Don’t Irritate Customers With Poor Merchandise Protection – Use Sensormatic Safers Part 1

Of the top ways retailers can avoid irritating me, many of them can be avoided simply by using Sensormatic Safers. Oh, there are a lot of things that get on my nerves but here are some of the biggies. I will expound on what merchants can do to improve these areas in a minute.

• Recently I have had a dickens of a time finding a particular store brand of Dramamine for my wife. Every one of this company’s locations around my area has had empty shelves. That’s either a LOT of people with motion sickness, a poor job of getting back in stock or a theft issue.

• Stores with 20+ checklanes and only 6 open along with self-checkout stands and lines are queued up extending 5 or more customers deep.

• Stores that carry multiple brands of a specific item such as a flash drive or ink jet printer cartridge and choose to protect one brand but not the other against theft, what are they thinking?

• Dump bins of DVD’s that I believe are 4 feet deep as I nearly fall in trying like an idiot to find “a really good” movie…in a DUMP bin of DVD’s!

• Waiting to find an associate to unlock a locking peghook so I can purchase an Xbox game card that has NO value until it is rung up at the cash register.

Each of these things irks me and I find it is a good time to bring it up because they have all happened to me recently. What frustrates me as a former Loss Prevention Manager is that the use of retail anti-theft devices could prevent several of these irritants.
     

When it comes to merchandise accessibility putting products on a locking peghook is no different than using a locking showcase. If something is expensive enough to warrant the use of a locking peghook there is a better solution for your store. Sensormatic Safers provide the same level of protection (I would argue better and I will expand on that later) and they improve service for customers AND store personnel. As a Loss Prevention Manager I had the experience of using different retail anti-theft devices and one of those was the locking peghook. It was a good idea at the time. Shoplifters were able to just remove an item from a peg, take it somewhere in the store and hide it. Professional shoplifters in Organized Retail Crime (ORC) groups would sweep a peghook clean of ALL the items on it. Think about losing a peghook filled with $10 packs of lithium batteries…that can add up to a LOT of money. Locking peghooks allowed us to restrict access to the goods because they required an employee with a detachment key to open the hook and ring the purchase at the register. The problem is this is exactly what you do with a locking display case. Customers are forced to wait for an available associate who may be busy helping someone else and eventually that customer leaves. That is a huge blow to sales and it is also a good way to lose customers who won’t return to your store. 
     

Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. (LPSI) is a company that was built with the objective of helping retail owners stop theft and also improve sales. Bill Bregar, who founded LPSI was in the Retail Loss Prevention field for years as a National Director of Loss Prevention for several large retailers. He keeps abreast of the best retail anti-theft devices on the market and recommends them to his clients to help them get the best protection and improve upon the service offered by the store. Both are used to foster reduced shortage and increased sales. One of the products recently added to the list of recommendations are Sensormatic Safers. These devices have electronic article surveillance (EAS) technology embedded in them so that stores equipped with Sensormatic towers at their doors will activate alarms if a Safer protected item is carried too close to the towers. Don’t worry of you don’t have a Sensormatic security system, LPSI can help you with that too. If you are fretting over the cost of a system don’t, visit their website and checkout the ROI Calculator. It is an amazing tool that is free to use and will show you how affordable a system is.
     

In Part 2, I will discuss more about the advantages of Sensormatic Safers versus trying to use alternative protections like showcases and locking peghooks. Suffice it to say if I am frustrated waiting for service for a locked up item there are more me’s out there and they may have shorter fuses than I do. Do yourself a favor, read Part 2 of this series and see how a Safer can boost sales and reduce theft.

Get more information on Sensormatic Safers, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
          

Can Loss Prevention Be Free If Customers Are Wary Of A New Technology?

Can Loss Prevention be free? Good question and we will answer it in a bit but a better question may be, “Can Loss Prevention and other technology become too invasive?” I come from a lengthy background in Loss Prevention and working in retail. I know that there have always been concerns expressed over matters of privacy and the need for security in stores. People were concerned over closed circuit television when it was introduced. Shoppers were suspicious and with good reason that security cameras might be installed in positions to see into fitting rooms. Employees complained and some still do that they feel like they are being watched the entire time they are on a cash register or working and even on break. Electronic Article Surveillance systems caused (and still does) some people to voice concern over health issues that systems may cause. Fear of interference with pace makers was one of the big issues that were brought up. Customers even worry about personal data collection when they make purchases as stores have used technology to produce coupons specific to that person based on known shopping habits at the point of sale. There is even the use of facial recognition technology in some stores to collect data on shopper habits. According to an article in dealerscope.com by Keith Yanke, “Facial Recognition Teams Up With Digital Displays to Deliver Tangible Retail Benefits” the author points out that facial recognition, “… can be used to map out an individual customer’s journey through the brick and mortar store…” The writer goes on to say that the shopping pattern identified could individualize marketing to the shopper. If customer’s become too wary of technology can it start to change whether or not they venture out? Does this imply there may be negative costs to stores that invest in some technologies?
     

