Flexibility

One of the most useful skills for a Retail Manager is flexibility. Flexibility can be defined as a willingness to change or compromise. If you have ever worked in a retail environment, you probably already know exactly what I’m talking about. The retail store is in a constant state of change. This is easily identified by one of the primary metrics used for retail success: Turnover. This shows up as:

 -Inventory Turn(over)- how frequently the inventory sells through, expressed as an annual number

 -Employee turnover- how often a store has to replace its staff members

 -Customer retention- how well a retailer can attract and retain new customers. 

These metrics call out a retail reality: Everything changes. Products. Staff. Customers. 

Obviously, this work environment calls for flexibility as an attribute for the Store Manager. This flexibility plays itself out almost daily:

 -Products are always flowing in and out of the store, requiring constant adaptation, implementation, and merchandising. 

 -Staff turnover is a reality. People lose interest, find new opportunities, or are unable to meet expectations and are released. Hiring new people and training them is likely a forever certainty for retailers. Personal story here: I began my career as a schoolteacher and part of that job included being the assistant basketball coach for the HS team. One day at practice, the head coach, Johnnie Grace, looked at me and said, “we must be crazy, right?” I responded simply, “what?” He continued, “We put our careers in the hands of high school students that come and go season after season. We start over every year and are still required to succeed—despite those changes.” This is a reality of retail. Managers must accept this and be flexible in recruiting, hiring, and training in order to meet goals. 

 -Customers walk into your store with differing expectations. Even so, each one expects you to meet them where they are. Our ability to be flexible with customers could well be the true definer of success. Since we don’t know what individual customers want (high service, low service, no service) we must be prepared for any and all possibilities in order to succeed. As my good friend, Tony Tanner says, “We must be prepared to provide the exact experience that the customer standing right in front of you is expecting.” Well since each of us is different and each customer is different this requires a lot of flexibility.

Flexible people are open to new ideas and ways of doing things, they’re willing to try new things, capable of dealing with unexpected changes, and are likely to suggest creative solutions to problems.

If you’re interested in developing your ability to be flexible, work on these ideas:

• Accept what you can’t change.
• Focus on the present.
• Have values and live by them. 
• Keep the big picture in mind. 
• Try new experiences.
• Challenge your own beliefs.

If you research the etymology of the word, retail, you’ll find it comes from the word, “tailored”. In other words, custom. The challenge—and opportunity—in retail is to offer a perfectly tailored (custom) experience for every customer that walks into your store. Given the ever-changing nature of your work environment (product flow, staffing variations, as well as the many things that we have no control over), what is the ultimate skill needed to be effective? Flexibility.