WC Blog 740
Stop Shoplifting -3
Sensormatic hard tags-3
Building A Culture Of Customer Service To Stop Shoplifting And Grow Sales Part 2
Most people in retail management are at least familiar with Sensormatic hard tags and what they do. Whether they choose to use them in their stores to improve their sales and profits may be another story. Most store managers will also pay lip service to the value of customer service in a store but I am not convinced all of them really know what great customer service looks like. I thought about this following a recent trip to a fast food restaurant and experienced what great customer service truly looks like. I shared this in Part 1 of this series. This business was extremely busy and had the employees been stressed out or short tempered it would have been understandable. Instead, the employees were smiling, engaging customers and there was plenty of help available. The culture of customer service in this restaurant should be emulated in every retail store. I can assure you that if you apply this model in your retail business you will boost sales and you will enhance the anti-theft capabilities of your Sensormatic security system (pssst…if you don’t have a Sensormatic system we will talk about that too).
What is it that made this store stand out from its competitors and what is management doing to make it happen? I would suggest that the employees were happy. The crowd was not a bother, a challenge perhaps but not a bother. I saw a manager (I’m pretty sure it was a manager) who was smiling, talking to his team encouraging them and giving direction but was pleasant in the process. This type of leadership is infectious and creates the climate for that shift or the day. What kind of leaders are working for you? What is your leadership style? How do YOUR managers cope under pressure? I would also say that based on the staffing level on the day I was in this establishment management had planned on a large influx of customers. Do you consider how you will stop shoplifting or the increased opportunity for it on busy days? Do you do anything differently to support increased patronage in any way? If you aren’t properly staffing you are hurting yourself.
When you have enough coverage it takes a strain off of your workers and they don’t feel overwhelmed. I have no idea what tools this business uses to plan but retailers can plan for business by using customer counting devices on their Sensormatic towers. Using the information from these counters can aid in planning and scheduling based on your customer foot traffic. Know when the peak times are for shoppers (and shoplifters) and you can schedule staff more effectively. Your employees can assist more patrons on the floor, increasing add-on sales and it also serves to stop shoplifting since crooks don’t want the attention. You can also have enough front end coverage that someone can respond if Sensormatic hard tags set off alarms be it by an attempted theft or cashier failure to remove a tag. Paying customers are less likely to be angry at an alarm activation if someone friendly responds to the doors quickly. Again, good customer service goes a long way to maintain happy customers who will return to a store to shop. Bill Bregar the founder of Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. (LPSI) recognizes how important proper staffing is to customer service, how it impacts sales AND can stop shoplifting. That is why he strongly recommends his customers install door counting sensors. Often the sensors can be seamlessly incorporated into existing systems. If you have avoided purchasing a system because you fear the cost will be out of your budget try looking at the LPSI ROI Calculator on their website, you will be very surprised at how affordable it is.
I am going to add one more thought on the importance of focusing on customer service in retail. When employees aren’t happy they don’t care as much about the tasks they need to accomplish. Associates may not take time to properly place Sensormatic hard tags on merchandise or they miss an occasional piece of merchandise. Cashiers are careless in removing hard tags leading to false alarms. A cashier with a negative attitude leaves a bad impression on customers. Any of these can be a cause for shoppers to decide not to return to a store. Be sure to create an atmosphere in your store where your employees are happy and encouraged to perform their best. Staff the building to minimize the stress level and your employees will appreciate it. As they do the level of customer service will improve and that will boost sales and reduce shortage and that is what your goal should be.
Need information on Sensormatic hard tags? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
Most people in retail management are at least familiar with Sensormatic hard tags and what they do. Whether they choose to use them in their stores to improve their sales and profits may be another story. Most store managers will also pay lip service to the value of customer service in a store but I am not convinced all of them really know what great customer service looks like. I thought about this following a recent trip to a fast food restaurant and experienced what great customer service truly looks like. I shared this in Part 1 of this series. This business was extremely busy and had the employees been stressed out or short tempered it would have been understandable. Instead, the employees were smiling, engaging customers and there was plenty of help available. The culture of customer service in this restaurant should be emulated in every retail store. I can assure you that if you apply this model in your retail business you will boost sales and you will enhance the anti-theft capabilities of your Sensormatic security system (pssst…if you don’t have a Sensormatic system we will talk about that too).
