“What I believe drives how I behave. And how I behave drives results.”
That’s the mantra my friend, store ops guru Rachel Williamson, often repeats.
Another way of putting it: Beliefs drive Behaviors which drive Results. In order to improve Results we need to first understand Behaviors and and then address the Beliefs that drive those behaviors.
What does that mean for retail store managers? If we want to improve sales (the Result), we need to measure Behaviors to understand and then change the Beliefs
The most important Results, Sales, are easy to measure.
The next step, understanding individual associate behaviors that drive sales is not easy. Managers and District Managers are spread too thin to be able to observe each and every store associate's actions and behaviors. Until we can understand associates' behaviors we cannot begin to understand and change their beliefs.
Once we understand the behaviors of store associates, managers can dig deeper to understand the “why” of those behaviors.
We’ve worked at a number of retail store sites where we tracked and measured the behaviors of store associates. Prior to using becco, when associates were asked why they did not perform that retailer’s best practice protocols, they would argue that they were indeed following the protocols.
After we started collecting customer feedback on each store associate’s behaviors it was harder to deny that they were not following the best practice protocols. Then when they were asked why they did not follow the protocols, they responded with answers like: I didn’t know that was important. Or I didn’t feel comfortable doing that. Or I was too busy. Or I forgot.
Once we discovered and measured the actual associate behaviors, we could work on changing the beliefs, the root of the problem.
In addition to Rachel’s mantra: “What I believe drives how I behave. And how I behave drives results”, I’ll throw in one more mantra: “What gets measured, gets managed.”
It makes all the difference.
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