Be Different or be dead

January 21, 2019

8 excellent ways to get your retail business back to winning form

8 excellent ways to get your retail business back to winning form.

It’s shocking to see the number of retailer ‘deaths’ that have occurred over the last few years. These were once established businesses with a history of loyal customers and decent profitability.

But they simply ran out of steam and couldn’t keep pace with the changes taking place in the industry. Buyer demographics and buying behaviours quickly change and retailers incapable of keeping pace die a slow and agonizing death — store by store by store…

There is no single strategy that will save a retailer in the current chaotic and unpredictable business environment — particularly a pandemic — but there are some actions retailers can take to at least increase their chances of survival.

1. Renew your business strategy

It’s very tempting to take action and employ tactics that you think will help, but you need to start with redefining a strategy that you think will successfully meet the new dynamic.

The critical piece of thinking here is that you cannot assume what worked for you in the past will work in the future

I believe the main reason so many retailers fail is they hold on to their past business model, expecting it to work in an environment where literally every customer — competitor — technology variable has changed.

In addition don’t get sucked into believing that cost cutting will save you. The retail death spiral is not a cost issue, it’s a demand issue. Cutting costs with the hope of salvaging the company has a perilous and inescapable outcome.

Did you really think that by closing over 1,400 stores Radio Shack would survive? Not unless they change their business strategy and figure out how to do a better job at serving customers and providing unmatched value in the marketplace.

2. Deliver value; don’t sell products

Look at your business as an instrument to deliver unique value, not as an agent to sell products and services. Think about being in the ‘benefit creation’ business where what people want and desire drives the innovation process. The model of stacking the shelves — be it in a bricks and mortar environments or online — and having customers excitedly buy is wishful thinking.

And your retail value must be different that your competition because if you’re not different, you will fall victim to the commodity space where the value proposition for any retailer is reduced to price.

Commodity market players ‘race to the bottom’ with their prices much to the delight of the customers but to the detriment of the business as margins are squeezed and profits plummet.

As the telecommunications space was heating up with competition, we morphed our phone stores from outlets that offered telephones and accessories to residential customers to a solutions selling vehicle for both residential and small business customers. Product sales took care of themselves with this new focus.

3. Redefine who you want to serve

Change your target market. Demographics and psychographics are changing. Millennials are growing in number and will soon be the largest segment of the population. Continuing to target the older population, for example, because it has worked up to now is a choice with no long term future.

The question to ask is “Which customer group represents the greatest growth potential for our business?” Focus your energy on that group. Build capacity and competencies in your retail organization to satisfy the wants and desires of that group.

And say goodbye to customers who are no longer relevant to your renewed strategy. You can’t afford to hold on to your old base while pursuing a new one.

Deselecting customers is a difficult issue for most organizations as it means carefully shifting focus and investment away from customers who have traditionally been in the center of attention to a new breed who are unproven in terms of revenue generation.

4. Look for order of magnitude not incremental change

Minor changes to what you do and the way you do them won’t work; explore new completely different ways to completely morph your business. And consider outrageous ideas like the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas as well because the traditional tried and true approaches simply will not work anymore.

If your new retail idea doesn’t scare the hell out of you, chances are it’s too modest. 

We completely reengineered our phone store network by closing almost half of them and reconfiguring the survivors geographically through our operating territory. This was anything but a modest change for which we took considerable criticism. But it was necessary in order to place our new “customer serving centers” closer to the customers we decided to target.

5. Recruit a new team

if your current retail strategy won’t get you where you need to go, probably your existing team won’t as well. Be prepared to change the composition of your teams and recruit new blood with the skills and competencies necessary to deliver your new direction. Look for disrupters who hate the status quo; people who will push for change.

HR must constantly be on the lookout for the new breed; they should constantly be in the recruitment mode regardless of whether you have immediate opportunities available or not.
Sooner or later positions will open up, and you need a stream of people immediately at hand to draw on.

As the telecom business was changing from a monopoly to a highly competitive model, we had to purge much of the organization in terms of the skill sets and competencies in our people. We had to import a cadre of folks who had proven experience in the retail world and let go many who were effective order takers but not able to sell competitively.

