What Would You Do As New Manager Of A Diy Store To Improve The Overall Performance Of Store?
Nov 27, 2009 in
diy
swot analysis of a DIY store specific before you takeover as a manager?
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14 comments
DIY Doc on November 27, 2009 at 5:41 am
I would want to review sales reports from all departments for the last 12 months. Such as hardware,paint,tools,etc.
I would look at there ratio of % of total sales for the store.
Pay close attention to the time of year for each dept’s sales.
I would question for list of inventory that has been on the sales floor for more than 60 days. This tells you that these items are not moving, you then need to find out why.
#1. Pricing? Is your store to high on pricing
#2 Appearance? Is the item no longer appealing due to dirty package, missing parts, only 1 item on rack. Inventory of only 1 item regardless of what it is signifies that no one wants to buy this item – so I won’t buy it either. Have a minimum of 3 of everything.
#3. Is this merchandise in the incorrect place in the store?
Some people especially fixed customers have never seen all your store- By moving merchandise quarterly – Some of it – not all of it, you bring new items into view for persons who either don’t have time to walk the entire store, or for persons who always just buy bird seed.
Spend your first 3-4 months observing the store and the employees. Use this time to gather data like what I mentioned above. Check out your struggle, do it ahead of schedule in the morning and see just how busy they are. count cars and trucks in the parking lot, you can do this with a excellent pair of binoculars each morning. You need to know your struggle-this means their strengths and weaknesses.
Review employees and their performance and evaluation records. Is there a time clock? Do you have a pattern of tardiness in some employees? Do they take too long of a lunch or break? Do some like to have total chats with customers?
Make it clear that everyone has a job to do. Store owners have a right to earn a profit from the money invested in this store, let your employees know that what they do or don’t do has an impact on the stores performance.
Remember the contemporary employees will follow a excellent leader, even if they have to work a small harder and start coming to work on time.
Take pictures of the front of the store, the surrounded by, displays,restrooms,etc., use these pictures to involve employees at your first company assembly – let employees suggest ways to clean up store appearance and image.
You have to pump new life into this store – employees also get burnt out if things stay the same for too long. Get them excited about coming to work again.
purikpaa on November 27, 2009 at 5:44 am
To just answer the Q directly, without the details you added, the key factor, as others have suggested is customer service. That would include knowledgable employees, either with specific knowledge of a dept. and context, or at least where things are in the store. OR, be able to declare they don’t know but will find someone who does know, what size Pipe, or where Pipe can be found.
Certainly a decent staff should know product, and applications of product, and in many suitcases be able to cross over, in some manner, from Paint, to Hardware, for example. Certainly having specialized staff would be ideal, but many stores don’t or can’t function that way.
I shop “hardware” stores, every day of my life, and I want decent customer service, even beyond stressing over any price, (which is often negligible in difference) in competitors operations. I want what I want and expect it to be unfilled, or be unfilled to order.
I want stores to surpass manage their merchandise, especially on the sales floor stock. That might mean having the cash out register, footstep inventory, and/or having someone on staff take fixed walk throughs, checking for out of stock. One reason I say this is, through experience I often find something out of stock, ( I know it) but the store, or its clerks seem to be unaware, or unaware more about whether or not that merchandise is in an upcoming consignment.
Accurate pricing is vital to me, not in the sense of cost, but in the sense of being IN MY FACE so I know what an item expenditure. I don’t carry a bar code scanner with me to shop. I suggest too, that someone on staff PULL price specials signs, when a sale is over, or the merhandise runs out, and keep footstep of the merchandise that’s on clearance, discontinued, etc., for the subsidy of the customer.
I’m adamant about being well taken care of for a valid reason. Example: I’m in FL. On my way to a job I pass a Lowes, new, clean, but nearly empty of staff. It happens to be on the same side of the highway as the management I’m going. Opposite the Lowes, is a Home Depot. I could stop there as well, with some transfer management, or on my way from a job site. Further into my example, I may want a specific “WIDGET”, Lowes may or may not have it, but someone makes an try to find it, or may call other stores for their stock, or order some after checking inventories and upcoming shipments, and I may place, a pleased customer. The same should be the case at their competitor, Home Depot, OR in Neither, or perhaps even in the smaller chains. Obviously that may not always be the case in a small operation, similar to Mom and Pop, independants, but even they should be hoping for return business.
