The devil is in the detail – believe you me!

Any of you with children will relate to this first story of mine.
When my kids were younger we used to ask them where they would like to go for a treat. They had a choice between MacDonald’s, KFC, or a Spur meal? The answer they gave us was always dependent on the gift that was on offer from that particular franchise – it had nothing to do with the meal itself! That R10 toy got a family of 4 for dinner that day. Only R10! (probably less if bought in bulk via China!)
The same is true of any convenience outlet – “give” a toy away supposedly for free – and the kids will get you to stop there! Engen are currently running a promotion with the concept of a “free” soft dog toy. A different version of the same sort of thing. Luckily for me they are now old enough to do some math’s of their own – as they worked out they would each need to spend in excess of R1000 to qualify for the supposedly free toy! Not so free after all!
But the point is that this type of marketing is very powerful and works! Time and again! It is the small additional “extra” as a reward for using your services that counts. This was brought home to me again recently by my children who are now in their teens.
Very seldom do I frequent the movie houses whereas my kids seem to live there and recently I took them to watch a movie at a Nu Metro movie house. They were really galled that I would even go there. Want to know why?
They charge an extra R2 for salt on your popcorn! Ster Kinekor do not charge extra for salt – it is inclusive of the price for popcorn and so it should be in my view! I had not noticed that my children only frequent Ster Kinekor movie houses.
I wonder how many kids out there feel the same as mine if it comes out of their allotted pocket monies? R2 for salt? How many “bums in seats” have they lost for just R2? Who thought this one through? Is that R2 really worth it in the long run?
After we had watched the movie, my children then also explained that if we had gone to the competitor’s movie house – our 3D glasses were also for free! We had to pay R5 a pair.
Another thing happened to me on a Bp site recently in Cape Town. I am in the habit of checking with the forecourt attendant that they do in fact take my debit card before I fill up my tank as I hate having to go into the shop to pay for my fuel.
On this occasion I did check and the answer was “we take all debit cards”. Great on that basis I asked him to fill up my tank.
I handed him my debit card to pay for the transaction and was told that type of debit card needed to be swiped at the shop terminal. So I was annoyed to say the least. Anyway once I got to the shop terminal the manager was called who explained to me that yes they take debit cards – but not one like mine!
Mine was a cheque debit card and that was not acceptable as a form of payment for fuel! Now I was really getting fed up! Look I am just a mere customer here – what the heck is the difference? I refused to back down as I had asked if they took debit cards and the answer was yes.
Guess what the manager did – he added 5% to the overall cost of the fuel transaction to cover the costs of swiping my debit card! Really customer friendly indeed!
I wonder how many clients are lost due to these stupid decisions.
I ask you; R2 for salt, advertise that you take debit cards – only to be told that your one is not acceptable – and make the customer pay an additional 5% on the transaction! Is this good customer relationship building?
No these are not endearing to the most resolute of customers, even for me who was an avid Wild Bean coffee purchaser! Will I go there again? Absolutely not!
Ok so here is the message for this week – look at the little things – the details that the customer sees in each transaction. Is it encouraging – does it entice me to come back time and time again?
Are we building customer relationships or protecting our potential losses and costs? Our business is service, who keeps our door open?

Take care out there

Jocelyn Daly

The changing landscape of Convenience stores in South Africa

I am thoroughly enjoying the changing landscape of our convenience stores! It is like a breath of fresh air! New store designs, new product ranges – all hopefully showing improved profitability for all our stakeholders.

The effects of the JV’s, new supplier agreements and internal franchisor structures are all showing at store level. Exciting stuff!
BUT and here is the nub of it going forward. In the past two blogs I have looked at the coffee offerings out there in the market place – the same bean, the same expensive machinery, – with differing and conflicting offers to the customer. It is the PEOPLE that make it succeed or fail…..

Our staff, are the people that our customers interact with, and we have a dearth of good skills to choose from. More importantly as our sales have increased so too our dependence on not only good staff – but good managers! Many of you have been on one of my many training courses over the past 15 years or so – and training and skills development is one of my passions.

On my recent training courses over the past year or so, I am coming across fewer and fewer good management material. If we have poor managers – we have no hope of getting our staffing right!
I am not sure why this is so. I know many will tell me it is the BEE legislation that is restricting us in selecting good management material. But I know this is incorrect and too trite an answer. My last training programme had few if any previously disadvantaged representation which in itself was highly unusual – and they were generally shocking in performance and understanding of tasks. It is always easy to blame external factors – harder to look at ourselves and how we are to blame.
There are two extensions of this challenge. The one is the selection of staff at the coal face. The other is the impact on the shopping experience. Yes the stores look great in many cases but the shopping experience itself is boring as all hell. No music. Where are the welcoming faces? You ask for a particular product – just get a shrug of the shoulder if you are lucky! Even managers which you see hustling from one task to the other don’t seem to care. They have this blank look on their faces – please don’t interrupt me complete my current very important task! I had occasion this last week to see a very disorientated customer ask a cashier if they stocked a particular product – she shook her head and said she would ask her supervisor.
The supervisor turned out to be in the paypoint kiosk at the time – she did not even raise her head or look at the customer asking the question. She just indicated in her body language that they did not have the product in question. BUT they did – and I showed the gentleman where it was on the shelves and promptly lost my place in a very extensive queue!

And there are good people out there – I know. The fish rots at the head – and I spend most of time challenging you on staff selection at grass roots level. But it starts with us – you and I. And the level of selection just below us! Get that right and we might, just might, improve the level of service experienced by our customers at grass roots level! It starts and ends with us……
Take care out there!

Jocelyn Daly

A word from Max, social and website editor: We have many good downloads on http://www.cstores.co.za/ to assist with the managment of your c-stores! They will not be free forever! I have seen some of the information that Ms Jocelyn Daly gives out for free being sold for R2 000.00!

And now for something completely different: Cashiers!

I have only one question to ask in this regard – how is it possible to find so many extra large and sloppy people to man this position in our stores? We are part of a very large industry employing many people across all our stores – and yet, the industry seems to be intent on doing itself a disservice when it comes to employing people behind the paypoint.

Yes I know this is not a polite question to ask but it is one we need to think about when we recruit staff. They are the personal touch, the reflection of our business! So surely there are better looking people out there who take a bit of care and some pride in themselves for us to employ? Our customers do not know us as the managers or owners of our stores – but they do know our cashiers. They represent our business – they are the business!

Step out of your office now and just take a look at who you have serving your customers right now, today? Are they neat? Are they clean – and their hands and nails? Their hair? Look with new eyes and be honest with yourself. Is this how you see yourself? Remember they are you while serving your customers!

Our cashiers are our “face” to our customers. What is the condition of their uniforms? Visit competitor stores – it is always easier to find faults in other people’s businesses rather than our own. Take a good look at the people behind the counter. What do you see?

Maybe I am being prejudiced here but to me extremely fat people are generally lazy – and we all know exceptions to this rule too. But on the whole, it portrays a negative image – one I do not want to have in my business. Certainly not one I want reflected as my image.

So what do you look for next time you recruit a new cashier? I always look at energy levels – young, exciting, youthful – and of course attractive! All the things I want to be and I want to show to my customers. Sure these are not the only criteria, and we will look at other criteria later, but for the purpose of this discussion, looks are being overlooked throughout this industry.

Take care out there

Jocelyn Daly