Morning Meetings @ Stores

Store Meetings for Retailers

It is one of the better management practices that we have begun to see in the more successful stores. Increasingly, if you were to ask the Store managers, if they had been doing this in the past, when they were young and in junior positions like most of us, then they will say no.

What is this “new thing”, that we are discussing now ?

What is a “meeting in the store” ?

Typically, a store meeting is a place where all the relevant employees of the store get together to discuss various opportunities and problems that are faced by the store .

Prayer, For a country that has so much of religion, it is quite normal for staff to start the day with a silent prayer.

In some stores, it is normal to end the meeting with a prayer. The choice is that of the staff and a silent prayer , a huddle in the style of the Indian Cricket team at the centre of the pitch or holding hands together are all different forms of team building.  As the staff at the store often come from different faiths and a silent prayer allows each person to pray to his faith.

What is the time when the store meeting should be done ?

Ideally, the store meeting should be done, before the store opens for the its customers .

In fact for a restaurant that is opening for dinner, then a meeting at 6.30 PM is perfectly the right time.  For such a meeting, who all should attend. ? From the door man, the waiters, the steward, the Chef and the restaurant manager.

For a Mens Section in a large department store? Surely the sales staff of the mens section should attend and the meeting can be conducted by the Section Head. In fact, it is a good idea to get one person from another section say the Ladies section to attend this meeting in turns, so that the customers who are done with their shopping their can then be directed to the mens section for some additional shopping. Similarly, the new things in the ladies section whether merchandise or ideas can also be shared, which can be used in creating new opportunities for sales.

Who conducts the meeting ?

Ideally, a person like the store manager should conduct the meeting, and one who has the authority and responsibility to take decisions.

Who all should attend the meeting ?

All the store staff, responsible for the day to day operations of the store should attend the meeting. In large stores, multiple meetings can be conducted , one each for each Category or section of the store, for example, separately for Ladies Section, Gents section , Kids Section etc.

Then, the section managers, can then attend a section managers meeting with the Senior Store Manager.

What are the kind of topics that should be discussed in the meeting ?

Topics such as the sales target, ways of achieving it are obviously on the top of the list. Among the other best practices are reviewing the customer feedback forms , discussions on customer complaints and how they have been solved and specifically, if there are customer complaints that are still not resolved. Yet another area of keeping the relevant people informed are any special deliveries that are due for the day, etc . Some topics to start this off …

·         Customer Service

·         Loss Prevention

·         Policies & Procedures

·         Business Goals

Sales Training :-

It would also be a good opportunity to also demonstrate any good practices of the store and also reward the staff for their good work. In fact, the value of the reward is much less important than the fact that the staff have been rewarded in front of their peers.

Additional Motivational opportunities and team building.

In large stores, a number of support staff whether from House Keeping, Security, Cashiering are common resources to the entire store. Hence, it would be a good initiative to invite the people and ask them to share some of their challenges and good things about our department. For example, we might find that many of the products that go for billing might not be having price tags. In situations where the customer is in a hurry, they often ask the product to be dropped from billing. This is a big loss of sales to the team.

A wonderful example :-

In a jewellery store on a High Street, that I know, the security staff was also invited to attend the meeting. Initially, such an invitation itself was a big thing for the “slightly old security man” who hardly any body cared about, whether it was the staff or the customers, except to leave their belongings when they entered or pick them up on their way out.

Since the meetings were held in English, the man could not understand much, But over a period of time, he began to ask questions and understood the business better and the impact of the customers on the business. Since the store was located in an area with a lot of mosquitoes, a lot of them used to enter when ever the door was opened.

Imagine the surprise of the staff, one day, the Security Man, brought a mosquito repellent liquid like Good Knight, saying that he had seen the mosquitoes coming in and disturbing the customers and he had gone and bought this repellent to be kept in the store. The rest of the staff were speechless at his gesture.

Your next step:-

After having learnt about the benefits, will you start a meeting to discuss the benefits ? Let us know too…

Best of luck from Retail Gurukul

Posted in: Morning Meetings, Target, Training