As early as 50 years ago, what Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton particularly liked to do was to drive his own small plane to visit stores in various places, or to find new projects;
RT-Mart emphasizes that the senior management personally visits stores 365 days a year, and its boss Huang Mingduan often visits stores from time to time.
Single store king Ito Yokado (single store sales in China is 576 million yuan, Wal-Mart and Carrefour single store sales are 147 million yuan and 208 million yuan, respectively), and its head, Tomihiro Saegada, has persisted for more than ten years Shop every day.
Problems in shop patrol
Shop patrol is important, but shop patrol also has two problems.
First of all, many shopkeepers tend to be formalistic.
Even if the shop is patrolled, many of the problems that have arisen in the shop have not been substantively resolved. Many store managers treat shop inspections as a kind of enjoyment. Indeed, standing in my shop, facing at least dozens or even hundreds of employees, looking at everyone’s respectful appearance, I feel like I really look like a general and a master. Most people with this mentality It was when the shop was patrolling: “This place is not good, I need to rectify it”, “I have talked about this place several times, why is it still like this?” The directors and section chiefs at the back nodded one by one: “Yes. Yes, change it immediately, change it immediately”.
All the store managers in this kind of leadership situation are very tired at work, because everything has to be promoted by themselves before they can be moved. The store just won’t move away from him. These store managers are tired. At the same time, he seemed to enjoy this illusion–as if he really couldn’t move after the store left. But if he does leave, he will be more likely to give orders than you when he changes. So I want to prove that he is valuable and well-positioned to this store. The idea is very naive, stupid, and questionable in the store. The solution is no help.
Secondly, fewer people are proficient in patrolling stores.
Senior retailer Liu Geng reposted Wal-Mart’s news about Gao Fulan’s shop visits on Weibo and wrote: “Shop shop inspections are a compulsory course for retail people and the essence of management. Unfortunately, nowadays, there are fewer people who are proficient in shop inspections, which is worth thinking about. “He said with regret: “Not everyone will visit the store and find the problem after walking around, but it can’t be solved. The result is still the same.”
Wang Chen, who has many years of experience in brand management, believes that 70% of supervisors can only find problems at the shop inspection site, and then give pointers; 20% of supervisors can effectively analyze the problems, such as why the unit price per customer has fallen and why the inventory is too large; Only 10% of supervisors can solve problems, such as counseling shopping guides to increase customer unit prices and help digest ineffective inventory.
So, how can we do the seemingly simple job of patrolling stores?
Establish a good shop inspection system
The retail industry is a low-margin business. In many cases, retail companies need to rely on scale effects to develop. Standardized processes can maximize the impact of scale effects. Therefore, general retail companies have formulated a set of shop patrol system to maintain a fixed standard, so that the stores and departments below can execute everything in a planned and systematic manner, from the clerk to the management to the top level, follow this system to patrol. Store, manage every detail.
For example, the store department visits the store 2-3 times a day, and then the department manager, floor vice president, store manager, regional general manager, regional general manager, national vice president, and president. Each week has its own shop patrol arrangements, which will benefit the company in the long run.
Correct mentality and clarify the purpose of the shop
Zhang Ren, the former senior operating director of Walmart China, has more than ten years of retail management experience. He must have three goals every time he visits stores-to understand the store, contact customers and contact employees, and then walk among the rows of shelves on site. From the big to the small, employee scheduling, SKU, and gross profit of each product are all within the scope of his shop.
Only by lowering themselves, getting rid of the “leadership” mentality, and clarifying the purpose of the shop can the shop patrol find the problem more effectively and solve the problem effectively. The basic shop patrol process is to do product management and marketing inspections to check the product’s wastage rate, freshness, turnover rate, out of stock rate, display aesthetics, combination, etc., and manage it on the spot in time. Here, senior executives can teach by example and by example, passing on their accumulated years of experience to employees, teaching them how to manage warehouses, how to display products, and how to associate products for sale. This is still a good training and corporate culture dissemination process.
Clarify the main management content of the shop
Shop patrol is not just about going around in the shop, it also needs to detect and analyze the various sections of the shop.
At the same time, when patrolling the store, the principle of not affecting customers’ shopping should be the principle, and the principle of “customer first” should be taken as the principle. When encountering customer inquiries, it should be answered and explained immediately, and random pointing is strictly prohibited. It is also necessary to set an example when patrolling stores and educate employees to establish a strong sense of responsibility. It is necessary to make written records of the problems found and deal with them in a timely manner.
Post time: Dec-31-2021