Shop around for improvement strategies.
 When was the last time you or your employees shopped at another small retail gift shop? Shopping at other gift shops can prove to be one of the best improvement strategies for your shop.
Here is a three-step process I recommend to my retail clients.
- Brainstorm as a team. Schedule a meeting with your entire team and ask several questions. What do you think would happen if you visited another retail shop? Based on past visits, what do you suppose you would experience? Let the group share their comments.
"The real magic of this exercise is that you are getting everyone to experience and own the best practices needed in your gift shop."
Ask the group to identify the positive things they saw and experienced as well as the negative things they saw and experienced.
Discuss negative impressions first, then discuss the positive impressions. What kind of impact did the impressions have on them? How did these impressions affect their desire to purchase anything from that shop or return to it? - Plan field trips. Next, schedule each one of your employees to visit another retail shop. They’ll want to take note of everything on their trip.
Once inside the store, they should observe everything possible: the friendliness of the shop staff, the displays, the cleanliness, the merchandise, the signage. How were they treated if they either purchased or did not purchase an item?
- Share findings. Schedule a meeting to discuss everything they observed. Assign someone to take notes, recording all positive and negative impressions.
Go through each negative impression list and discuss which ones your shop might be guilty of and what you can do to change. Then go through the positive impression list and prioritize which ones are the most important that you can continue to use in your shop.
The real magic of this exercise is that you are getting everyone to experience and own the best practices needed in your gift shop.
Tom Borg is a retail consultant, speaker and author of “True Small Business Brilliance.” Contact him at:
734-404-5909, tom@tomborg.com, www.tomborgconsulting.com
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