What is it that made this store stand out from its competitors and what is management doing to make it happen? I would suggest that the employees were happy. The crowd was not a bother, a challenge perhaps but not a bother. I saw a manager (I’m pretty sure it was a manager) who was smiling, talking to his team encouraging them and giving direction but was pleasant in the process. This type of leadership is infectious and creates the climate for that shift or the day. What kind of leaders are working for you? What is your leadership style? How do YOUR managers cope under pressure? I would also say that based on the staffing level on the day I was in this establishment management had planned on a large influx of customers. Do you consider how you will stop shoplifting or the increased opportunity for it on busy days? Do you do anything differently to support increased patronage in any way? If you aren’t properly staffing you are hurting yourself.
When you have enough coverage it takes a strain off of your workers and they don’t feel overwhelmed. I have no idea what tools this business uses to plan but retailers can plan for business by using customer counting devices on their Sensormatic towers. Using the information from these counters can aid in planning and scheduling based on your customer foot traffic. Know when the peak times are for shoppers (and shoplifters) and you can schedule staff more effectively. Your employees can assist more patrons on the floor, increasing add-on sales and it also serves to stop shoplifting since crooks don’t want the attention. You can also have enough front end coverage that someone can respond if Sensormatic hard tags set off alarms be it by an attempted theft or cashier failure to remove a tag. Paying customers are less likely to be angry at an alarm activation if someone friendly responds to the doors quickly. Again, good customer service goes a long way to maintain happy customers who will return to a store to shop. Bill Bregar the founder of Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. (LPSI) recognizes how important proper staffing is to customer service, how it impacts sales AND can stop shoplifting. That is why he strongly recommends his customers install door counting sensors. Often the sensors can be seamlessly incorporated into existing systems. If you have avoided purchasing a system because you fear the cost will be out of your budget try looking at the LPSI ROI Calculator on their website, you will be very surprised at how affordable it is.
I am going to add one more thought on the importance of focusing on customer service in retail. When employees aren’t happy they don’t care as much about the tasks they need to accomplish. Associates may not take time to properly place Sensormatic hard tags on merchandise or they miss an occasional piece of merchandise. Cashiers are careless in removing hard tags leading to false alarms. A cashier with a negative attitude leaves a bad impression on customers. Any of these can be a cause for shoppers to decide not to return to a store. Be sure to create an atmosphere in your store where your employees are happy and encouraged to perform their best. Staff the building to minimize the stress level and your employees will appreciate it. As they do the level of customer service will improve and that will boost sales and reduce shortage and that is what your goal should be.
Need information on Sensormatic hard tags? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
Can Loss Prevention Be Free? – 3 WC Blog 722
Loss Prevention Calculator -4
Can Loss Prevention Be Free When You Buy A Dummy EAS System?
Can Loss Prevention be free for a small retail store owner? After a recent search of the internet to see what people are trying to sell in the name of low-budget retail theft prevention I found that there are bargain basement deals out there. For a couple of hundred dollars a business owner can purchase fake electronic article surveillance towers for $199. For about another $30 that same owner can purchase fake electronic article surveillance labels. Maybe it isn’t free but it is almost as close as you will ever get to free isn’t it?
The website that offered the faux tags states that the tags they sell, “Gives the visual illusion you have a working EAS system at your door that will beep if product is removed.” I would like to see the Loss Prevention Calculator that can show me the amount of shortage I will save if I purchase their fake tags. I suppose I could save all kinds of virtual money if I purchased from these people. Maybe these companies will take virtual currency as payment for their fake products. After shoplifters figure out that the tags and the towers you have installed don’t do anything, how much theft do you think your nearly free Loss Prevention system is going to prevent? As a former Loss Prevention Manager, I can tell you that your free/low cost system is not going to prevent much if any theft.
