Opening a retail newsagency in the morning involves more than opening the door, putting out the day’s newspapers and magazines, turning on the lights, putting cash in the cash drawers, making sure the floors are clean and turning on their heating or cooling.
Opening the shop every day should include other tasks like:
- Checking the window display – that it looks excellent.
- Checking that the counter is fully stocked.
- Checking that magazine shelves are tidy.
- Checking that the card department is tidy.
- Knowing what the counter pitch is for the day.
- Making a change so the shop is different in some way today than it was yesterday.
- Embracing being at work – being there because you want to be there for your customers.
Whatever your process is, write it up and have it on a clip board for your person opening the shop to have it to check off every morning.
Stop being predictable and your sales will not be predictable. Stop being average and your sales are more likely to not be average.
Opening your shop is like putting on a show. Imagine that everything up to today has been a rehearsal for today. Okay, this may sound weird but think about it.
This week I’m going take a look at everyday management of the typical newsagency business – to open discussion among people here about what they do in the area of I cover and to help others to look at their own processes.
We acknowledge the above points on a daily basis and also ‘ready ourselves’ like beginning work on a radio/TV station – know what has/is happened/ing in general/sporting and weather news overnight/day and the week-end and pump yourself up for an ‘entertaining’ performance when dealing with your customers.
Russell, you are right. When we arrive at
work we are about to go “on” and it behoves for us to know our customers and what they like to talk about etc.
The mags and paper headlines are always an appropriate way to start our day so that we can keep up with what people are reading etc.
Food mags are one of my favourites in the Winter as we can discuss food and recipes and often my customers will bring
cakes and biscuits (and lemons, mandarins, apples etc) in for my staff and
often a hand written recipe that they think
I might like.
Some of our customers only talk to us each day and then go home alone to an empty house. I send sympathy cards and get well cards and special birthday cards to lots of my customers because I
think of them as friends who visit me.