Training To Reduce Employee Theft-3 WC Blog 628
Stop Shoplifting-4
When Done Properly Training To Reduce Employee Theft And Stop Shoplifting Also Improves Sales
Training to reduce employee theft is a skill store managers should value as much as any other retail training. The company I work for periodically holds required training/meetings for all store employees to attend, even part-timers. The purpose of the training is to ensure all employees understand new programs that have been rolled out and how they should be using the program or promoting it to customers. When our company started a new program for enhancing sales of printer ink there was training our managers had to conduct with employees. Had the company pushed out a program and not given us all of the information we needed to promote it I am sure it would have been a complete flop. While I have no specific data on the results of the program I can speak to my own experiences and say that even as a part-time employee I have had a few successful sales with this new product. That gets to the heart of what I want to discuss, how training can decrease inventory shortage when managers know how to prevent theft by dishonest employees. Training to help stop shoplifting can also decrease shortage and improve sales by enhancing employee selling skills.
I imagine there are readers right now that cannot see how training to reduce employee theft can have any relevance to improving sales. From my many years of experience as a Retail Loss Prevention Manager I want to share my thought on how one impacts the other. I believe one of the things that managers can do to reduce employee theft is to reward employees who report co-workers who are stealing. This also includes rewarding employees who report empty packages they find to a manager, especially when the empty package is found in an employee’s-only accessible area. I have had employees report empty packages found in stockrooms and employee restrooms. Most times that empty packages were reported I was able to conduct a successful investigation leading to an employee admission of theft. When managers invest time teaching associates how to provide great customer service they are also teaching skills that will stop shoplifting. The moment a customer enters a store there should be a greeting from an employee and preferably eye contact made. That employee or someone on the salesfloor should then begin a conversation with the patron trying to help them find what they came in to purchase. If it is discovered that the customer only wants to browse that is okay, just be sure to check on them from time to time. Loss Prevention Systems Inc. (LPSI) offers training for managers that will give them the skills they need to run profitable stores. These skills provide managers the ability to deter dishonest employee activities and training on how they can identify those employees who are stealing. As a side note if a manager suspects an employee is stealing LPSI offers investigation services. LPSI CEO, Bill Bregar, knows that identifying, investigating and closing a theft case require an experienced Loss Prevention Investigator that knows how to properly and legally close a case. When done properly it can result in an admission statement, a possible promissory note and/or court ordered restitution.
I mentioned above that teaching proper service skills will stop shoplifting. Managers need to make sure that employees understand that the greeting and engaging of customers first and foremost drives sales. By asking a customer if there is something specific they came in to purchase the employee can help them locate it. If the store doesn’t carry the item, offering alternatives rather than simply saying the store does not have it can lead to a sale that otherwise might be lost. It is also an opportunity to increase sales through suggestive selling. A customer may say they only need poster board for a school project but sincere, open-ended questions from the employee may open the door to other items the customer did not consider. Markers, tape, glue and so on make incremental sales increases. That .99 cent poster board sale now becomes a $5.00 sale. BUT, if that customer came in with the intent to steal, that same customer service will drive them bananas. Thieves do not want attention and great customer service sends them scurrying like rats.
Whether it is improving customer service or rewarding honest employees for reporting suspicious behavior or activity, training to reduce employee theft and to stop shoplifting ultimately keeps products from being stolen. Merchandise not being stolen is available for purchases and purchases are driven by improving customer service. It’s a winning cycle so start training today and see profits rise.
For more information about training to reduce employee theft contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
Training to reduce employee theft is a skill store managers should value as much as any other retail training. The company I work for periodically holds required training/meetings for all store employees to attend, even part-timers. The purpose of the training is to ensure all employees understand new programs that have been rolled out and how they should be using the program or promoting it to customers. When our company started a new program for enhancing sales of printer ink there was training our managers had to conduct with employees. Had the company pushed out a program and not given us all of the information we needed to promote it I am sure it would have been a complete flop. While I have no specific data on the results of the program I can speak to my own experiences and say that even as a part-time employee I have had a few successful sales with this new product. That gets to the heart of what I want to discuss, how training can decrease inventory shortage when managers know how to prevent theft by dishonest employees. Training to help stop shoplifting can also decrease shortage and improve sales by enhancing employee selling skills.
