Retail traffic counting -3 wc blog 673
Customer Counting Device-4
Effective Payroll Management With The Help Of A Customer Counting Device
Retail traffic counting is important when store managers are trying to maintain profitable stores. It is no easy task to balance payroll, staffing and how many and when to schedule employees to work. Do you assign a person to cashier AND work the salesfloor? Do you assign one person to the salesfloor and merchandise stocking? What time of the day should you have an extra person come in to work? Is it easiest to simply make a schedule that is recycled every week except during holidays, such as during a Black Friday event? You can choose the easy way and just make a set schedule but you are probably doing yourself a disservice in the long run. A cut and paste schedule does not take into account when customers are in the store shopping. If foot traffic is heaviest at specific times of the day and specific days of the week your system of scheduling employees may not be serving the needs of the customers OR the financial interests of the business.
Store sales can be increased through improved scheduling and that doesn’t mean just throwing more dollars at the payroll dart board hoping to hit a bullseye. In order to have a more effective payroll management strategy a customer counting device installed in an electronic article surveillance tower is a must. The Integrated EAS Traffic Counter from Sensormatic can be installed in compatable Sensormatic pedestals allowing merchants to continue to reap the benefits of merchandise protection while tracking customers as they enter and leave the store. Data obtained from a retail counting device can include the time of day and the day of the week of activity taking place. Think about the implications that can have for your sales and how you staff your store. Knowledge is power so the saying goes and knowing your customer shopping trends is power!
For those who may not see the correlation between the customer counting device and payroll allocation think about the reporting tools you will have available. You can see the times customers are in your store and it takes the guessing out of the equation. If shoppers tend to come in to your establishment at noon and then again around 6:00pm those will be the times you want to have the most salesfloor coverage and cashiers available. It is going to drive your sales if you have employees available to assist your customers. Not only will they help the customers find what they need but it provides the opportunity for suggestive selling. As a side note, if you are not training your staff on this skill you need to make it a focus but that is a topic for another discussion. The addition of cashiers when foot traffic is highest will help speed up the checkout process which will increase customer satisfaction and ultimately customer loyalty.
You can also use the numbers generated from a customer counting device to plan for other work projects. You don’t want to stock merchandise or set new planograms and displays when most of your customers are shopping. Customers must always be the priority for your business. Using the information from a retail traffic counting system you can strategize when it will be best to get tasks completed. You may choose to have stockers in the store from 8am-11am and transition to a client oriented service from 11am until your next slow period. You may also determine that Saturdays are better for project completions than a Monday or Tuesday. All of these factors can play a part in improving payroll allocation.
Retail traffic counting can help improve scheduling effectiveness and in turn increase income for stores. If your business doesn’t have a Sensormatic security system, invest in one and get it with the customer counting device included. You’ll improve profits through increased sales AND decreased theft.
Retail traffic counting is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
Retail traffic counting is important when store managers are trying to maintain profitable stores. It is no easy task to balance payroll, staffing and how many and when to schedule employees to work. Do you assign a person to cashier AND work the salesfloor? Do you assign one person to the salesfloor and merchandise stocking? What time of the day should you have an extra person come in to work? Is it easiest to simply make a schedule that is recycled every week except during holidays, such as during a Black Friday event? You can choose the easy way and just make a set schedule but you are probably doing yourself a disservice in the long run. A cut and paste schedule does not take into account when customers are in the store shopping. If foot traffic is heaviest at specific times of the day and specific days of the week your system of scheduling employees may not be serving the needs of the customers OR the financial interests of the business.
Store sales can be increased through improved scheduling and that doesn’t mean just throwing more dollars at the payroll dart board hoping to hit a bullseye. In order to have a more effective payroll management strategy a customer counting device installed in an electronic article surveillance tower is a must. The Integrated EAS Traffic Counter from Sensormatic can be installed in compatable Sensormatic pedestals allowing merchants to continue to reap the benefits of merchandise protection while tracking customers as they enter and leave the store. Data obtained from a retail counting device can include the time of day and the day of the week of activity taking place. Think about the implications that can have for your sales and how you staff your store. Knowledge is power so the saying goes and knowing your customer shopping trends is power!
For those who may not see the correlation between the customer counting device and payroll allocation think about the reporting tools you will have available. You can see the times customers are in your store and it takes the guessing out of the equation. If shoppers tend to come in to your establishment at noon and then again around 6:00pm those will be the times you want to have the most salesfloor coverage and cashiers available. It is going to drive your sales if you have employees available to assist your customers. Not only will they help the customers find what they need but it provides the opportunity for suggestive selling. As a side note, if you are not training your staff on this skill you need to make it a focus but that is a topic for another discussion. The addition of cashiers when foot traffic is highest will help speed up the checkout process which will increase customer satisfaction and ultimately customer loyalty.
You can also use the numbers generated from a customer counting device to plan for other work projects. You don’t want to stock merchandise or set new planograms and displays when most of your customers are shopping. Customers must always be the priority for your business. Using the information from a retail traffic counting system you can strategize when it will be best to get tasks completed. You may choose to have stockers in the store from 8am-11am and transition to a client oriented service from 11am until your next slow period. You may also determine that Saturdays are better for project completions than a Monday or Tuesday. All of these factors can play a part in improving payroll allocation.
Retail traffic counting can help improve scheduling effectiveness and in turn increase income for stores. If your business doesn’t have a Sensormatic security system, invest in one and get it with the customer counting device included. You’ll improve profits through increased sales AND decreased theft.
Retail traffic counting is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
I work in a retail store as a sales associate and I often use my experiences as a Loss Prevention Associate and Manager to stop shoplifting and prevent shortage in the store where I now work. A recent experience made me recall that not all shortage is theft related, some is operational and some we cannot determine which it falls under but it can still be prevented. I was working the cash register and being the back to school season patrons were buying lots of supplies for their students/children. I had one young woman purchasing pencils, paper, a binder, folders and a few other items. When I got to the binder I scanned the barcode and as I started to place it to the side to scan the next item I realized something was in the binder. I opened it up and there were three 3-hole punched poly dividers that had been inserted inside. I looked at them to ensure they were not a part of the binder and found barcodes on each one. I scanned them and they were about $2.50 each. The customer said she meant to take them out and forgot to do so. It may not sound like a lot but by catching it I was able to prevent $7.50 in shortage or did I stop $7.50 in shoplifting? Either way, money was saved and THAT contributes to store profitability.
Similarly Sensormatic systems can reduce shortage through theft prevention and detecting operational errors. In terms of theft prevention tagged merchandise can be hidden inside a purse, satchel bag, under clothing, etc. and the tags will be detected at the door pedestals. As a retail manager you need to be aware that another method of theft utilized by the bad guys is to conceal merchandise inside other merchandise. In Loss Prevention we use an acronym, L.I.S.A. short for Look InSide Always. It is a method we use to remind cashiers to look inside of places where goods can be hidden. Examples may include, zipper binders, trash cans with lids, storage containers with lids, luggage and so on. If something can be hidden in it a cashier should be looking inside as it is rung up. Think about purses or comforters. Both items are popular for concealing merchandise in and attempting to buy the item and avoiding paying for the hidden merchandise. There are instances where merchandise is simply overlooked because it is on the bottom of a shopping basket. Cases of drinks, bulky paper towels and bags of dog food are items often placed here due to the amount of space they take up in a cart. Unless the shopper and/or the cashier is paying attention they can be missed and go out the door as unpaid merchandise. Of course if a store is using Sensormatic systems and all goods are tagged then the pedestals will alarm and remind the patron that something was missed. The customer and the employee have an opportunity to react and have the item properly processed at the point of sale.
The situation I described above is not the first time I have encountered hidden merchandise whether it was done intentionally or by someone else. As a Loss Prevention Manager I have seen shoppers come to a register with a blouse and dress jacket on a hanger that looked like they could be sold as a single item. After alerting the cashier to look at both pieces it was found there was a second price tag. The customer changed her mind. Did we stop shoplifting or prevent an honest mistake? I don’t have that answer. What I do know is we prevented the shortage of the blouse if I had not alerted the cashier to look.
