This week I am calling out five basic areas of retailing where some newsagents make the rest of us look bad. I am writing about these five areas because in the minds of plenty of Australian shoppers all newsagencies are as bad as the worst one they have visited.

COMFORT

Comfort in retail is important. The less comfortable an experience the less time a shopper will want to spend in the store.

By comfort I mean: temperature, accessibility, cleanliness and basic safety.

I was in a newsagency recently where the carpet was ripped in parts such that it would be easy to trip. In another the bare floorboards were splintering. And in another the floor looked like it had not been cleaned in months.

In each of these examples the comfort of shoppers was impacted in such a way that I suspect it plays out negatively on sales.

We need to provide a comfortable and enjoyable space where shoppers love to shop. This means a clean and safe floor, an in-store temperature appropriate to the season, an easy to navigate layout and an overall situation your shoppers enjoy.

We all need to take a more critical view of our shops and ensure we provide our shoppers with a competitively good experience.

This week I am going to call out five basic areas of retailing where some newsagents make the rest of us look bad. I am writing about these five areas because in the minds of plenty of Australian shoppers all newsagencies are as bad as the worst one they have visited.

LIGHTING

If you business is a convenience newsagency your lighting needs to be bright inside and out. Your shop has to shine in the street like a lighthouse – drawing people in.

If your business is a gift shop newsagency you need to offer mode lighting that reflects the feel you want for your business.

If your newsagency is a traditional newsagency promoting cards, magazines, stationery and lottery products then each area should be lit appropriately to the category and consistently.

Too many newsagencies I see are dark and unwelcoming. Too often some lights are recent while others are old. Old shoppers have trouble browsing cards and magazines because of poor lighting. Brightly coloured product designed to pop with good lighting fails to pop because of poor lighting.

While lighting costs money, the investment should help you sell more product.

As a retail channel we need to do better on lighting our shops.

There was a time when newsagents could rely on selling their business for a handsome increase on the price they paid thereby providing a good pay day. No more. Today, the best way to extract value from our businesses is to make every day your pay day.

The challenge is how do you do this?

We have to look at our newsagency businesses differently. We have to look at them and manage them as any other retailer runs their business – for maximum profit every day.

Newsagents have to stop being servants (agents) and start being retailers and entrepreneurs focused on profit.

Focussing on profit today will give you a better result today and make your business more valuable tomorrow. Without a doubt.

Here are some suggestions for making every day your pay day:

1. Run with the leanest roster possible. Just about every newsagency business I review has capacity to lower labour costs.
2. Have your best people working the floor, helping customers spend more.
3. Have stunning displays that attract people from outside the shop.
4. Have compelling displays in-store that encourage people to browse beyond their destination purchase.
5. Always have impulse offers at high traffic locations.
6. Charge more every time you can. Review your prices for products people come to yo because of convenience.
7. Buy as best you can.
8. Grab settlement discounts every time you are able.
9. Promote outside your store.

Be responsible for the profitability of your business. Don’t blame your suppliers, your landlord, your employees or some other external factor … it all comes down to you – the decisions you make and the actions you take.

If you relentlessly pursue profit with a clear focus you;pre likely to see profit grow. That’s better than waiting to make money when you sell because that’s less likely to happen in this market.

Every business needs a complaint handling process – one that is structured, clear and understood. A good complain handling process will give the complainant confidence and the recipient clarity on what to do with the complaint. A good process will also help you diffuse a complaint that is noise for the sake of noise.

1. Document your customer complaint handling process.
2. Consider having a complaint form to bring structure from the outset.
3. Make escalation lines clear, document them.
4. Involve those directly engaged with the customer.
5. Commit to a response time to the customer and stick to your commitment.
6. Once you have the facts act – apologise or refund or compensate or advise there is nothing further to do. Have an explanation for your decision.

This week I am looking at everyday management of the typical newsagency business – to open discussion among people here about what they do in the area of I cover and to help others to look at their own processes.

Footnote: a colleague mentioned to me yesterday that the our in the title is misleading as these posts could be about all newsagents. That’s what I meant. The our is not personal about my business but rather about all newsagencies.