Michael1942's Blog

Several   iconic stores that cover America has some problems. The initial problem is  boards and CEO’s who apparently have no idea how a retail company works. To get these companies back on track is essentially a simple matter. Simple in concept but a little different in execution due to over thinking. First remove all products that are not related to the core business of the company. The branded items that most of America recognizes and trusts need to be bolstered and renewed. Those nationally known names are the reasons many of us come to the stores. It would be smart to offer an extended warranty after the initial 1 year  warranty by issuing this additional coverage at no charge when the customer registers the product on line or by mail if email is not available to the customer. This extension is good business because it gives an additional value to the customer and certifies the company’s committment to them. Next streamline the phone contact process and set up an emergency repair service as an adjunct to the normal service. This emergency service should be spelled out in the service contract in plain english ( or any other language that is covered in the instructions). Retail is 90% customer service, having the product or the ability to get it is secondary as the equation is: customers= products or services purchased= profit. There are and have been so many people heading companies who have no retail experience and do not understand the most important part of business,” customer service”.  There is a TV show called “undercover boss” that illustrates how out of touch the top people are with the actual company’s they oversee. It is often the case where underlings (managers) operate under the “numbers” mandate of upper management to the detriment of the business. Years ago as a younger man, I was fortunate to be put into a flooring store which was barely successful, it was rated dead last in a group of 15 or so stores. The company operated 800 stores nationwide making this one rate in the last 100 of that 800. After a year of training new people and stocking the store according to customer needs while keeping the mandatory stocking units, this store was rated 5 in the immediate region and in the upper 300 of the company. There were stores in my region which had a more affluent demographic but were not doing as well. When asked the question of what was I doing, my reply was: I open the store on time, make coffee and service customers. These activities earned me second runner-up for manager of the year, while this was a very nice honor, it would not have been possible without customer service. Thereafter for the next 10 years this store was consistently in the top 5 stores in the region and top 100 in the chain. All of this with little oversight and the onset of remote control by corporate to establish “cookie cutter” operations. This cookie cutter system will always fail as there is no room for entrepreneurship which creates ability to serve customers and be successful. Merchants need to think like customers in order to be successful, this does not mean that the customer is always right, it simply means one has to think about what they expect when shopping and the logical layout of space and the relation of products to one another. One thing that is a turnoff to customers is resets (this is rearranging shelf locations and adding or removing products) as a seemingly  never-ending event. Think about this: regular customers know where items are located but easily become frustrated when items are moved and it takes minutes more to shop, enabling them to miss other  impulse items that they may have purchased if that extra time were not spent in looking for their standards.

According to our constitution and other laws , anyone born on American soil (including its territories and off shore  holdings) is an American citizen. To address names , titles or descriptions of people’s origins, many or most of us are proud of our lineage and incorporate that in our own personal description or allow that personal description to used on our behalf. I contend that we are All Americans and that in itself is descriptive enough without the additional tags of original ancestry outside the shores of our country. During the great migration to this land, it was necessary for newcomers to gather in close groups for mutual assistance and comfort. In the 100 years or so of assimilation we have yet to be just Americans. We are still calling our selves ______- Americans. No matter the origin of our precursors , being born here (America) makes one an American and that is all. Pride in one’s ancestry is fine but should not be the first description of a person’s nationality. We are all Americans first and the origin of our ancestry is second. This hyphenated designation has become more of an epithet than a proud description as we have seen in the many political wars we have endured. I  would prefer being an American  who is black, white, Irish, African, Hispanic or any of the many ethnicities that comprise the population of this country. How about you?