As a Loss Prevention professional what I like about Sensormatic systems is that they are not a one-trick pony. They do stop shoplifting but they also impact employee theft and operational shortage. They also help keep vendors honest. I have seen cosmetic and jewelry vendors start to leave after a visit and set off electronic article surveillance alarms. The merchandise was recovered but it could not be determined if the vendor intended to steal or made an honest mistake. Shrink isn’t the result of theft alone and Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. can show you how Sensormatic systems can play a role in reducing all of it.
Need information on Sensormatic systems? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
I came across a story about a couple shoplifting and I wondered whether the store could have used Sensormatic hard tags to prevent the thefts that took place. I also wondered what the couple was thinking in terms of the merchandise they were accused of stealing. First, according to baynews9.com, on July 18, 2018 in a story by Spectrum News Staff, two people are accused of shoplifting alcohol and vacuums worth $3,000. The couple in question was accused of stealing $1,200 in vacuum cleaners at 6a.m. and a few hours later returning to steal $1,700 worth of alcohol. During my years as a Loss Prevention Manager I worked with the Loss Prevention personnel of this company and know that they do a good job of stopping theft. I do shop their stores and I do see some areas where I believe they could improve their security tagging. One area is in the wine and spirits aisle. I don’t purchase the products but I do make a point of looking at theft prevention strategies in use and frankly I don’t see merchandise protection devices in use to stop shoplifting.
If I could offer one piece of advice to this particular chain and to ALL store owners for that matter, consider using Sensormatic hard tags on these products to keep them from being stolen. The Sensormatic 9kG Multi-Purpose tag is the perfect choice for the task. A hard tag with a steel cable and nylon strap it can be secured around the neck of a bottle. In doing so retailers are assured that any attempt to conceal and carry merchandise out of a store is going to be thwarted with an electronic article surveillance alarm. The adjustable strap allows merchants to protect nearly any bottle in their inventory. If store owners need more reason to use the tags the “multi-purpose” portion of the name should be an enticement. This tag can be used on sporting goods, power tools and luggage! When a tag can be used in more than one category of merchandise to stop shoplifting it always makes it a more cost-effective choice of device.
I bring the story about the theft up because if a major retailer with a Loss Prevention Department can be taken twice in one day by the same couple what is the potential damage the same couple could do to a small business? I know the folks in their Loss Prevention Departments are good at what they do and they know how to catch crooks. Small retailers need to find ways to fight crime too and they aren’t going to have retail theft departments. If the bad guys in the report can get $1,700 worth of alcohol past trained Loss Prevention teams how much will they get away with from your stores? $1,200 in vacuum cleaners is no small potatoes either. Big retailers may be able to absorb the cost of this many vacuums but how much shrink will that represent for your company? Bill Bregar, founder of Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. has been consulting with small and medium retailers on retail shrink and theft issues since 1983. He recommends Sensormatic systems to clients as part of a comprehensive solution to stop shoplifting and drive up profits.
Hopefully I have whet your appetite for more information on how you can prevent alcohol and other theft. Sensormatic hard tags are a phenomenal tool for businesses to seriously impede criminals from cleaning house in your store. Learn more about how you can benefit from the resources offered by Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. and Sensormatic anti-theft devices.
Get more information on Sensormatic hard tags, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
A comment from a library patron to me about our RFID system made me think about how the same issues take place in retail businesses with electronic article surveillance systems. I checked out several books to the patron that had been requested from another library. As I completed the checkout he asked me if the books were going to alarm when he left. I told him I was not sure and that we had no ability to deactivate the RFID tags from another library through our system. I told him I would be happy to walk them out for him and he said Good, it’s embarrassing when it goes off. We pride ourselves on providing outstanding customer service where I work and having something like this outside of our control is frustrating. As often happens I applied this to retailers and the customer service complaints that are associated with the failure to deactivate Sensormatic labels at the point of sale. As a Loss Prevention Manager I encountered the same types of problems and it was an unpleasant task.