I imagine someone is thinking that maybe this is the only way a business can afford any type of theft prevention. Ask ME the question, “Can Loss Prevention be free?” and I will have a different answer for you and it doesn’t involve a dummy tower or look-alike labels. Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. offers store owners the opportunity to own a brand new system within their budgets. They even provide the option of financing a system through Navitas Credit Corp. The fact is a new Sensormatic retail anti-theft system can save a store so much money from theft reduction that it will pay for itself over time. Go to the Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. website and open up the ROI Calculator tab near the top of the page. It goes to their free-to-use Loss prevention Calculator and provides you with a way to enter some basic information and the calculator does the rest. It estimates how much shrink you are losing annually and by the month. It also shows roughly how much you can reduce your shortage with the installation of a Sensormatic system. The final number and this is the big one, the Loss Prevention Calculator will show you approximately how many months it will take for a new system to pay for itself! In other words, EVERY storeowner can afford a system.
Here is another thing for you to consider when it comes to shortage reduction. The electronic article surveillance systems are primarily meant to stop theft. However, these systems can also have an impact on operational shortage for a store. According to the 2015 Global Retail Theft Barometer administrative shortage accounted for almost 16% of shortage. A store with a fully functioning retail anti-theft system is going to be able to prevent missed merchandise from going out the door. An example of this is when a cosmetic item is overlooked in the bottom of a shopping cart. The customer did not intend to overlook it but they did and so did the cashier. The item goes out to the parking lot where it gets picked up by the customer who thinks they paid for it and it rolled out of the bag. It may be missed altogether and another customer finds it in the shopping cart and takes it. The loss was not intentional but it is loss through operational error. If that cosmetic item is protected with an electronic article surveillance label the towers at the doors will detect it before it leaves the building. The customer can choose to pay for it or simply return it and no harm is done. Try THAT with a dummy anti-theft system.
Can Loss Prevention Be Free? Not if you purchase a non-functioning anti-theft system. It can’t be because you won’t be preventing theft for long. Spend the money up front on a NEW system and see real results almost from the time you have it set up. A few months down the road and it is possible your new system will have paid for itself. Try the Loss Prevention Calculator and see for yourself.
Get more information on the Loss Prevention Calculator, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
Can Loss Prevention be free for a small retail store owner? After a recent search of the internet to see what people are trying to sell in the name of low-budget retail theft prevention I found that there are bargain basement deals out there. For a couple of hundred dollars a business owner can purchase fake electronic article surveillance towers for $199. For about another $30 that same owner can purchase fake electronic article surveillance labels. Maybe it isn’t free but it is almost as close as you will ever get to free isn’t it?
The website that offered the faux tags states that the tags they sell, “Gives the visual illusion you have a working EAS system at your door that will beep if product is removed.” I would like to see the Loss Prevention Calculator that can show me the amount of shortage I will save if I purchase their fake tags. I suppose I could save all kinds of virtual money if I purchased from these people. Maybe these companies will take virtual currency as payment for their fake products. After shoplifters figure out that the tags and the towers you have installed don’t do anything, how much theft do you think your nearly free Loss Prevention system is going to prevent? As a former Loss Prevention Manager, I can tell you that your free/low cost system is not going to prevent much if any theft.
I imagine someone is thinking that maybe this is the only way a business can afford any type of theft prevention. Ask ME the question, “Can Loss Prevention be free?” and I will have a different answer for you and it doesn’t involve a dummy tower or look-alike labels. Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. offers store owners the opportunity to own a brand new system within their budgets. They even provide the option of financing a system through Navitas Credit Corp. The fact is a new Sensormatic retail anti-theft system can save a store so much money from theft reduction that it will pay for itself over time. Go to the Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. website and open up the ROI Calculator tab near the top of the page. It goes to their free-to-use Loss prevention Calculator and provides you with a way to enter some basic information and the calculator does the rest. It estimates how much shrink you are losing annually and by the month. It also shows roughly how much you can reduce your shortage with the installation of a Sensormatic system. The final number and this is the big one, the Loss Prevention Calculator will show you approximately how many months it will take for a new system to pay for itself! In other words, EVERY storeowner can afford a system.
