In the 1890s Edward and Josephine Nordhoff started a Retail store called "Bon Marche" which was popularly known as 'The Bon'. After her husband’s death, Josephine continued to run the chain. In what I think is one of the rarest tributes to a 'retailer', on the day of Josephine's funeral, all the major retail establishments in Seatlle closed in remembrance of a person who had been known as Seatlle's most generous and beloved citizen. She had supported many charitable causes and was instrumental in introducing 8-hour weekdays for employees in retail. An important lesson to be learnt from the Nordhoffs is that one of the most fundamental building blocks of good retail is the standing that the store or chain has in its community. This can only be built by treating its employees as family and by doing its best for the community it serves. In an industry plagued with low pay and tough working conditions which results in low employee morale, devotion to duty and loyalty, it is no surprise that retailers are tortured by high employee turnover. I remember being laughed at when, during the recession and pay cut years, I proposed that we look at introducing a 5-day work week. Not only would the employees have felt better about the cuts thanks to the additional time off to spend with their families there would have been a feeling of security replacing the fear of being sacked overnight and the sense of doom that was all around.
With cuts in budgets, reduced marketing expenses and low employee motivation, how was it possible to keep customers coming back? We came up with an innovative solution – we filled our store calendar with events; activities for kids, book-launches and readings for the adults, competitions, performances and much more. We then got aggressive in getting our customers in by using low-cost methods like emails, telephone calls, newspaper event listings and smses. We put in place lots of compelling reasons for the customers to come and they came in droves, with family and friends. The result was that we grew through the recession.
Large business houses that have entered retail like the Tatas, Reliance, Mahindras, Aditya Birla and the Future Group and the multinational chains of food and restaurant retailers such as McDonald's and KFC are uniquely positioned to impact the community positively through retail. Instead of squeezing employee development costs if they work on leveraging their vast workforces to channel community development activities through their stores imagine its widespread impact.
If the Indian retailers were to increase the amount of time they spend in training and development 10-fold the business impact would 100-fold. Training means improved knowledge and skills with a positive impact on attitude and performance. Better performance means better results and better results ensure better pay. It really is that simple. Immediate measures in basic skilling, higher educational opportunities for advancement in retail management careers are the crying need of the industry today. As much as the focus on education, there is a need for improving the work-life balance, work-timings and working conditions. This will ensure the creation of a passionate, competent and loyal retail workforce.
In terms of community building whether it is giving scholarships to local students or conducting art workshops, painting exhibitions or hosting an each-one-teach-one program or doing charity drives and collections, any interesting socially responsible activity done with a genuine intent will bring customers thronging in. If customers are made to feel passionately about the things that impact them and if they can be enticed to participate in the interesting activities that retailers do then any retailer chain can become a respected and loved part of the customer’s community.
What retail in India requires today is a lot of heart – approach the retail business with heart and success will definitely follow!
With cuts in budgets, reduced marketing expenses and low employee motivation, how was it possible to keep customers coming back? We came up with an innovative solution – we filled our store calendar with events; activities for kids, book-launches and readings for the adults, competitions, performances and much more. We then got aggressive in getting our customers in by using low-cost methods like emails, telephone calls, newspaper event listings and smses. We put in place lots of compelling reasons for the customers to come and they came in droves, with family and friends. The result was that we grew through the recession.
Large business houses that have entered retail like the Tatas, Reliance, Mahindras, Aditya Birla and the Future Group and the multinational chains of food and restaurant retailers such as McDonald's and KFC are uniquely positioned to impact the community positively through retail. Instead of squeezing employee development costs if they work on leveraging their vast workforces to channel community development activities through their stores imagine its widespread impact.
If the Indian retailers were to increase the amount of time they spend in training and development 10-fold the business impact would 100-fold. Training means improved knowledge and skills with a positive impact on attitude and performance. Better performance means better results and better results ensure better pay. It really is that simple. Immediate measures in basic skilling, higher educational opportunities for advancement in retail management careers are the crying need of the industry today. As much as the focus on education, there is a need for improving the work-life balance, work-timings and working conditions. This will ensure the creation of a passionate, competent and loyal retail workforce.
In terms of community building whether it is giving scholarships to local students or conducting art workshops, painting exhibitions or hosting an each-one-teach-one program or doing charity drives and collections, any interesting socially responsible activity done with a genuine intent will bring customers thronging in. If customers are made to feel passionately about the things that impact them and if they can be enticed to participate in the interesting activities that retailers do then any retailer chain can become a respected and loved part of the customer’s community.
What retail in India requires today is a lot of heart – approach the retail business with heart and success will definitely follow!
Thought provoking. Most retailers stsrt off with a very small budget for training, and hence the quantum and quality of training is not sufficient. Another problem is the high attrition rate amongst the entry level positions so someone else enjoys the fruits of your labor!
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