RCE Podcast episode 2: ACA upheld, nude grocery shopping and Obama's gift registry

June 29, 2012

The National Retail Federation reacted very strongly to yesterday's Supreme Court decision to uphold the legislation commonly known as "Obamacare," and our…

Practice customer experience management by focusing on the employee experience

by Kimberly Nasief — President, Measure Consumer Perspectives

Customer experience management can be directly linked to how the employees understand and view their workplace. It's easy to understand that if the employees…

New technology brings 'ease of online shopping' to brick-and-mortar stores

June 27, 2012

A new product to enable interactive cross-selling via iPads in retail stores is now available from software company LightSpeed. The solution will arm retailers…

Eight mistakes that kill your retail sales training

by Bob Phibbs — CEO, The Retail Doctor

You've only got one shot at training new hires. One. You can't go back...

Driving growth by changing the marketing and sales dynamic

Marketing execs can get so caught up in words, pictures and messages that they fail to focus on ROI.

Researcher: Retailers investing in employees will profit

June 18, 2012

Although the economy is starting to bounce back, wages and benefits are still low when it comes to many low-skill service jobs, such as employees of retail…

How customer service builds brand loyalty

by Peggy Carlaw — VP, Impact Learning Systems

Karen Freeman, Patrick Spenner, and Anna Bird bring up Three Myths About What Customers Want in the HBR Blog Network. These myths are based on information from…

European electrical retailer deploys behavior monitoring system

June 12, 2012

Electrical retailer Dixons Retail is implementing Accuworks' behavior monitoring system in hopes of increasing the frequency and visibility of colleague…

The seven reasons independent retailers go broke

by Bob Phibbs — CEO, The Retail Doctor

When I was first starting my retail consultancy business back in the 90?s, independent retailers dreaded the arrival of retail super chains like Walmart in…

Accelerating your company or store's performance

by Doug Fleener — President and Managing Partner, Dynamic Experiences Group, LLC

accelerate - to cause faster or greater activity, development, progress, advancement, etc., in: to accelerate economic growth.

Commentary: Lessons learned from mystery shopping

Mystery shopping has helped c-stores protect their bottom lines by ensuring attentiveness to the shopper.

Making the right choice ... for your customer

by Doug Fleener — President and Managing Partner, Dynamic Experiences Group, LLC

Retailers make subconscious choices between making things easier for themselves or delivering the best experience for their customers almost every day. We…

Putting for survival

by Harvey Mackay — Author, Mackay Mitchell

Like a million other people, Major James Nesmeth dreamed of improving his golf game from his usual score in the 90s. Circumstances forced him to quit the game…

Call center coaching: Five tips to ensure your success

by Peggy Carlaw — VP, Impact Learning Systems

Managing staff — in any form — is hard work and requires a well-stocked repertoire of people skills, business acumen, and the ability to juggle multiple…

HP unveils all-in-one retail system with touchscreen

May 9, 2012

HP's new all-in-one retail solution, the HP RP7, featuring a touch interface will be available in August, according to a company press release. It has also…

Fact or excuse? It depends.

by Doug Fleener — President and Managing Partner, Dynamic Experiences Group, LLC

While working with executives, owners and managers I hear a lot of reasons why something did or did not happen. Recently I've noticed that sometimes it feels…

To ignite your customers, fire up your employees

I'm one of those connected customers. I scan QR codes. I read product reviews. I'm never without my phone and it is loaded and ready with Google Shopper, Red…

Why small retailers must work harder on customer service

by James Bickers — Editor, Networld Alliance

This is a tale of two retailers, one of them a single-location local boutique shop, the other a major multinational corporation. One of them recently gave me…

Take your work seriously, don't take yourself seriously

by Harvey Mackay — Author, Mackay Mitchell

"Dilbert," which is carried in 1,100 newspapers, has helped us laugh at the crazy dynamics of the workplace. Now if we could only start laughing at ourselves.

When to use customer service games in training

by Peggy Carlaw — VP, Impact Learning Systems

Customer service games can add spice to a training program. I ought to know, I wrote the book! Unfortunately, I've seen too many games used just because ...