AA Blog 15
Customer Counting Device: 5
Door Counting Sensor: 4
Avoid the Headache of Resource Management By Using The Visiplus Customer Counting Device
Working as a supervisor in retail I have come to learn that managing employees is a tedious and difficult task at times. Between dealing with their personal issues, vacations and sick days; while trying to balance store activity levels, I sometimes wish I had some genie in a bottle to help me sort it all out. Don’t get me wrong we can typically discern when our peak days are, as most people shop in our store on the weekends or weekdays during lunch time, but it definitely isn’t an exact science. We also have store sales and promotions that obviously increase our customer base during that timeframe, but that also results in a wide variation of shopping times. I find that sales and promotions always increase the number of shoppers, but they also tend to make the timing more sporadic. I am not sure if that is affected by the means and timing of the media delivery or if other factors outside of my control are involved. Either way it causes my stress levels to rise exponentially. I start to question what level of staff I need on any given day and whether I have enough loss prevention on duty to cover the anticipated increase in sales. Just when I think I have it all figured out, I discover I have way too many employees, and I am wasting money watching my employees stand around trying to see what their employee discount will buy them. Then I send half my staff home and the next thing we know we are swamped with customers. It is very frustrating and time consuming for me to try and manage this, especially when this is not my only job. If any of you have been or are currently in my position you know exactly what I am talking about. Just when I thought I would never get it figured out, all my prayers were answered! I discovered the Visiplus customer counting device and it literally saved my life.
The Visiplus customer counting device is installed at your main entry points and counts people coming in and exiting your store. This customer counting device downloads data daily to provide current and accurate customer information. The data is broken down by hour so you can critically analyze your customer traffic to identify strengths and weaknesses for all aspects of your business. From this information I am able to look at customer activity and trends to better evaluate my resources. Since I have had the door counting sensor installed, I have substantially reduced my overhead cost by improving my employee management. I have also received positive feedback from my staff, as it has also improved their moral and overall satisfaction. The Visiplus customer counting device significantly reduces my call in rates, improves scheduling consistency, and reduces the need for overtime situations. I think my employees appreciate the improvements as much as I do. During sales and promotions my door counting sensor can help me evaluate which promotions or sales are more lucrative and allows me to manage the timing of those promotions based on historical information, as I have learned from this system, that some promotions produce higher sales numbers during specific times of the year. This allows me to plan accordingly so I can avoid those timeframes that aren’t as productive. The door counting sensor can also be integrated into your existing Checkpoint system to provide a multi-faceted device. By integrating the EAS into the door counting sensor you get specific data on your alarms and EAS activity rates by the hour. This has been beneficial when determining whether I have employee training issues in regards to EAS de-activation or removal, or if I have any EAS devices that are not functioning properly. It can also provide a detailed view of my attempted shoplifting rates and whether those incidents are being handled properly and by policy.
I could probably go on for days about how great the Visiplus customer counting device is and what it has done for me and my company, but please check it out for yourself! It has significantly reduced the amount of time it takes to manage and schedule my resources, which has decreased my overhead, increased profit, and improved employee satisfaction. Having the appropriate resources available has significantly improved our customer satisfaction and helped us better manage our loss prevention program in order to reduce theft.
Need more information on the Visiplus customer counting device? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
Working as a supervisor in retail I have come to learn that managing employees is a tedious and difficult task at times. Between dealing with their personal issues, vacations and sick days; while trying to balance store activity levels, I sometimes wish I had some genie in a bottle to help me sort it all out. Don’t get me wrong we can typically discern when our peak days are, as most people shop in our store on the weekends or weekdays during lunch time, but it definitely isn’t an exact science. We also have store sales and promotions that obviously increase our customer base during that timeframe, but that also results in a wide variation of shopping times. I find that sales and promotions always increase the number of shoppers, but they also tend to make the timing more sporadic. I am not sure if that is affected by the means and timing of the media delivery or if other factors outside of my control are involved. Either way it causes my stress levels to rise exponentially. I start to question what level of staff I need on any given day and whether I have enough loss prevention on duty to cover the anticipated increase in sales. Just when I think I have it all figured out, I discover I have way too many employees, and I am wasting money watching my employees stand around trying to see what their employee discount will buy them. Then I send half my staff home and the next thing we know we are swamped with customers. It is very frustrating and time consuming for me to try and manage this, especially when this is not my only job. If any of you have been or are currently in my position you know exactly what I am talking about. Just when I thought I would never get it figured out, all my prayers were answered! I discovered the Visiplus customer counting device and it literally saved my life.
The Visiplus customer counting device is installed at your main entry points and counts people coming in and exiting your store. This customer counting device downloads data daily to provide current and accurate customer information. The data is broken down by hour so you can critically analyze your customer traffic to identify strengths and weaknesses for all aspects of your business. From this information I am able to look at customer activity and trends to better evaluate my resources. Since I have had the door counting sensor installed, I have substantially reduced my overhead cost by improving my employee management. I have also received positive feedback from my staff, as it has also improved their moral and overall satisfaction. The Visiplus customer counting device significantly reduces my call in rates, improves scheduling consistency, and reduces the need for overtime situations. I think my employees appreciate the improvements as much as I do. During sales and promotions my door counting sensor can help me evaluate which promotions or sales are more lucrative and allows me to manage the timing of those promotions based on historical information, as I have learned from this system, that some promotions produce higher sales numbers during specific times of the year. This allows me to plan accordingly so I can avoid those timeframes that aren’t as productive. The door counting sensor can also be integrated into your existing Checkpoint System to provide a multi-faceted device. By integrating the EAS into the door counting sensor you get specific data on your alarms and EAS activity rates by the hour. This has been beneficial when determining whether I have employee training issues in regards to EAS de-activation or removal, or if I have any EAS devices that are not functioning properly. It can also provide a detailed view of my attempted shoplifting rates and whether those incidents are being handled properly and by policy.
I could probably go on for days about how great the Visiplus customer counting device is and what it has done for me and my company, but please check it out for yourself! It has significantly reduced the amount of time it takes to manage and schedule my resources, which has decreased my overhead, increased profit, and improved employee satisfaction. Having the appropriate resources available has significantly improved our customer satisfaction and helped us better manage our loss prevention program in order to reduce theft.
Need more information on the Visiplus Customer Counting Device? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
VISIPLUS – KNOW YOUR FOOT TRAFFIC
Have you ever given any thought to your store hours? When you started your business, what was the driving force behind the hours that you set? Was it something that just sounded good? Was it consistent with merchants in the same area as you? Was it just more convenient for personal reasons? Whatever the case, it probably was not based on any type of customer analytics or on data from a VisiPlus customer counting system.
If you’ve never given thought to customer analytics, now may be the best time to change your mind. Brick and mortar retail business are facing their biggest challenges ever. Online behemoths are making eComm shopping more convenient, affordable and all around pleasant for the shopper. Therefore, that makes getting customers into your store more important than ever. This is where a customer counting device can help you to maximize your business strategies.
As a loss prevention professional, most people assume that my main focus is on
busting shoplifters and dishonest employees. While that holds true for a small portion of my day to day role within my organization, my primary focus is to improve overall profitability for my company. I accomplish that in a variety of different ways. Some include recommending EAS device placement on certain products, improving polices to reduce our exposure to risk and finding any other ways to squeeze that last drop of profit out of our stores. With a VisiPlus customer counting system, I was able to help sell the idea of extending our store hours in order to maximize sales.
Without a customer counting device, it’s incredibly difficult to argue for extending operating hours since hard data is difficult to come by. You almost have to test the hours, compare sales data to historical sales, factor in any anomalies that may have caused a spike, or dip in traffic and then try to reason around that to make, or break your point.
With a VisiPlus customer counting system, you simply install the small overhead sensor to get a highly accurate count of foot traffic in your store. You can then use this data to determine if your operating hours actually make sense or not. Chances are, you’re leaving money on the table by not being in stock, open, or staffed during certain times.
Once we installed our customer counting device, we made several changes to store hours. We started opening a little later and staying open much, much later. The other eye opener was our staffing model. We would base staffing on sales data, not foot traffic. After reacting to the data from our VisiPlus customer counting system, we added sales associates to peak traffic hours. This obviously led to a slight increase in sales, which more than covered the added operating costs of our extended hours.
While they are dozens of uses for the VisiPlus customer counting system, using it to determine that most profitable business hours is one of the most effective uses. Within weeks of using this data, our company saw increases in sales and overall customer satisfaction. Without the hard data to visualize our foot traffic, those increases would have been harder to come by. If you are looking for a way to measure customer traffic in your store, the VisiPlus system is probably your best option.
For more information about VisiPlus contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.
Have you ever given any thought to your store hours? When you started your business, what was the driving force behind the hours that you set? Was it something that just sounded good? Was it consistent with merchants in the same area as you? Was it just more convenient for personal reasons? Whatever the case, it probably was not based on any type of customer analytics or on data from a VisiPlus customer counting system.
If you’ve never given thought to customer analytics, now may be the best time to change your mind. Brick and mortar retail business are facing their biggest challenges ever. Online behemoths are making eComm shopping more convenient, affordable and all around pleasant for the shopper. Therefore, that makes getting customers into your store more important than ever. This is where a customer counting device can help you to maximize your business strategies.
As a loss prevention professional, most people assume that my main focus is onbusting shoplifters and dishonest employees. While that holds true for a small portion of my day to day role within my organization, my primary focus is to improve overall profitability for my company. I accomplish that in a variety of different ways. Some include recommending EAS device placement on certain products, improving polices to reduce our exposure to risk and finding any other ways to squeeze that last drop of profit out of our stores. With a VisiPlus customer counting system, I was able to help sell the idea of extending our store hours in order to maximize sales.
Without a customer counting device, it’s incredibly difficult to argue for extending operating hours since hard data is difficult to come by. You almost have to test the hours, compare sales data to historical sales, factor in any anomalies that may have caused a spike, or dip in traffic and then try to reason around that to make, or break your point.
With a VisiPlus customer counting system, you simply install the small overhead sensor to get a highly accurate count of foot traffic in your store. You can then use this data to determine if your operating hours actually make sense or not. Chances are, you’re leaving money on the table by not being in stock, open, or staffed during certain times.
Once we installed our customer counting device, we made several changes to store hours. We started opening a little later and staying open much, much later. The other eye opener was our staffing model. We would base staffing on sales data, not foot traffic. After reacting to the data from our VisiPlus customer counting system, we added sales associates to peak traffic hours. This obviously led to a slight increase in sales, which more than covered the added operating costs of our extended hours.
While they are dozens of uses for the VisiPlus customer counting system, using it to determine that most profitable business hours is one of the most effective uses. Within weeks of using this data, our company saw increases in sales and overall customer satisfaction. Without the hard data to visualize our foot traffic, those increases would have been harder to come by. If you are looking for a way to measure customer traffic in your store, the VisiPlus system is probably your best option.
For more information about VisiPlus contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.
