SHOP NAMES - CAREFUL!

Shop names? Important to think things through......athough some of these are deliberate! http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=funny+shop+names&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=T912UYehMMSxPP_NgDg&sqi=2&ved=0CDEQsAQ&biw=1680&bih=830 #retail

TESCO 2006

As a bit of a retail historian, I am fascinated by past promises and how they panned out.  This is an extract from The Independent from almost 7 years ago - a Tesco 10-Point Plan:

The 10-point action plan

Tesco promises to...

1 - Halve the average energy used in all Tesco buildings by 2010 compared with the year 2000.

2 - Double the amount customers recycle at stores by 2008.

3 - Make all carrier bags degradable from September and use 25 per cent fewer bags over next two years.

4 - Put nutritional labelling on all own-brand products by spring 2007.

5 - Help educate parents about healthier food for their children.

6 - Get 2 million people running, cycling or walking in sponsored events leading up to 2012 Olympics.

7 - Be a quieter neighbour by cutting the number of deliveries to Express convenience stores.

8 - More consultation with local communities before building new stores from 2007.

9 - Make it easier for small suppliers to gain access to Tesco.

10 - Sell more local products than any other retailer and introduce regional counters into stores.

Wonder how that went!

GOD'S GIFT

"Congratulations," said God,
Here is your present.
Treat it with care,
It's uses are wide,
Detailed instructions
Are tucked inside."

"Thank you," we said
And pulled at the string,
Clawed at the wrapping
Like kittens at play,
Found the instructions
And threw them away."

RETAIL MINIMUM WAGE - £10 PER HOUR

It can be a mantra or a manacle, depending on your particular point of view, bestowed on every one of us by Cesar Ritz, the legendary Swiss hotelier.  He puffed out the words: “Le client n’a jamais tort”, which translates as “the customer is never wrong”, or as we all like to chant it out nowadays, “the customer is always right”.  Each phrase in its own way is highly debatable because the customer is not always right but certainly, however you cut it, the customer is always essential.  And if the customer is to be elevated to a position of regal importance in the commercial world, then customer service staff should be given parity in the corporate structure.  Excuse me, but I thought I heard a voice in the distance shout: ‘Are you out of your mind?”

Checkout assistants, information desk staff, call centre operatives, banking personnel, catering teams, hotel receptionists, bus drivers and so on are all on the front line in business, facing or communicating with masses of customers on a daily basis.  They are trained, hopefully, in personality, professionalism, etiquette and charm to maintain eye contact, generate warmth, offer huge dollops of sincerity, friendliness and helpfulness, all to make the complete service package fresh and unique to every individual customer.  In other words, they carry an enormous responsibility as business ambassadors and hold considerable power to win loyalty through satisfaction or customer desertion through apathy or carelessness.

It is challenging work that does not suit everybody.  Some service employees are naturally gregarious but others, through glum facial expressions and lazy body language, display their blatant wishes to be somewhere else, well away from customers and the passing general public.  Service needs dedication, loyalty and, yes, significant financial reward. While well-rewarded directors spend some time with customers and lecture on service and goodwill from the relative safety of boardrooms and conference podiums, hourly paid staff put up with the human race with all its foibles, emotions, tantrums, demands and expectations.  The experience can range from the sublime to the vile.  Serving the public is a tougher and tougher vocation that deserves the best customer servants that money can buy.

Minimum wage for customer-facing employees - start at £10 per hour.  

Retailers might be choking, but I'm not joking.  You get what you pay for.

KEEPING DOWN APPEARANCES

I started in retailing in the 1970s and one of the many disciplined routines in shops was the employee inspection by the Staff Manager.

This was all about appearance, as set out in the employee handbook.

Every morning, the Staff Manager would look for well-groomed, sensibly attired, presentable employees ready to project a neat, tidy and organised image to customers.  I liked the approach, although occasionally sending someone home because they had the wrong tights or socks when staffing was tight was a tad extreme.  But the emphasis on appearance was right.

Fast forward nearly 40 years and I despair at the state of some of the people serving in shops and catering establishments.  I know the world has moved on and people have "their rights" but scruffy assistants are taking over.  The days of the clean, neat, tidy employee are fading fast.

It seems now that anything goes, especially in supermarkets and fast-food outlets.  Bad hair, tattoos, face jewellery, stubble, scuffed shoes, dirty fingernails and on and on, coupled with poor manners seem to be the order of the day.

I cannot understand why modern HR managers (and other managers) do not place more emphasis on employee appearance.  Perhaps they too have evolved into sloppiness in their supervision of their workforces.

Yesterday, in a Marks and Spencer store, the young man on the checkout had clearly been dragged through a hedge backwards and was in some kind of razor-denial cult.  He looked dreadful.  But, then again, he was allowed to start work looking like that. His fault? Yes. Management fault? Definitely.

I fear it is too late to return to good standards of appearance because the majority of retailers and hospitality businesses do not seem to give a toss.  We really are in a bums-on-seats recruitment and staff management era.  Not a lot else matters.

I was in Betty's Tea Rooms in Ilkley a week ago.  I remarked to my wife how immaculate the staff looked from top to toe.  IT MEANS SOMETHING!  There will be other businesses with the same high standards and they are to be applauded.  But, scruffs are on the rise and keeping down appearances seems to be acceptable now. Sadly.

LUC VANDEVELDE - FROM YEAR 2000 (M&S)

Way back in the year 2000, I started gathering a file of retail cuttings and, on browsing through it today, I found this collection of quotations from Luc Vandevelde, then Chairman of Marks and Spencer:

"This is a big job."

"The most important management act is recruiting the right people.  If you've got that right, everything's right from there.  If you get that wrong, everything's wrong from there.  There is no grey; it's black and white.  The second most important thing is if you make a mistake in hiring, you've got to correct it in firing."

"We haven't done enough of what made the brand great.  The customer base is still there but maybe we haven't brought enough of the added value that M&S used to bring.  Maybe we haven't acted fast enough."

"I would not be sitting here if I did not think we could create substantial shareholder value on our own. If and when a bid comes, the firm is prepared to deal with it."

"The first priority is to get the company back to where it belongs."

13 years on......much changed?

THE WISDOM OF ANDY HORNBY

Financial regulators should consider banning three top HBOS bankers from future roles in the financial sector, an influential committee has said.  The Banking Standards Commission said former bosses Sir James Crosby, Andy Hornby and Lord Stevenson were largely to blame for the bank's collapse.  It accused them of a "colossal failure" of management at the bank which had to be rescued in 2008.

In 2007, "going plural" businessman, Allan Leighton, published a book called "On Leadership".  In it, he picked the brains of top bosses of the time to get a handle on what makes a great leader.

The much-criticised Andy Hornby, late of HBOS, was a contributor.  Here are some of his gems:

"Spend time on the difficult issues" 

"Get rid of the blame culture. Never criticise people for making mistakes"

"Never insulate yourself from feedback"

"Good leaders are restless.  They are always a bit paranoid, thinking that what they are doing is not enough and worrying about what the next threat is"

"The defining feature of leadership is that you have to seriously enjoy the job.  You have to live it, breathe it and jump out of bed every morning at the thought of the day ahead"

On Leadership by Allan Leighton, 2007, Random House