The downside to unnecessary alarm activations in retail is the vast majority of those alarm events ARE avoidable and within the control of the store. When a cashier rings a transaction and fails to scan the item over the deactivation pad at the register it will cause an unnecessary alarm. When deactivation equipment is not tested at the beginning of the workday and a unit is malfunctioning alarms will happen that could have been avoided. If a cashier fails to remove an electronic article surveillance hard tag after ringing a piece of merchandise it will be the source of a false alarm. Then there are the phantom alarms that may take place at the pedestals when the alarm sounds and no one is around. If the equipment is not tested daily it may have been caught before it chirped when customers started coming through the doors to shop.
The impact on your business may be hard to determine but false alarms are problematic. As with the patron at the library there are people who will say they are embarrassed, distraught or upset by an unnecessary alarm. When this happened in my store I was often the person that had to speak to the customer about it. I would apologize for the error and had to assuage the patron’s concerns especially if they were raising their voice and creating a scene. In most situations I was successful but at least once I had to offer a giftcard to the patron for their trouble. Was I required to do that? No, but was it worth the $10 giftcard to send the customer out of the store a bit irritated but not belligerent over an electronic article surveillance failure due to cashier error. It also may have been enough to prevent it from becoming a main point of discussion in the next conversation with friends.
I had a different encounter with another shopper when a cashier failed to deactivate Sensormatic labels on some item he bought but this ended much differently. The alarm sounded and the patron started to raise a big stink which pulled in the Manager On Duty. She spoke with this customer but he started tossing around that he was a Security Manager for another retailer and was extremely embarrassed and was going to sue the store. Apparently he did not think store Loss Prevention was working this day. The Manager called for me and I came to the door. I introduced myself and inquired about his concern. He went into his diatribe and I stopped him. I pointed out that as a fellow Loss Prevention Manager he was well aware of mistakes that can take place with electronic article surveillance. I also reminded him that since he worked for a hardware retailer I knew he had more than his share of false alarms. He began to hem and haw a bit. For good measure I told him I knew who his District Loss Prevention Manager was and I would be more than happy to place a phone call about his behavior and lack of professional courtesy. The ‘gentleman’ backed off and decided to leave. I mention this story because you never know who may be the “offended” party due to cashier or other errors.
Mistakes are going to happen. Proper training of cashiers on the deactivation of Sensormatic labels is crucial. The better they are the fewer the false alarms and the more you can be confident alarms are the result of attempts at theft. Train on proper alarm response and make recoveries that will put money back in your pocket.
Get more information on Sensormatic labels, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
Retail Theft Prevention-4 WC Blog 657
Sensormatic security systems-4
Retail Theft Prevention Is Not An Impossible Mission
I know that an article about retail theft prevention may seem an odd place to find a commentary on a movie but I just saw the movie, “Mission Impossible Fallout” and I thought it was fantastic. From start to finish it kept me on the edge of my seat and I left the cinema feeling like I got every bit of my money’s worth out of it. No, I won’t give any spoilers if you haven’t seen it, I’m not THAT guy. What I will say is from a return on investment perspective I was not disappointed in the least. That is my tie-in with this article. Have you ever been disappointed with a product that was supposed to enhance the security of your store and felt like it didn’t meet expectations? Maybe you have an alarm system that never seems to work properly and you get calls from the alarm company in the middle of the night due to malfunctions. It could be you have a credit card service that is not available to resolve issues for your point of sale after 5pm or on weekends, you know, the times a retail business is open. It could be you wanted to reduce theft and someone sold you an electronic article surveillance system at a bargain price and now you can’t get the support you need. Could you be getting defective tags and labels that never seem to activate your system when they should or maybe the deactivation pads don’t deactivate? All of these things can hinder your ability to provide the service your customers want from your store or won’t prevent the shortage YOU expect it to. Sensormatic security systems has been around for a long time and that doesn’t happen when a business doesn’t deliver on promises.