I imagine there are readers right now that cannot see how training to reduce employee theft can have any relevance to improving sales. From my many years of experience as a Retail Loss Prevention Manager I want to share my thought on how one impacts the other. I believe one of the things that managers can do to reduce employee theft is to reward employees who report co-workers who are stealing. This also includes rewarding employees who report empty packages they find to a manager, especially when the empty package is found in an employee’s-only accessible area. I have had employees report empty packages found in stockrooms and employee restrooms. Most times that empty packages were reported I was able to conduct a successful investigation leading to an employee admission of theft. When managers invest time teaching associates how to provide great customer service they are also teaching skills that will stop shoplifting. The moment a customer enters a store there should be a greeting from an employee and preferably eye contact made. That employee or someone on the salesfloor should then begin a conversation with the patron trying to help them find what they came in to purchase. If it is discovered that the customer only wants to browse that is okay, just be sure to check on them from time to time. Loss Prevention Systems Inc. (LPSI) offers training for managers that will give them the skills they need to run profitable stores. These skills provide managers the ability to deter dishonest employee activities and training on how they can identify those employees who are stealing. As a side note if a manager suspects an employee is stealing LPSI offers investigation services. LPSI CEO, Bill Bregar, knows that identifying, investigating and closing a theft case require an experienced Loss Prevention Investigator that knows how to properly and legally close a case. When done properly it can result in an admission statement, a possible promissory note and/or court ordered restitution.
I mentioned above that teaching proper service skills will stop shoplifting. Managers need to make sure that employees understand that the greeting and engaging of customers first and foremost drives sales. By asking a customer if there is something specific they came in to purchase the employee can help them locate it. If the store doesn’t carry the item, offering alternatives rather than simply saying the store does not have it can lead to a sale that otherwise might be lost. It is also an opportunity to increase sales through suggestive selling. A customer may say they only need poster board for a school project but sincere, open-ended questions from the employee may open the door to other items the customer did not consider. Markers, tape, glue and so on make incremental sales increases. That .99 cent poster board sale now becomes a $5.00 sale. BUT, if that customer came in with the intent to steal, that same customer service will drive them bananas. Thieves do not want attention and great customer service sends them scurrying like rats.
Whether it is improving customer service or rewarding honest employees for reporting suspicious behavior or activity, training to reduce employee theft and to stop shoplifting ultimately keeps products from being stolen. Merchandise not being stolen is available for purchases and purchases are driven by improving customer service. It’s a winning cycle so start training today and see profits rise.
For more information about training to reduce employee theft, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
Checkpoint systems- 5 WC Blog 472
Checkpoint tags-3
Retail theft prevention-3
Inventory Control Is More Than Just Retail Theft Prevention
Does Inventory control involve more than simply retail theft prevention? It does but often that is the first thing retail managers look at when they are trying to determine causes of shortage. As a former Loss Prevention Manager I dealt with all of the areas that impacted shortage and worked to prevent those losses. There were issues related to theft and Checkpoint Systems were one of our methods of addressing that type of merchandise shrink. I made sure our store was tagging merchandise with Checkpoint tags and labels to deter and detect theft. I also ensured our Loss Prevention Team was staffed with personnel who would monitor the check lanes and front doors. I also had staff walking the salesfloor looking for shoplifters. While we made a significant impact on theft issues from our efforts to stop shoplifting to identifying and preventing internal theft, one of my largest recoveries of inventory had nothing to do with theft or fraud.
I will continue my story in a moment but I do think it is important to talk about Checkpoint Systems because so much of the success we did experience overall was due in large measure to the effort we placed on theft prevention. Checkpoint Systems use a combination of devices to deter and to prevent the theft of store merchandise. The operating parts use electronic article surveillance (EAS) technology to protect products. Checkpoint labels are soft peel off tags that can be placed on a variety of surfaces including plastics, cardboard even shrink wrap. Checkpoint tags are pinned to clothing or through materials and in some instances plastic blister packs. Both types of devices send out radio waves that are picked up by EAS towers if they come into range. A tower that picks up a radio wave sounds an alarm that resonates through a store. A trained employee will respond to an alarm and determine what caused it through a receipt check. If unpaid merchandise is recovered (which happens in the majority of alarm activations) most stores will offer an opportunity for the person with the merchandise to purchase it or turn it back over. Tagged product also deters criminals since they know it will sound an alarm. Often the shoplifter will simply leave rather than chance being caught. You can see now how EAS tagged merchandise impacts retail theft prevention.
While our Loss Prevention team did make a significant number of deterred recoveries with the help of Checkpoint Systems and apprehensions for shoplifting I did make one very large recovery as I alluded to earlier. Our store had received our inventory results back and even though the results were good (well under 1%), I was not satisfied. I reviewed the detailed shortage results and one of the highest shortage departments was our shoe department. I knew some theft had taken place in this area we had made apprehensions of shoplifters and recoveries from the EAS system. We also occasionally found footwear that was old indicating someone had swapped out shoes. In spite of this I did not believe the shortage was primarily due to theft I believed the issue laid elsewhere.
I opened the store’s profit and loss (P&L) statements for the past year. I took each month and carefully reviewed the weeks for that department. Eventually I came to a line that showed a large charge to the P&L for the department in question. There was no reasonable cause that I could attribute for the spike. There was no seasonal change that may have prompted this size of a billing and there was no plan-o-gram change that I could think of that may have instigated this size of a bill. I ran the spike past my store manager who forwarded it to Headquarters. It took some time and our inventory booked. A couple of weeks afterwards we had a post-inventory adjustment and our inventory results improved. My store manager said he had never in his 20 years in the company seen a booked inventory changed. We received a $10,000 adjustment in shoes. I had identified a billing error in our P&L that Headquarters could confirm was an error.
I am proud of this paperwork recovery as it demonstrated that dollars are lost by more than just theft. However, if we had focused all of our efforts on paperwork errors and ignored retail theft prevention we would never have had the kind of results we did on a consistent basis. With Checkpoint Systems and the use of Checkpoint tags theft can be significantly reduced and shortage kept low. Don’t lose sight of the other areas that impact shortage like administration and operations but to truly make a difference use Checkpoint towers, labels and tags.
For more information about Checkpoint Systems contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
Does Inventory control involve more than simply retail theft prevention? It does but often that is the first thing retail managers look at when they are trying to determine causes of shortage. As a former Loss Prevention Manager I dealt with all of the areas that impacted shortage and worked to prevent those losses. There were issues related to theft and electronice article surveillance (EAS) was one of our methods of addressing that type of merchandise shrink. I made sure our store was tagging merchandise with hard tags and labels to deter and detect theft. I also ensured our Loss Prevention Team was staffed with personnel who would monitor the check lanes and front doors. I also had staff walking the salesfloor looking for shoplifters. While we made a significant impact on theft issues from our efforts to stop shoplifting to identifying and preventing internal theft, one of my largest recoveries of inventory had nothing to do with theft or fraud.
I will continue my story in a moment but I do think it is important to talk about electronice article surveillance because so much of the success we did experience overall was due in large measure to the effort we placed on theft prevention. An EAS system uses a combination of devices to deter and to prevent the theft of store merchandise. The operating parts use electronic article surveillance technology to protect products. Labels are soft peel off tags that can be placed on a variety of surfaces including plastics, cardboard even shrink wrap. Hard tags are pinned to clothing or through materials and in some instances plastic blister packs. Both types of devices send out radio waves that are picked up by EAS towers if they come into range. A tower that picks up a radio wave sounds an alarm that resonates through a store. A trained employee will respond to an alarm and determine what caused it through a receipt check. If unpaid merchandise is recovered (which happens in the majority of alarm activations) most stores will offer an opportunity for the person with the merchandise to purchase it or turn it back over. Tagged product also deters criminals since they know it will sound an alarm. Often the shoplifter will simply leave rather than chance being caught. You can see now how EAS tagged merchandise impacts retail theft prevention.
While our Loss Prevention team did make a significant number of deterred recoveries with the help of an EAS system and apprehensions for shoplifting I did make one very large recovery as I alluded to earlier. Our store had received our inventory results back and even though the results were good (well under 1%), I was not satisfied. I reviewed the detailed shortage results and one of the highest shortage departments was our shoe department. I knew some theft had taken place in this area we had made apprehensions of shoplifters and recoveries from the EAS system. We also occasionally found footwear that was old indicating someone had swapped out shoes. In spite of this I did not believe the shortage was primarily due to theft I believed the issue laid elsewhere.
I opened the store’s profit and loss (P&L) statements for the past year. I took each month and carefully reviewed the weeks for that department. Eventually I came to a line that showed a large charge to the P&L for the department in question. There was no reasonable cause that I could attribute for the spike. There was no seasonal change that may have prompted this size of a billing and there was no plan-o-gram change that I could think of that may have instigated this size of a bill. I ran the spike past my store manager who forwarded it to Headquarters. It took some time and our inventory booked. A couple of weeks afterwards we had a post-inventory adjustment and our inventory results improved. My store manager said he had never in his 20 years in the company seen a booked inventory changed. We received a $10,000 adjustment in shoes. I had identified a billing error in our P&L that Headquarters could confirm was an error.
I am proud of this paperwork recovery as it demonstrated that dollars are lost by more than just theft. However, if we had focused all of our efforts on paperwork errors and ignored retail theft prevention we would never have had the kind of results we did on a consistent basis. With an EAS and the use of hard tags theft can be significantly reduced and shortage kept low. Don’t lose sight of the other areas that impact shortage like administration and operations but to truly make a difference use EAS towers, labels and tags.
For more information about electronic article surveillance systems, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
Prevent Shoplifting – 3 WC Blog 531
Gaming Keepers-4
Alpha Keepers-4
Showcases Slow Down Sales; Use Gaming Keepers Instead
I just had an experience at a big box retailer that made me turn to my wife and tell her I had to get home because I had to write about how to prevent shoplifting. No, it wasn’t what the store or the associate did right that got me into a ranting mood it was what they were doing wrong that got my attention. It also got me to thinking what the CEO of Loss Prevention Systems Inc. Bill Bregar would say to the employee if he had been in my shoes. My wife and I were shopping for a video game as a gift for one of our son’s upcoming birthday. Now this store uses lock-up display cases for many of their video games, mostly the newer games on the market. I don’t like display cases but I get it, many stores don’t know about the benefits of Alpha Keepers to protect electronics. HOWEVER, this store already uses gaming keepers to prevent shoplifting of…you guessed it, VIDEO GAMES!
I will continue with my rant momentarily but I want to be sure everyone knows what I am referencing when I talk about Alpha Keepers. They are see-through, tough, plastic cases that function using electronic article surveillance (EAS) technology. The boxes allow merchants to avoid the hassle of unlocking merchandise in a showcase. The showcase is supposed to require an employee to remove an item, allow one or two things to be looked at and the employee carries the item(s) to the register for the customer. A Keeper allows a customer like me to view the item, read labels and carry it around the store until I am ready to make a purchase. No assistance is required so staff members can help more customers in a store and drive sales. Should a customer turn out to be a shoplifter and try to walk out the door with merchandise protected in gaming keepers an EAS tower at the doors will detect the keeper and sound an alarm. Front end employees respond to the alarm and retrieve the merchandise from the would-be thief.
What could have possibly happened that would make me so insane? I located the game I wanted in the showcase. No employees were in the immediate vicinity so I walked to the cash stand and found an employee cleaning around the register. The employee said she would be with me in a minute. I walked back to the showcase and waited for a couple minutes and the employee finally came over. She unlocked the case with her key and removed the game, closed and locked the case and handed me the game. I asked if I had to pay for it at the cash stand where she had been. No, I could continue shopping and pay for it up front. I am not sure how a store can prevent shoplifting if they are locking merchandise up only to hand it over to a customer. My wife and I took the game and walked through the rest of the electronics department. I came to a dump bin filled with marked down video games and all of them were secured in gaming keepers! I just shook my head in disbelief.
I have to wonder how much money has been lost in markdowns for these games that did not sell when they were new and popular. Had the store trusted the protection of Alpha Keepers to put the games within the reach of customers when they were new releases there would not be as many on hand today. Customers do not want to wait for assistance to browse merchandise. The effort to locate a sales associate and get them to assist you at a display case can be frustrating and there is no way to measure the lost sales this causes. By offering gaming keepers to their clients, Loss Prevention Systems Inc. sees the potential for increasing profits through sales and still delivering merchandise protection that reduces shortage.
I bought the game and the store made their money but not all of their customers are me and neither are yours. Lost profit due to markdowns because of unnecessary showcases can be avoided. Get merchandise into the hands of your customers by using Alpha keepers for games and much more.
Need more information on gaming keepers? Contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today
I just had an experience at a big box retailer that made me turn to my wife and tell her I had to get home because I had to write about how to prevent shoplifting. No, it wasn’t what the store or the associate did right that got me into a ranting mood it was what they were doing wrong that got my attention. It also got me to thinking what the CEO of Loss Prevention Systems Inc. Bill Bregar would say to the employee if he had been in my shoes. My wife and I were shopping for a video game as a gift for one of our son’s upcoming birthday. Now this store uses lock-up display cases for many of their video games, mostly the newer games on the market. I don’t like display cases but I get it, many stores don’t know about the benefits of Keepers to protect electronics. HOWEVER, this store already uses gaming keepers to prevent shoplifting of…you guessed it, VIDEO GAMES!
I will continue with my rant momentarily but I want to be sure everyone knows what I am referencing when I talk about Keepers. They are see-through, tough, plastic cases that function using electronic article surveillance (EAS) technology. The boxes allow merchants to avoid the hassle of unlocking merchandise in a showcase. The showcase is supposed to require an employee to remove an item, allow one or two things to be looked at and the employee carries the item(s) to the register for the customer. A Keeper allows a customer like me to view the item, read labels and carry it around the store until I am ready to make a purchase. No assistance is required so staff members can help more customers in a store and drive sales. Should a customer turn out to be a shoplifter and try to walk out the door with merchandise protected in gaming keepers an EAS tower at the doors will detect the keeper and sound an alarm. Front end employees respond to the alarm and retrieve the merchandise from the would-be thief.
What could have possibly happened that would make me so insane? I located the game I wanted in the showcase. No employees were in the immediate vicinity so I walked to the cash stand and found an employee cleaning around the register. The employee said she would be with me in a minute. I walked back to the showcase and waited for a couple minutes and the employee finally came over. She unlocked the case with her key and removed the game, closed and locked the case and handed me the game. I asked if I had to pay for it at the cash stand where she had been. No, I could continue shopping and pay for it up front. I am not sure how a store can prevent shoplifting if they are locking merchandise up only to hand it over to a customer. My wife and I took the game and walked through the rest of the electronics department. I came to a dump bin filled with marked down video games and all of them were secured in gaming keepers! I just shook my head in disbelief.
I have to wonder how much money has been lost in markdowns for these games that did not sell when they were new and popular. Had the store trusted the protection of Keepers to put the games within the reach of customers when they were new releases there would not be as many on hand today. Customers do not want to wait for assistance to browse merchandise. The effort to locate a sales associate and get them to assist you at a display case can be frustrating and there is no way to measure the lost sales this causes. By offering gaming keepers to their clients, Loss Prevention Systems Inc. sees the potential for increasing profits through sales and still delivering merchandise protection that reduces shortage.
I bought the game and the store made their money but not all of their customers are me and neither are yours. Lost profit due to markdowns because of unnecessary showcases can be avoided. Get merchandise into the hands of your customers by using keepers for games and much more.
Need more information on gaming keepers? Contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today