I can safely say that Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) technology does not need to fall into one of concern for retailers. First most health and safety concerns that shoppers have are already been addressed by in-depth research. There is an extremely minute chance EAS can interfere in any way with medical devices. As for cost, while new technologies such as facial recognition may make some consumers squeamish EAS has become widely accepted and it is proven to reduce theft. Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. has even created a Loss Prevention Calculator that answers the question I first posed, “Can Loss Prevention be free?” The answer is yes. A Sensormatic security system can reduce shortage so much that the savings eventually pay for the system and add to the profits of a store. I will also add that the Loss Prevention Calculator is free to use, no signing up or log in is required and no sales person will call you up after you try it out.
     

Most technologies do become accepted over time even in retail but sometimes the merchants find they are not producing the results they need to justify the expense of a system. Today Closed Circuit Television Cameras are a technology that has become more accepted in stores in spite of a few concerns over privacy. One new technology that is being used in China does give me pause. In an article in LPM magazine, “Facial Recognition vs. Gait Recognition” (source: AP News) China is using a new technology “…that uses people’s body shapes and how they walk to identify them, even when their faces are hidden from cameras.”  The report even quotes a Chinese columnist, Shi Shusi,“Using biometric recognition to maintain social stability and manage society is an unstoppable trend,” he said. “It’s great business.” This technology is being used by the Chinese government but what could the same technology do in a retail store? Would it dissuade shoppers from going in if they knew it was being used, for advertising to individual patrons or Loss Prevention? It seems there could be a cost to this technology for retailers and it might not be good considering how invasive it could be along with facial recognition and other biometric measures.
     

Can Loss Prevention be free is my original question and that answer is yes. You can install Sensormatic technology that is safe and effective and will sharply reduce theft. You can even see how fast it will pay for itself by trying out the Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. Loss Prevention Calculator. As for other new technologies that are coming out, if they are geared to prevent shortage and improve profits consult with Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. and see what they think. They want to build your customer base, not chase them away.

For more information about the Loss Prevention Calculator, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 
     

Retail Theft Prevention – Lessons For Those Considering A Career In Loss Prevention Part 2

In Part 1 I talked about lessons I had to pick up about retail theft prevention as I transitioned into a career of Loss Prevention. I came into the job having been a U.S. Air Force Law Enforcement Specialist and after leaving the service attended college. I was hired and after a brief training period I was starting to catch shoplifters. I got pretty good at it and found I liked the adrenaline rush of watching a suspect as he/she started giving the signals they might steal. There were very few rules other than don’t make a bad stop. We were able to give chase and do what needed to be done to apprehend a bad guy. I made a lot of friends and contacts on the police department. They would race to get to where I was if I was chasing a shoplifter because they knew the cases we called them for were going to be solid. We didn’t call them just because someone set off our Sensormatic security system and got away. 

Unfortunately all I really learned in this first job was how to catch a shoplifter primarily using closed circuit television. I learned a little about employee theft, setting up a covert camera and some signals to look for to identify a dishonest worker. I did not learn about the part retail theft prevention plays in store profitability. I also didn’t learn about managing a team or managing a schedule. I had experience in the Air Force training others and a little supervisory background but I chose to leave before I had a significant amount of supervisory training. Four and a half years later I was hired as a Loss Prevention Manager for a big box retail store and though I thought I was ready I was in for a rude awakening my first year. I had no real idea what it was to interview people to work for me. I also had a rookie District Manager who was new to his job which was not very helpful to me. He had stores to supervise up to 4 hours distant from my store which was in a new market for this company. Yes, I had gone through several weeks of training but I didn’t learn about interviewing a team. In hindsight here are some of the things I would like to have known if I had it to do over again:

• Don’t necessarily hire people with a background in Loss Prevention. Some of the best people I hired later were those I could train from scratch. That does not mean I would not consider someone with an L.P. background. Unfortunately some had ways of doing things that were not in our best practices. An example might be they make apprehensions based on a Sensormatic security system alarm only. They could be harder to train and some had bad or risky behaviors they brought with them.

• Surround yourself with people who have skill sets different from your own. Don’t be afraid to hire someone who may surpass you. Hire great people that can help you be better.

• Don’t allow others to push a candidate on you. They may give you an opinion but ultimately you have to supervise that person.

There were mistakes I made in my hiring decisions and I own that but if I had some choices to do over again I guarantee I would.

I mentioned a Sensormatic security system so let me add this to my tips for those considering a career in Loss Prevention. If you work in a store that doesn’t have one ask the store owner or manager to consider installing a system. If the store does have a system, learn how it operates and how to troubleshoot it. Be able to teach associates how to respond to electronic article surveillance alarms because they will be the first ones to conduct the receipt checks. A well-trained associate can save a store a LOT of money by properly answering alarms.

Retail theft prevention can be rewarding. You must be aware that there is more to it than just watching cameras and “catching bad guys”. A good Associate or Manager will learn the operational side of the store business and become a partner to the store manager. You can be worth your weight in gold to a management team but you have to see the role as bigger than just preventing shoplifting. In the next installment I will cover a few more tips I wish someone had given me as I embarked on my Loss Prevention journey.

Retail theft prevention is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 for more information.