A KEY TO IMPROVED PERFORMANCE
It has been quite some time since I last had the opportunity to manage, hands-on, a retail chain of stores. During the last four months, I have worked closely with a long standing client who wanted some support in focusing their organization on improving sales and productivity. it was apparent that the cutting of employee hours had lead to lower service levels which resulted in lower sales volumes.

While there are many weapons in a retailer’s arsenal to influence financial results positively (advertising, new product categories, markdowns, etc.), one of the issues I chose to focus was customer service and employee scheduling.

It was apparent to me that this retailer, like many in this period of cautious yet hopeful optimism, had cut back hours employed at store level to save wage costs. Upon reviewing some key store schedules, it was apparent that the cutting of employee hours had led to lower service levels which resulted in lower sales volumes.

To illustrate my point for the management team, I brought out “The Ant Story of Synergy” which I have carried around throughout my retail career. It goes like this:

“An ant working alone moves 232 grams of earth every six hours. Add another ant and the first ant’s production reaches 765 grams per six hours. Add a third ant the first ant’s production reaches 778 grams per six hours. This occurs even though their efforts don’t appear to be coordinated. Apparently a “beneficial tension” (competitive attitude) is produced by the mere presence of others. To further illustrate this point, if you remove the second and third ants, the production of the first ant falls to 180 grams per six hours.”

Applied in a retail scenario the result is the same: the building of a team and adding staff at the right time of the day/week produces a competitive harmony, facilitating production and the achievement of satisfaction and results by each individual. The bottom line is that adding hours strategically will result in higher levels of customer service and improved sales.
 
Another lesson from nature!  

 


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