One way I decide I am going to view a movie is I look at the plot, the actors and occasionally the reviews. Having been a fan of the Mission Impossible series since the television days (and I even met Peter Graves for about 1 minute), and having watched the other movies in the series I can look at the proven track record and feel confident that the next movie will be great too. With an eye to retail theft prevention I can look at the track record of a company as a benchmark for their product. Sensormatic security systems is celebrating 50 years in retail electronic surveillance. According to their website they installed systems on a trial basis in stores. “A Los Angeles retailer using the system reported a decline in shrink from 5% to almost zero.” A lot has changed both in how thieves steal and in technology but this company continues to be a leader in the industry.
As a Loss Prevention Professional I used Sensormatic security systems tags and towers. I have witnessed the deterrence ability of tags when shoplifters could not remove them and I have seen the consistency of the tags alarming at the pedestals near the doors of a store. The Sensormatic brand is so reliable in retail theft prevention that Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. also a leader in retail theft reduction consulting services recommends the systems to clients. Reliability and dependability are two key factors in finding a system that will effectively reduce shortage.
Retail theft prevention is not an impossible mission for retailers. By installing a Sensormatic security system and consulting with Retail Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. you can get a superb return on your investment. Spoiler alert! Invest in a system and you will drive criminals out and put profits back in to your store.
Need information on Sensormatic security systems? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
I know that an article about retail theft prevention may seem an odd place to find a commentary on a movie but I just saw the movie, “Mission Impossible Fallout” and I thought it was fantastic. From start to finish it kept me on the edge of my seat and I left the cinema feeling like I got every bit of my money’s worth out of it. No, I won’t give any spoilers if you haven’t seen it, I’m not THAT guy. What I will say is from a return on investment perspective I was not disappointed in the least. That is my tie-in with this article. Have you ever been disappointed with a product that was supposed to enhance the security of your store and felt like it didn’t meet expectations? Maybe you have an alarm system that never seems to work properly and you get calls from the alarm company in the middle of the night due to malfunctions. It could be you have a credit card service that is not available to resolve issues for your point of sale after 5pm or on weekends, you know, the times a retail business is open. It could be you wanted to reduce theft and someone sold you an electronic article surveillance system at a bargain price and now you can’t get the support you need. Could you be getting defective tags and labels that never seem to activate your system when they should or maybe the deactivation pads don’t deactivate? All of these things can hinder your ability to provide the service your customers want from your store or won’t prevent the shortage YOU expect it to. Sensormatic security systems has been around for a long time and that doesn’t happen when a business doesn’t deliver on promises.
One way I decide I am going to view a movie is I look at the plot, the actors and occasionally the reviews. Having been a fan of the Mission Impossible series since the television days (and I even met Peter Graves for about 1 minute), and having watched the other movies in the series I can look at the proven track record and feel confident that the next movie will be great too. With an eye to retail theft prevention I can look at the track record of a company as a benchmark for their product. Sensormatic security systems is celebrating 50 years in retail electronic surveillance. According to their website they installed systems on a trial basis in stores. “A Los Angeles retailer using the system reported a decline in shrink from 5% to almost zero.” A lot has changed both in how thieves steal and in technology but this company continues to be a leader in the industry.
As a Loss Prevention Professional I used Sensormatic security systems tags and towers. I have witnessed the deterrence ability of tags when shoplifters could not remove them and I have seen the consistency of the tags alarming at the pedestals near the doors of a store. The Sensormatic brand is so reliable in retail theft prevention that Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. also a leader in retail theft reduction consulting services recommends the systems to clients. Reliability and dependability are two key factors in finding a system that will effectively reduce shortage.
Retail theft prevention is not an impossible mission for retailers. By installing a Sensormatic security system and consulting with Retail Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. you can get a superb return on your investment. Spoiler alert! Invest in a system and you will drive criminals out and put profits back in to your store.
Need information on Sensormatic security systems? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