6. Provide personalized service

As a critical element of your renewed strategy set your sights on providing more personalized service rather than the traditional one-size-fits-all doctrine. Retail success comes from engaging with and serving customers on THEIR terms, not on what the business deems appropriate given their internal constraints. If retail isn’t prepared to meet their customers on their turf, the game will be swiftly over.

We moved from a subscriber model in our phone stores to the strategy of creating more personal customer experiences for every person who came to our stores. One tactic we chose was to make the inside mirror the outside; in other words recruit employees that were integral to the mosaic of ethnic populations we served.

So in an area where we had a significant Asian community, we hired frontline people and leaders who were also Asian and who could relate better to this customer group and serve them better than people with other ethnic backgrounds.
Service levels increased with productivity and we quickly outpaced our competition.

7. Build a leadership team of servers

Hand in hand with establishing a service culture is the need to move leaders from a traditional command and control bias to a serve and coach paradigm where “How can I help?” supplants ‘Do this!’.

Critical to providing a personal experience for customers, retail operations must do the same for employees. An employee who experiences a servant leader who is there to help solve problems and eliminate job barriers will naturally apply the same behaviour to a customer. They learn to be helpful to customers because they receive the same treatment from their colleagues and bosses.

In the same way we had to move away from customers we had traditionally targeted, we had as well to exit traditional command and control style managers to make way for people who were natural servant leaders

8. Eliminate commission salespeople

Having commission salespeople is the anathema of the concept of serving customers and providing personalized solutions to their problems.
Employees who are paid to push retail product will flog their wares to, not serve, customers. They will push for the sale as opposed to taking whatever time it takes to problem solve with the customer.

They will have zero motivation to create memorable experiences for their customer because it takes too much time, requires too much energy, and because they’re not getting paid to do it. Be prepared for an exodus of salespeople when you do this; they will look for opportunities to continue their flogging ways with other retailers. So let them.

Retail businesses can survive; all is not lost. But it will require retailers to put the past to rest and take action to break away from ‘the way they have always done things’.

Those that have the guts to do it have a chance of surviving; those that don’t will die.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 1.21.19 at 04:05 am by Roy Osing
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January 7, 2019

7 reasons most call centers are absolutely shameful

Source: Unsplash

7 reasons most call centers are absolutely shameful.

Call centers generally don’t give good customer service.

Every organization that is big enough has a call center to handle primarily incoming calls from their customers.

There must be some redeeming value in having one if everyone has one, right? There is: it’s generally viewed as the most efficient operating solution for processing volumes of calls coming into an organization.

The dark side to call centers

But having led large customer service teams in a variety of business environments I have experienced a dark side to call centers.

In many cases I find that call centers represent the antithesis of miraculous service.

When an organization declares they intend to provide amazing service to their customers and then chooses an operating model with a call centre — particularly in a foreign country — as its nucleus, they are not only being disingenuous, they are fooling themselves (and probably driving their customers crazy) and assuming substantial competitive risk.

These are the aspects of call centers, particularly those that are outsourced, I find quite revolting.

They exist to manage cost

They choose to implement a call centre environment not to serve customers better, but to process volumes of calls at the lowest cost possible.

The question is rarely asked “Is this the best way to both serve our customers in an exemplary way while at the same time optimizing our cost position?”

It’s all about cost. That’s why most organizations outsource them around the world where labour costs are low. Current outsourcing destinations include India, Philippines, Thailand, China and Indonesia with many more planning to enter the fray.

This outsourcing trend has attracted a plethora of experts who define what it takes to have a successful call centre.

They are managed to improve productivity

Effectiveness of a call center is generally based on micro productivity measures such as:

▪️average holding time — the elapsed time it takes a call center rep to handle a customer query. Management tries to drive this number down in order to process as many calls as they can with the resources available.

The outcome of each call is rarely measured. Was the customer satisfied with the service they received? Did they enjoy the experience with the rep?

▪️average speed of answer — the average length of time it takes to answer an incoming call. When I ran call center operations in the telecom world, my target was to answer 80% of all calls within 6 seconds and our resource levels were set to achieve this result.

