and build your customer base.

Finding out about what is really happening at retail is a crucial component in keeping customers happy and loyal, as well as increasing your overall profits. Mystery shopping providers are an important part of this process.

For more information about Canadian mystery shopping providers and how they can tell you what is really happening at retail, or to find out about the retail merchandising services offered by Storesupport, please call 1 (877) 421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca.

Is Service Intelligence Mystery Shopping A Must Have For Brands?

Mystery shopping or secret shopping at retail is service intelligence that a retailer simply cannot do without. Service intelligence mystery shopping focuses on providing a brand with much needed intel about what kind of service their customers are receiving at the retail level. Service intelligence mystery shopping is also important to retailers because it lets them know how their staff members are performing. 

The worst thing that a brand or retailer can do is to wait for sales to take a dip to realize where areas for improvement are with respect to the customer services that they are providing to their customers. Top notch customer service leads to brand loyalty which results in life-long customer relationships. Establishing brand loyalty takes significant effort and once you are on top of your game, staying there requires even more focus.

Service intelligence mystery shopping measures people and product performance in-store.

Where brands are concerned, utilizing service intelligence mystery shopping enables you to understand product endorsement at the store level. A great example of this is when consumers approach employees at the retail level and ask about a particular product, asking “which shampoo is the best” for example? Mystery shopping can determine whether the employees are recommending your product? Are your promotional offers being communicated to the customer? Service intelligence mystery shopping also enables you to ensure that the delivery of your brand messaging is correct. When employees are asked about your products, is information being communicated accurately?

Service intelligence mystery shopping can also reveal other issues, like the location of your products in-store, how pricing is being received by other shoppers, planogram compliance, and secondary display compliance issues.

Where retailers are concerned, service intelligence mystery shopping can enable you to measure customer service and manage behavioural issues in your store, and is an opportunity to improve customer retention and loyalty to your store. This ongoing measurement raises the bar and shapes and improves your staff’s performance.

The result of service intelligence mystery shopping delivered through a sales team compliance audit can be eye opening and can reveal issues that could be having a direct impact on your bottom line. Issues in-store that negatively impact the customer, such as long line ups, poor customer service, or staff that lack the required knowledge about the products sold in-store, will reduce sales and brand loyalty. A sales team compliance audit will tell you if you are achieving your customers’ expectations in store.

At the end of a day, when customers are not having a good experience at retail they simply will not choose to visit a particular retailer at all the next time they need to make a purchase. Grocery stores are an excellent example of a type of retail where service intelligence mystery shopping is very important. In many cases, consumers will go to their local grocery store weekly, so the cost to a retailer who has in-store performance issues will face severe financial consequences if a customer has a bad experience and decides not to come back.

Investment in service intelligence mystery shopping is a very important piece to the puzzle that leads to the success of a brand at retail and retailers in general.

For more information about service intelligence mystery shopping or mystery shopping services provided by Storesupport, please call 1 (877) 421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca.