Blog

Steve

Two types of KPIs

When you think about Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), what comes to mind? If you’re like most people, you think of metrics that matter to your industry and job function. If you work in a hotel, you may be thinking about KPIs such as occupancy, average daily rate, and revenue per

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Steve

The unseating of Sears

After buying our first home in 2000, my wife and I spent many weekends shopping at The Great Indoors, a home décor chain founded by Sears in 1997. One of our early purchases was a Kenmore canister vacuum cleaner. For more than a decade until the retail chain became defunct

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To ignore customers is to ignore principles

Last Friday, Alfred Angelo bridal retail stores filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy protection and abruptly closed its retail stores leaving throngs of brides in the lurch – most of whom had either paid in full or left a deposit. While there was internal communication to its stores (to shutter), there

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Personalization is good for business

A recent study by Springboard Retail revealed that 68 percent of survey respondents said they are likely or very likely to revisit a clothing store due to a personalized experience. The study lists a number of ways that a retail customer’s experience can be personalized ranging from offering monogramming services

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Acceptance of Average

Macy’s is in the news – and it’s not good news. It was reported on Wednesday that Macy’s is closing 68 stores and cutting more than 10,000 jobs. In one related article, Mark Cohen, a professor at Columbia Business School, said that Macy’s – and its competitors in the bricks-and-mortar

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The power of the frontline

My family and I stopped by the mall last week to pick up some last-minute items for my 13-year-old’s summer camp in New Mexico. We were tight on time as my wife had called ahead to add our name to the list at Yard House, where the hostess predicted that

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The most important retail space

Earlier today, I stopped by Office Depot to pick up some office supplies. Items in hand, I approached the cash registers at the front of the store to check out. There were two customers in line ahead of me. The first customer, after the cashier began entering her order, realized

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Who’s the Joker behind this policy?

My wife had ordered a set of Batman and Robin walkie-talkies on-line from the website of a national toy retailer. After they arrived and my boys had a chance to try them out, we learned that the reception was poor if the handsets were more than one or two rooms

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Retail Store Greeters

I used to work with a gal in New York who was fond of saying, “Love ya, mean it” – all in the same unenthusiastic breath. While her irreverence endeared her to all, it demonstrated to me that words alone, apart from an authentic delivery, can be pretty useless in

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