This was probably the best internal target we had that represented an attempt to deliver good customer service.
Can you imagine in today’s world reaching a call center rep of any organization within 2 or 3 rings of your phone? Rarely ever happens, with common wait times in the minutes rather than seconds.

Productivity and service miracles don’t easily coexist in most organizations; this measure needs attention if any organization wants to get out of the revolting category.

They don’t drive customer loyalty

Whether a call center serves incoming calls or is used to originate sales-type calls, the heavy traffic volumes involved generally work against the relationship building activity that leads to a loyal customer.

A call comes in > the rep answers (eventually) > the rep deals with the customer’s request > the rep terminates the call > the next call is fed to the rep.
And the cycle is repeated over and over again with a supervisor scrutinizing how long the rep is on each call.

The call center is essentially a production shop with no overt objective of creating an experience for the customer that could lead to brand loyalty.

Customer satisfaction may be measured along with productivity objectives, but a satisfied customer does not make a loyal one.

Satisfaction means that expectations were met; loyalty demands more — minds must be blown, expectations exceeded and marvellous experiences created if the loyalty dial is to be moved.

And this takes time. A WHAM! BAM! THANK YOU MA’M! process does nothing to encourage warm feelings and a desire to do more business with the brand involved.

They take control of your brand

The moment power is given to an outsourced call centre to engage with your customers, control is relinquished and your organization’s brand is put at risk.

Many organizations don’t even put in place a performance management contract with the 3rd party outsourcer to measure how customers perceive the service they receive from call center reps, so changes to brand position are unknown and can’t be responded to.

And with high turnover of employees, consistency in whatever customer treatment is given is almost impossible — at least I don’t experience it.

When your customer connects with the call center you have chosen to empower with your most valued asset, and the experience they have does not go well, it’s on YOU.
The call center rep is YOUR employee. The service outcome is YOUR responsibility.

YOU pay the price in the market.

Their words create the precious moment

Whether a customer has a miraculous service moment or not depends on communications with the call center rep. Miracles happen when the engagement is spirited, entertaining and responsive. When there is an easiness to the conversation that leaves the caller happy and fulfilled.

And for me, very often it is extremely difficult to fight through the accent of a foreign call center rep to have a meaningful and enjoyable conversation.
I simply can’t understand many (not all) of them, and that’s a BIG problem for the outsourcer.

If even the basic communications expectations of the call can be met, there is little chance that a service miracle will ever occur and in fact the opposite is the result with the caller being annoyed or angry with the encounter.

It’s not that the foreign reps are uneducated or don’t have some skills in the English language.
But it’s one thing to pass English 101 and have an understanding of sentence structure and grammar, and quite another to engage with someone else in a way that flows and is productive to the other party.

Are these reps tested by role playing to evaluate their conversational proficiency? Not from where I’m sitting.

Wait times are shameful

Outsources really don’t care about how long we wait on the phone to reach a rep; if they did, they wouldn’t tolerate wait times that often reach ridiculous levels — for me personally, I am blown away if I actually get a rep in 5 minutes and am not surprised to wait 45 minutes or longer. Business mediocrity in action.

It’s ironic that wait times take no priority at all; organizations are content to provide messages they feel assuage their shameful service: “Your call is important to us”; “We are experiencing unusual traffic volumes at the moment” unfortunately greet us more often than not when we call for help.

But wait! There is a silver lining to long wait times. Put your iPhone on speaker, slip it in your back pocket and get on with the job jar your wife has skillfully filled for you.

The reps have an impossible task

I totally get that even a highly competent and caring call center rep has a tough time being on 100% up time.
By the time a customer gets to them, they are often met with frustration, anger and sometimes abuse, with literally zero chance of turning a bad encounter into a pleasant experience.
The reps simply wants to get away from the pain they are engulfed in.

And the rep of course doesn’t own the problem — leadership does.

It’s a pipe dream and shameful leadership behaviour to create an impossible working environment and expect employees to perform impeccably. What planet are they on?

It’s quite simple, really.
If you want low costs, technology can do only so much and you will be saddled with the result. Under-resourcing is typically the result of cost cutting in the face of relentless demand and who pays the price? CUSTOMERS DO!

Call centers generally don’t focus on building intimate customer relationships and outsourcing them makes matters worse.

There are exceptions, however, but these rare organizations make the decision to establish their call center as an integral loyalty building instrument not as an efficient call processing center.

So if you decide to use call center technology to engage with your customers, please don’t preach your intent to deliver amazing service.

It’s intellectually dishonest and it fools no one.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead book series

• Posted 1.7.19 at 04:10 am by Roy Osing
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January 4, 2019

5 easy ways you can be insanely more hireable

5 easy ways you can be insanely more hireable.

It’s a tough job market out there. You need to stand out from all other candidates in order to get hired and to do that, you will not only need skills, you will also have to be passionate and dedicated to attract employers.

And you will need to be eager to learn more.

However, sometimes the competition is so fierce that you simply have to take your odds from good to great. Some improvements may take some time, while others you can obtain fast, but nonetheless, they are all a contributing factor to your future employment.

To succeed, you need to use some of the following ultimate ways to educate yourself in order to be more hireable in the job market of the 21st century.

Become a storyteller

Employers are interested in your college education, high school, and other accomplishments. Those will determine if you fit the requirements for the job so they don’t waste time interviewing unqualified persons.
But that doesn’t mean you don’t have to be creative and leave a positive impression from the first communication you have with the prospective employer.

Since you should keep the resume professional, concentrate on a motivation letter in order to make your voice unique. Do some research about the employer and tell them a story of why you are the best candidate for the job.
Essentially, you have to become a storyteller and describe yourself professionally and personally in an interesting and charming kind of way.

Add value before you’re hired or interviewed

Adding value to your resume doesn’t end when you fill in all the necessary fields. Once you have all the facts in front of you, it is time to tailor your resume for every job ad you apply to.
Omit the facts that are unimportant for certain employer and thus highlight the values that matter.

To do this, you have to prepare a new resume for each employer and make certain qualities and experience stand out. Ask yourself what is the best you can offer to the employer and let that be the center of your resume with appropriate evidence.

Employers like to see resumes specifically made for them since that shows them you are truly interested in their job offer.

Find a mentor or a partner

Instead of doing it all alone, find a mentor or a partner to learn more about the job you are applying to.
This is actually an effective solution for those who need to know more details about what to expect from the future job position. Ask a friend or search your social media for people who have some expertise in the matter and can explain some things to you.

LinkedIn, forums, Reddit and other online communities can offer valuable insights and also help you broaden your network. If you know someone who works at the employer who posted the ad, see if they are willing to tell you more about the conditions and what the job entails.
Everything is easier with a mentor or a partner, so don’t be shy and ask for help in order to prepare for the job interview.

Dig into available resources

There is always an opportunity to learn new skills and expand your knowledge. If you are a foreigner looking for a job abroad, attending an English college, for example, would get your proficiency in the language.
In case you want to broaden your knowledge of Microsoft Office, a certificate that states you completed a course would certainly improve your chances to get the job.

However, it’s important to stay focused when it comes to acquiring certificates and attending courses. If you start randomly obtaining certificates, the employer may see you as too scattered and someone without a goal.
And when it comes to hiring, employers want a person that is dependable and resolute, not undecided what they want to be.

Do the research

Research is a crucial way to educate yourself and be more hireable in the 21st century when basically everything is available on social media.

Start off by doing the research about the employer and the person who will perform the interviews. That way you can find out what approach to take, how to dress and how to make yourself more interesting and appealing during the job interview.

Then, do the research about the job position the employer is offering even though it may sound familiar enough. The same job title at different companies may include various obligations and this where research would be of great help.

By knowing these facts you would be able to better understand what the job requires and tell the employer why you can do it successfully.

In the end

In order to be hireable in the 21st century, you can’t be lazy and simply apply wherever you can. Clean your social media accounts and tailor the resume specifically for every job offer you apply to. That way you will highlight your qualities and help employers see that you would be a great addition to the team.

— Leila Dorari is an entrepreneur, self-development ambassador and an avid dog lover. She believes all people are born equal but only those dedicated and brave enough to work on themselves reach their full potential.

• Posted 1.4.19 at 04:03 am by Roy Osing
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December 24, 2018

Why the career breakthrough you need is to be different from others

Source: Unsplash

Why the career breakthrough you need is to be different from others.

For those of you who remember your philosophy courses, here’s a syllogism which is undeniably true.

— People who don’t comply with the rules — the “should do’s” of society; the accepted principles promulgated by academia; the standard ways of doing things as practiced by individuals and organizations — get noticed;
— And people who get noticed typically have more opportunities than those who are invisible to those around and above them;
— Ergo if you don’t follow the rule system of the day, you will get more chances to succeed.

Breaking the law is extreme.

In the extreme case, breaking the law will definitely get you noticed, but incarceration is not likely to be defined as success. But there is a safe spot for breaking the rules of the day and separating yourself from the trends of the crowd where winners are borne. 

The challenge for any person in society to get their ideas heard by decision makers is to find a way to break through the masses, hence the reason for the myriad of self interest groups that exist today. They organize themselves, create a message and push it out to people, hoping it will resonate and garner support.

It’s no different for an individual in an organization who is trying to break through the mass of employees all trying to rise to the top. They have to determine a path through the barrage of self interest messages directed at leadership to get their ideas and point of view listened to.

The competition for mind share of leadership is intense; everyone is looking for the career fast break that could come from getting recognized by the top guys.

How do you break through the clutter created by so many people chasing so few opportunities?

One thing is for certain: it’s not by looking like everyone else around you in terms of what you do and how you do it. These are the people who live in a world of compliance and conformity; they follow the rules, copy best practices and perform their responsibilities by following the ways of the established crowd — experts and academics who declare the right way to do things and convince others to follow them.

Following the crowd will bury you in it.

Following the actions of any crowd won’t get you noticed; it has the opposite effect. It reinforces that you ARE a member of the crowd and that you have no personal unique identity.

Imagine yourself in the crowd of candidates applying for an entry position in a company. Out of the 100 or so people who have declared their interest, how do you intend to get your name on the short list of 10 high potential individuals who will earn a face-to-face interview?
Do you really think you’re route to the short list is looking like the other 99 applicants; by following a boilerplate résumé everyone uses?

Trust me. Having been in the position of having to hire so many people for so many positions — from junior analysts to vice-presidents — my eyes glaze over when I read mot people’s job applications whether they were in written form or on a job website.

Most looked the same, offered nothing unique; I ignored them.

I regularly counsel young professionals, and my conclusion thus far at least is that ‘doing what you’re told’ has been so driven into their skulls from their early years and during their academic life that it subconsciously defines their modus operandi when they are pursuing a career.

In school, they are taught the principles on such subjects as preparing a résumé, developing an effective business or marketing plan, motivating people, managing conflict, recruiting high performing individuals, leadership, generating new ideas and good team play.

The authors of the rule book for each subject tend to be academics or theoreticians who advocate a specific theory or approach on their subject of expertise; those who have several papers published on a topic tend to be chosen by the curriculum designers as the voice for that particular topic.

Colouring inside the lines is expected.

Young professionals are taught to colour inside the lines — apply the principles they are taught — perfectly.

Unfortunately, this sets up the false expectation that one’s success is determined by how well they conform; by how accurately they remember and apply the scriptures of the experts.

But exactly the opposite is true.

My personal experience as an IT analyst, marketing product manager, marketing director, vice president, CMO and president taught me to look for opportunities to do things differently even if it meant breaking with tradition.
Even if it meant taking a contrary point of view and swimming upstream to current thinking.

Even if it meant startling the crowd of traditionalists who were mortified that unbelievable results could be achieved by not conforming to best practices or by not following exactly what the pundits prescribed.

They were horrified because there was mounting evidence to support the view that amazing results could be achieved by breaking with tradition; by denying common practices.

Leaders notice when you step out to step up.

They ask about you.

And if they like what they hear, they pull you from the herd and give you a chance the herd rarely gets.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead book series

• Posted 12.24.18 at 05:04 am by Roy Osing
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