If I’m not taken care of, it won’t matter how well staffed you are, how clean you are, how large and bright you are, how many yellow sales signs you post, OR even that your struggle may charge more for an item,,, I’ll shop your struggle.
This global economy is too IFFY to give up on service to the customer at this point.
Steven Wolf
Just my two “sense”
Tedruski on November 27, 2009 at 6:02 am
A few thoughts from someone who spends a LOT of time and money in DIY stores. I don’t know if it answers your question but these are what I look for:
Make sure the store is clean and tidy with aisles that are wide enough for a loaded trolley to get past browsers;
Provide suitable trolleys. Too many DIY stores lack anything in the mid-range between a supermarket trolley and a heavy, giant truck.
Make sure that each item is in the right place on the racks and that the racks clearly show the right contemporary price. It is embarrassing to get to the till only to be told the item will cost twice as much as you expected and time consuming to wait while staff check the price. Rather than face this, I will not even attempt to buy anything that is unpriced or in the incorrect place.
Use experienced people and train them in customer care;
Provide a café like in many garden centres;
Provide toilets. You are probably out of town. I have come some distance to spend my money with you. Neither you nor I want my costs spree to be cut small by personal discomfort.
Make sure you never run out of your top selling 20% of products;
Eliminate stock that is out-of-season or obsolete (but keep for a while consumables for products sold in the store that are now obsolete – You don’t want a reputation for selling durable goods on which you pull the plug as soon as you have made the sale).
Do not use your public address system for paging staff every few minutes. Provide them with pagers, personal radios or even mobile phones for the purpose.
Reckon about the music (if any) you play in-store. The average DIY store customer is not into RAP, garage or many other genres of music. A store that plays unsuitable music is saying it doesn’t want me as customer.
Provide a car park which allows passable space to load vehicles.
Provide a delivery service for heavy or bulky items.
scullion on November 27, 2009 at 6:54 am
There is a lot you can do. Start by checking out your struggle. See what they do or don’t do with there customers. Customer service should be your #1 priority. Make sure your employees greet each and every customer asking them if they can help. If they do not know the answer to the question then they should know who in your store can answer it. Make sure they are trained in customer service and the store.
Without customers there is no DIY store. Then focus on sales. Hire people with DIY experience or contractors such as plumbers, carpenters, electricians and so on. Keep your store clean and inviting. Remember, there are 2 things you have to watch, the first is your customers the second is your struggle!
Michael on November 27, 2009 at 7:17 am
I would place various deals into place – buy one get one free etc. This time of year should be products that have low turn around- eg plants that have already flowered.
I would also be tempted to offer services to the customer- a cafe or vending machines- DIY is hard work!
Blueberry Cheesecake on November 27, 2009 at 7:31 am
Unless you can go it to any area where people are really buying houses, you’re pretty stuck as regards to sales, but if you can increase sales turnover in some way, overall performance will surely follow too.
Enoch Root on November 27, 2009 at 7:49 am
Fire most of the staff who seem to spend half the day avoiding responsibility anything that might be construed as work…
Then bring in people who would really know what the hell they were talking about to customers….Most of them who work at B&Q have no thought at all….
Jamie R on November 27, 2009 at 7:54 am
Stop giving advice. Diy store advice hurts people everyday, they should be held responsable for it.
lmills14 on November 27, 2009 at 8:10 am
use people who are really ancient enough to drive. also help them increase their customer service skills. use excellent cleaner as I called into my local DIY store and the toilets was diabolicle
lea n jase on November 27, 2009 at 8:24 am
I’d use people who really know something about DIY..
bugaboo on November 27, 2009 at 9:21 am
Ban smackheads from entering your store
1878 on November 27, 2009 at 10:00 am
question your staff to be cheerful to customers it’s contagious
Gear M on November 27, 2009 at 10:14 am
blow up the nearest b and q thats bound to increase business lol
dick1953 on November 27, 2009 at 11:13 am
get in staff with real knowledge and experience!!!!