Stay Safe This Holiday Season

Posted on December 25, 2017 by bermanevansretail

Now that our shopping is over, we should enjoy the end of the year. Let’s visit with family and friends over the next several days. But, please be aware and careful. Stay safe this holiday season.

And remember: “Customer Service Means a Good Return Policy.”

 

Stay Safe This Holiday Season: Better Manage Stress

Yes, this time of year can be stressful. Because of several factors. Seeing relatives you don’t get along with. Worrying about money. Looking back on things not accomplished this year. And fretting about what’s ahead in 2018.

Consider these observations from True Stress Management:

“When the holiday bell goes off, yearly traditions come to play. With them comes a long list of tasks to accomplish. Whether it’s hosting family members and friends to catch up. Or entertaining, cleaning up, buying gifts, or merely attending all the parties going on, demands can be overwhelming. If you aren’t careful, you can invite holiday stress into your home and end up becoming more like Scrooge than Jolly Saint Nick.”

These are some stress indicators. Followed by tips to reduce stress.

Stay Safe This Holiday Season. Holiday Stress Symptoms.

True Stress Management Offers seven tips:

  1. Plan Ahead.
  2. Make a Budget and Stick to It.
  3. Scale Down Expectations and Live One Day at a Time.
  4. Be Kind to Treat Yourself (Not Just Others).
  5. Accept Your Anxiety and Holiday Stress.
  6. Take Some Time for Yourself.
  7. Be Grateful for What You Have.

 

Stay Safe This Holiday Season: Eat Healthy

Because this is a festive time, we may be tempted with unhealthy food. Or with overeating. So, be careful with your holiday eating traditions.

According to the Cleveland Clinic:

“Research studies show that most adults gain some weight over the holidays. But don’t despair. This year can be different! Here are some great ways to enjoy the holidays without adding pounds. View our infographic. And read about the tips in detail.”

Stay Safe This Holiday Season: Be Careful in Your Eating

 

Stay Safe This Holiday Season: Beware Over-Celebrating Drivers

We know that holidays may bring out bad driving behavior. So be particularly careful yourself. And always encourage others who have celebrated too much to use designated drivers.

PLEASE take a good look at the infographic from SCRAM Systems.

Stay Safe This Holiday Season: Watch Out for Bad Drivers
 

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Optimizing Employer-Employee Relationships

Posted on December 20, 2017 by bermanevansretail

As we realize, well-treated people are better employees. And these people are better motivated. And they achieve more productivity. In addition, they are more customer-friendly. For today’s post we study optimizing employer-employee relationships to motivate. In the next section, we show an employee engagement loop.
 

Optimizing Employer-Employee Relationships

In sum, let’s address this question. In what ways can employers optimize relationships with employees? 

Overall, a good tool is the employee engagement loop. And it was devised by customer experience expert Ian Goulding. As he observes for Customer Think:

“To succeed, treat employees how you want them to treat customers. If a leader aspires to ‘put the employee first,’ it is important to have structure and rigor. And yes, it is common to find businesses with frameworks to manage the customer experience. But we do not often see this principle applied for the employee experience.”

“And the ’employee engagement loop’ is a simple framework. Also, it supports the employer journey – a framework with six steps. If well designed and managed, it should help you deliver the desired employee experience.”


Before noting the steps, look at the following flowchart.

The Employer Journey to Optimizing Employer-Employee Relationships

 

Implementing the Employee Engagement Loop

At this point, let’s outline the engagement loop’s steps. And look at its focus on optimizing employer-employee relationships:

  1. “Attract. If a firm wants a customer-centric culture, it must hire the right employees in the first place.”
  2. “Infuse Brand DNA. In everything you do, infuse your brand DNA. To keep the right engagement with employees, infusing brand DNA must be ongoing.”
  3. “Inspire Excellence. In most cases, people must be encouraged to excel. To be ‘just good enough’ is ‘not enough.’ At Ritz-Carlton, employees ‘make memories.’ Because it is not sufficient to just fulfill tasks.”
  4. “Encourage Curiosity & Learning. As a good example, Amazon infuses its brand DNA via 14 leadership principles. Of importance is ‘learn and be curious.’ And a leader who understands the value of learning encourages the same from others.”
  5. “Innovate & Co-Create. If you encourage curiosity and learning, you also encourage innovation. At customer-centric firms, employees should not just bed ask their opinions. In addition, they should co-create new products and initiatives. And those who best know the desired customer experience are those who interact with customers.”
  6. “Reward. If we want to inspire employees, we must show we value them. Yet, this is not always monetary. As with customers, employees want to know their employer cares about them. And they want to be thanked for their effort.”

 

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Subscription Box Services Yield Mixed Results

Posted on December 18, 2017 by bermanevansretail

Earlier this year, we asked: What’s Ahead for the Subscription Box Service? Now, we have more information to answer that question. According to recent research, subscription box services yield mixed results.

So, what exactly are subscription boxes? According to Jameson Morris, an expert in this the field: “A subscription box is a recurring, physical delivery of niche-oriented products packaged as an experience and designed to offer additional value on top of the actual retail products contained in a box.”

 

Subscription Box Services Yield Mixed Results 

Yes, some subscription box services are doing much better than others. And the industry itself is in a state of flux.

One leader is Stitch Fix, “the personal style service that evolves with your tastes, needs, and lifestyle.” How does it work?

First,”Share your style, size, and price preferences with your personal stylist.” Second, “Request A Fix® Delivery. And get 5 hand-selected pieces of clothing delivered to your door. With no subscription required.” Third, “Buy what you like, send back the rest. Shipping is free and easy both ways. When you sign up for automatic deliveries, we’ll send you regular orders without extra effort from you. You choose how often that’s right for you: every 2-3 weeks, every month, every other month, or every three months.” 

As eMarketer reports:

“In fact, while some subscription box companies struggle to stay afloat, Stitch Fix’s number of active clients jumped nearly 10 times to 2.2 million as of July 29. Furthermore, a study from Hitwise found that online traffic in the subscription box space declined by 3% in September compared with a year prior. But Stitch Fix’s traffic didn’t: It more than doubled during that same period.”

The chart shows the subscription box leaders.

Subscription box services yield mixed results. Let's see who are doing best -- and who are struggling.

J.C. Penney Enters Subscription Box Marketplace

As with many other department store chains, J.C. Penney wants to embark on new activities. Why? To help turn around sales revenues. As a result, it is testing a subscription service. Will it succeed? Time will tell.

eMarketer reports that:

J.C. Penney has teamed with Bombfell, a men’s subscription service, to offer curated boxes to its Big & Tall customers. The service will work as many other subscription box services do. A stylist will curate several pieces based on customer preferences. But this partnership will offer Big & Tall sizes — something Penney specializes in — s well as pricing intended to undercut typical subscription box services.”

“Said eMarketer analyst Yory Wurmser, ‘As shopping moves online or to discount chains, mid-tier department stores need to find ways to differentiate their brand and create stickiness. A subscription service is one way. But I don’t see it as a game-changer. Instead, as a sign that the chain is thinking creatively about consumer behavior.'”

 

Posted in Online Retailing, Part 2: Ownership, Strategy Mix, Online, Nontraditional, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment