Motivate and Retain High Value Employees
How is your company responding to the agility imperative?
THE ONLY THING WE CAN BE 100% SURE OF IS CHANGE IS HERE TO STAY!
The pandemic caused a revolution in the way consumers purchased creating an avalanche of online purchases. Some companies adapted quickly and gained significant market share. Others did not, and had to close their doors.
The next great disrupter is AI, and it promises to change the world as quickly and dramatically as the last shift to the online economy. And you can bet, you haven't seen the last of massive shifts in consumer behavior. So, the question is... how can retailers keep pace with these quantum leaps in technology and market volatility? How do they stay relevant to their customers in the face of rapidly changing consumer buying trends.?
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THE COST OF INACTION
Failing to quickly adapt to market changes will result in you becoming irrelevant to your customers.
Why don't companies act?
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Analysis paralysis - they take so long to research all the options they "miss the boat" and get too far behind.
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They chase too many technology trends and don't focus on the ones that will strengthen their brand strategy the most.
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Their executives feel threatened by change. Will AI replace me? Am I smart enough to do this?
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They operate in a "head office vacuum" without regular input from customers and frontline team members.
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There is just TOO much data and no time to analyze it. So, they do what they have always done and ignore the facts.
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They are too busy fighting fires to prioritize major initiatives. ​​
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Their communications systems are antiquated and they don't support rapid innovation.
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MINIMIZE RISK
In a constantly changing world, building operations agility and raising tolerance for change is key.
How do you do that?
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Continually validate and strengthen your brand strategy.
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Align your company around your ideal brand experience and empower them to create that.
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Encourage communication and collaboration with "all hands on deck" to innovate.
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Foster an team culture that expects constant change by adopting new ideas from "share boards".
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Remove communication barriers from the C-suite to the frontlines and across silos with an inverted organization communication framework.
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Move experience management to the "frontlines" so you can identify and adapt fast!
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​Embrace technologies like AI and real-time data alerts to better understand and swiftly respond to market shifts and consumer preferences.
CRITICAL NEXT STEPS
Building agility is the imperative. But, where do you start to minimize risk? How do you prevent overwhelm?
You want a "step by step" approach.
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Start with a brand strategy session with "lightening round brainstorming" exercises that expand and align the vision of your executive team.
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Get feedback on your customers and frontline teams. What do they want. Can they get excited about the brand vision?
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Shorten the time between problems and solutions real-time experience management.
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Don't rely on "blanket discounting" to boost sales. Personalize your promotions with buying behavior.
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Leverage self-serve options to make your customer service budget go further.
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Get all of your experience data in one platform - sentiment, social, marketing and sales.
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​Leverage AI to analyze trends and present your managers what the knowledge they need to act on with recommended actions.
Engage, Communicate, Collaborate and Innovative
So often, I hear frontline employees share their stories about how they start a new job excited to be part of a team and make a difference. They see opportunities to improve their workplace and try to share their ideas. Only to discover they do not have a meaningful voice.
What happens next is sad... inevitability the give up, watch the clock and work for just the paycheque.
Instead, we could give them a chance to have a positive influence and actively contribute to creating an exceptional company that delivers a superior customer experience.
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The best example of engaged, excited employees who delight their customers is and experience I had with Apple. I had an issue with my computer, and called Apple support. I rolled my eyes as I got the anticipated - our techs can't answer your call right now but leave your number....
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I hung and didn't have time to put down the phone, when it rang with an Apple support person.
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Now, that's the power of frontline teams creating amazing customer experiences!
To build agile, innovate organizations, we need "all hands on deck". Meaning, we need to tap into the goldmine of creativity, enthusiasm and commitment at all levels in the organization. As human beings we want to be seen, be part of something meaningful, and know that we make a difference.
This is especially true in customer service jobs, when work is often competitive, thankless and after a while, boring. Keeping frontline team members present, committed, and doing their best starts with lots of communication, empowerment and community building.
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Hubert Joly, the former CEO of Best Buy, turned the company around with his transformational leadership. Here's some quotes about how he did that I find inspiring . . .
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"A company at the end of the day, is a human organization made of individuals working together in pursuit of a goal."
"people are not a resource, they are the creative engine of innovation and change that companies urgently need".
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"I spent my first week in a store in St. Cloud with my blue shirt and my khaki pants, the badge called “CEO in Training”, to just listen to the front liners. They had all of the answers and our job was easy.”
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"you know the old method of top down managements, you take a bunch of smart people, they define what to do, and they tell other people what to do, they put incentives in place? That doesn’t work, right?"
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"Help everybody at the company connect what drives them with their work and with the purpose of the company. That’s how we unleash human magic and get these incredible results."
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Click here to read the full article.
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If these quotes inspire you too, then we need talk about how to transform and grow your retail company . . .
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​iHi, I'm Dale. I work with marketing and operations managers to create amazing customer and employee brand experiences that drive sales and profits.
We have a step by step approach to helping companies realize their ROR™ - "Return on Relationships".
On the customer side, you will see increases in customer satisfaction, visit frequency and spend. On the employee side, you will have happier, more productive frontline managers and staff that stay longer and become your brand ambassadors.
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