Here is another thing for you to consider when it comes to shortage reduction. The electronic article surveillance systems are primarily meant to stop theft. However, these systems can also have an impact on operational shortage for a store. According to the 2015 Global Retail Theft Barometer administrative shortage accounted for almost 16% of shortage. A store with a fully functioning retail anti-theft system is going to be able to prevent missed merchandise from going out the door. An example of this is when a cosmetic item is overlooked in the bottom of a shopping cart. The customer did not intend to overlook it but they did and so did the cashier. The item goes out to the parking lot where it gets picked up by the customer who thinks they paid for it and it rolled out of the bag. It may be missed altogether and another customer finds it in the shopping cart and takes it. The loss was not intentional but it is loss through operational error. If that cosmetic item is protected with an electronic article surveillance label the towers at the doors will detect it before it leaves the building. The customer can choose to pay for it or simply return it and no harm is done. Try THAT with a dummy anti-theft system.
Can Loss Prevention Be Free? Not if you purchase a non-functioning anti-theft system. It can’t be because you won’t be preventing theft for long. Spend the money up front on a NEW system and see real results almost from the time you have it set up. A few months down the road and it is possible your new system will have paid for itself. Try the Loss Prevention Calculator and see for yourself.
Get more information on the Loss Prevention Calculator, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
Retail Traffic Counting –3 WC Blog 736
Customer Counting Device – 4
Improve Incremental Sales When You Use A Customer Counting Device
You may not have given much thought to retail traffic counting in the past but after reading an article in cnbc.com, by Sarah O’Brien, 23 Feb. 2018 titled, “Consumers cough up $5,400 a year on impulse purchases” I found some statistics that will make you reconsider it. According to the article she cites a survey that was conducted by Slickdeals.net in which they studied 2,000 consumers. On average the consumers were making three impulse purchases a month that could equate up to $450 for the month. If this is the average American it can translate to approximately $5,400 a year. Now let’s think about this. If you are the owner of a small or even medium sized retail store and you can get each customer to spend an additional $5,400 a year there are TWO things you need to do. First, keep your checklanes, displays and endcaps full. One of the top items on your manager’s daily tasks should be filling these areas that drive impulse sales. Second, you need to get more people into your store. The problem is that if you don’t know how many customers are already visiting on a daily basis you can’t know if you are seeing increased patronage or how many are not making purchases.
The CEO of Loss Prevention Systems, Inc., Bill Bregar recognizes the importance of knowing how many people are leaving a store empty handed and that is why he recommends HIS clients incorporate a Customer Counting Device. His company focuses on theft prevention but Bill’s high-level experience as a former Director of Loss Prevention makes him keenly familiar with ALL aspects of a business. His goal is to make businesses profitable whether it is through theft prevention, improved hiring practices like the Applicant Management Center his company now offers, pre-employment background checks and drug testing or retail traffic counting. He also knows the ins and outs of product placement and how impulse purchases drive incremental sales. Through his experience Bill has learned that customer counting can lead to increased profits.
In case you are concerned about the difficulty of installing a counting device, don’t be. If you are already protecting merchandise with a Sensormatic security pedestal the Integrated EAS Traffic Counter can be fitted to many existing towers. Preventing theft and adding sales is a win-win for store owners.
Some people would argue that you already have a good idea of how many people are visiting your store based on the number of transactions in a day. Unfortunately you can’t measure what doesn’t happen. If shoppers walk in and leave without a purchase you have no way to measure that if you only rely on sales data. A customer counting device DOES count how many people walk in and how many people leave a store. Use that information to compare to your sales data to get see how much you may really be losing. I would even suggest that based on the information from the CNBC article you multiply the total number of non-purchases by $450 to get a picture of how much you could be potentially losing per customer each month.
Another way is to get an idea of how many lost sales are taking place is to track abandoned shopping carts in the store. The problem with this method is distinguishing if the abandonment was related to theft taking place or someone just leaving an empty buggy and continuing on to buy just one item. Another problem with this method is that you have to track the buggies and/or the merchandise. Why bother doing all of this counting when a retail traffic counting device can make the job simpler and more accurate?
I can hear it now, if addressing the problem is as easy as filling empty spaces why don’t I focus on that? The reason is that a customer counting device can also help you determine if sales promotions or advertising campaigns are effective. Supposing you spend $1,000 a month on a new billboard sign, how do you know if more people are coming to the store, by sales increases? Maybe, but then we are right back to the earlier point I made how many potential sales did you miss? Maybe you could have used prior traffic counts to improve staffing to get more service on the salesfloor when it would have been more effective.
Fill your endcaps, your checklanes, displays and clip strips to drive impulse buys. Know how many people are visiting and walking out empty handed then strategically move products to grab their attention when they enter and before they leave. Knowledge is power and knowledge is attainable with a customer counting device at your doors.
For more information about retail traffic counting contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.
You may not have given much thought to retail traffic counting in the past but after reading an article in cnbc.com, by Sarah O’Brien, 23 Feb. 2018 titled, “Consumers cough up $5,400 a year on impulse purchases” I found some statistics that will make you reconsider it. According to the article she cites a survey that was conducted by Slickdeals.net in which they studied 2,000 consumers. On average the consumers were making three impulse purchases a month that could equate up to $450 for the month. If this is the average American it can translate to approximately $5,400 a year. Now let’s think about this. If you are the owner of a small or even medium sized retail store and you can get each customer to spend an additional $5,400 a year there are TWO things you need to do. First, keep your checklanes, displays and endcaps full. One of the top items on your manager’s daily tasks should be filling these areas that drive impulse sales. Second, you need to get more people into your store. The problem is that if you don’t know how many customers are already visiting on a daily basis you can’t know if you are seeing increased patronage or how many are not making purchases.
The CEO of Loss Prevention Systems, Inc., Bill Bregar recognizes the importance of knowing how many people are leaving a store empty handed and that is why he recommends HIS clients incorporate a Customer Counting Device. His company focuses on theft prevention but Bill’s high-level experience as a former Director of Loss Prevention makes him keenly familiar with ALL aspects of a business. His goal is to make businesses profitable whether it is through theft prevention, improved hiring practices like the Applicant Management Center his company now offers, pre-employment background checks and drug testing or retail traffic counting. He also knows the ins and outs of product placement and how impulse purchases drive incremental sales. Through his experience Bill has learned that customer counting can lead to increased profits.
In case you are concerned about the difficulty of installing a counting device, don’t be. If you are already protecting merchandise with a Sensormatic security pedestal the Integrated EAS Traffic Counter can be fitted to many existing towers. Preventing theft and adding sales is a win-win for store owners.
Some people would argue that you already have a good idea of how many people are visiting your store based on the number of transactions in a day. Unfortunately you can’t measure what doesn’t happen. If shoppers walk in and leave without a purchase you have no way to measure that if you only rely on sales data. A customer counting device DOES count how many people walk in and how many people leave a store. Use that information to compare to your sales data to get see how much you may really be losing. I would even suggest that based on the information from the CNBC article you multiply the total number of non-purchases by $450 to get a picture of how much you could be potentially losing per customer each month.
Another way is to get an idea of how many lost sales are taking place is to track abandoned shopping carts in the store. The problem with this method is distinguishing if the abandonment was related to theft taking place or someone just leaving an empty buggy and continuing on to buy just one item. Another problem with this method is that you have to track the buggies and/or the merchandise. Why bother doing all of this counting when a retail traffic counting device can make the job simpler and more accurate?
I can hear it now, if addressing the problem is as easy as filling empty spaces why don’t I focus on that? The reason is that a customer counting device can also help you determine if sales promotions or advertising campaigns are effective. Supposing you spend $1,000 a month on a new billboard sign, how do you know if more people are coming to the store, by sales increases? Maybe, but then we are right back to the earlier point I made how many potential sales did you miss? Maybe you could have used prior traffic counts to improve staffing to get more service on the salesfloor when it would have been more effective.
Fill your endcaps, your checklanes, displays and clip strips to drive impulse buys. Know how many people are visiting and walking out empty handed then strategically move products to grab their attention when they enter and before they leave. Knowledge is power and knowledge is attainable with a customer counting device at your doors.
For more information about retail traffic counting, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.
