Employee theft – 4 WC Blog 797
Employee Theft Reduction Training – 3
Employee Theft Reduction Training Can Help Avoid Blunders
How do you stop employee theft and shoplifting? Well, when you are a Loss Prevention Manager for a major retail store you may hire Loss Prevention Officers. Unfortunately we don’t always have the ability to see how well an employee is going to work out. I for one have made my share of poor hiring decisions. Sometimes people look great on paper and may even excel at interviewing but boy can they make life miserable when they get hired. One such hire for me seemed like he would be competent according to his resume and application. I did see one place on his resume which caused me some minor concern but other than that the interview went well, our background check company cleared him (but to what extent he was investigated I don’t know) and we brought him onboard. I had an employee theft case I started investigating and asked this employee if he knew how to tie into a CCTV camera cable for a covert camera. He told me he did and he was anxious to help. I gave him the okay, made sure he and the other associate knew what the plan was and I went home. There may have been a better outcome had I tested his knowledge before leaving for the day because his training was lacking. I’ll finish my story shortly but it brings up two questions I have for store managers.
What kind of employee theft reduction training do you have for your managers and do you incorporate employee background checks as part of your strategy to reduce employee theft? The two questions are not mutually exclusive. Pre-employment screening can be a tool for reducing the chances of hiring dishonest employees. The right screening company will allow you to choose what you want to have investigated. In the case of my employee if I had been given options I would have asked for that question from the resume to be investigated. Why did he have this gap or oddity on his resume? Did he actually have the experience he said he had? You can keep from making a similar mistake and ensure your employees are who they present themselves to be by using the right pre-employment screening company. Theft reduction training for non-Loss Prevention personnel is also much different than the training for Loss Prevention Associates. Theft reduction training for store managers and employees will not include running covert cameras, or conducting surveillance on shoplifters. It should include being able to identify suspicious behaviors, how to use electronic article surveillance technology to deter theft and the impact of customer service on theft prevention. Employee theft reduction for managers is or should be conducted by a business with experienced Loss Prevention trainers. Have them do the training and you won’t need to ask the follow-up questions I should have asked my employee.
So what was it I failed to do and what was the result? Well, I took my employee’s word for what he told me, that he knew how to splice into a CCTV cable to run a separate line. The purpose was so that I could conduct surveillance in an area of the stockroom where suspected employee theft was taking place. The idea was fantastic, the execution horrible. I received a call from my store manager telling me my Associate had cut the ALARM cable to the building and he wanted to know what I was going to do about it. I had to go back to the store, see what my employee had done and then contact the alarm company. I also had to contact MY District Loss Prevention Manager and explain what had transpired. As I recall I also had to stay overnight in the building since the alarms were not working properly…did I mention my employees tried to splice the alarm wire back together? The alarm technician came out the next day and repaired the screw-up.
I wound up setting the covert camera myself and I did finally catch the dishonest employee but at quite a cost. I also eventually fired the Associate. After this I always made sure I spent a great deal of time training one of my Associates before allowing them to help me with an employee theft investigation. For you employee theft reduction training can be much easier than it was for me. Use a background check company so you don’t have as many workers stealing from you and hire a company specializing in Loss Prevention training to do your training for you. Trust me the results will be so much better than what I went through.
Get more information on employee theft reduction training, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
How do you stop employee theft and shoplifting? Well, when you are a Loss Prevention Manager for a major retail store you may hire Loss Prevention Officers. Unfortunately we don’t always have the ability to see how well an employee is going to work out. I for one have made my share of poor hiring decisions. Sometimes people look great on paper and may even excel at interviewing but boy can they make life miserable when they get hired. One such hire for me seemed like he would be competent according to his resume and application. I did see one place on his resume which caused me some minor concern but other than that the interview went well, our background check company cleared him (but to what extent he was investigated I don’t know) and we brought him onboard. I had an employee theft case I started investigating and asked this employee if he knew how to tie into a CCTV camera cable for a covert camera. He told me he did and he was anxious to help. I gave him the okay, made sure he and the other associate knew what the plan was and I went home. There may have been a better outcome had I tested his knowledge before leaving for the day because his training was lacking. I’ll finish my story shortly but it brings up two questions I have for store managers.
What kind of employee theft reduction training do you have for your managers and do you incorporate employee background checks as part of your strategy to reduce employee theft? The two questions are not mutually exclusive. Pre-employment screening can be a tool for reducing the chances of hiring dishonest employees. The right screening company will allow you to choose what you want to have investigated. In the case of my employee if I had been given options I would have asked for that question from the resume to be investigated. Why did he have this gap or oddity on his resume? Did he actually have the experience he said he had? You can keep from making a similar mistake and ensure your employees are who they present themselves to be by using the right pre-employment screening company. Theft reduction training for non-Loss Prevention personnel is also much different than the training for Loss Prevention Associates. Theft reduction training for store managers and employees will not include running covert cameras, or conducting surveillance on shoplifters. It should include being able to identify suspicious behaviors, how to use electronic article surveillance technology to deter theft and the impact of customer service on theft prevention. Employee theft reduction for managers is or should be conducted by a business with experienced Loss Prevention trainers. Have them do the training and you won’t need to ask the follow-up questions I should have asked my employee.
So what was it I failed to do and what was the result? Well, I took my employee’s word for what he told me, that he knew how to splice into a CCTV cable to run a separate line. The purpose was so that I could conduct surveillance in an area of the stockroom where suspected employee theft was taking place. The idea was fantastic, the execution horrible. I received a call from my store manager telling me my Associate had cut the ALARM cable to the building and he wanted to know what I was going to do about it. I had to go back to the store, see what my employee had done and then contact the alarm company. I also had to contact MY District Loss Prevention Manager and explain what had transpired. As I recall I also had to stay overnight in the building since the alarms were not working properly…did I mention my employees tried to splice the alarm wire back together? The alarm technician came out the next day and repaired the screw-up.
I wound up setting the covert camera myself and I did finally catch the dishonest employee but at quite a cost. I also eventually fired the Associate. After this I always made sure I spent a great deal of time training one of my Associates before allowing them to help me with an employee theft investigation. For you employee theft reduction training can be much easier than it was for me. Use a background check company so you don’t have as many workers stealing from you and hire a company specializing in Loss Prevention training to do your training for you. Trust me the results will be so much better than what I went through.
Get more information on employee theft reduction training, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
Sensormatic Safers – 4
Prevent Shoplifting -3 wc Blog 814
Prevent Shoplifting With Sensormatic Safers And You Will Reduce Other Crimes Affecting Your Customers
Sensormatic Safers are super at protecting your merchandise from theft. In a sense they can even help make a store safer from criminals who are attracted to stores where shoplifting runs rampant. Where one type of crime is out of control you will often find that other crime and fraud is taking place. In some instances it is your customers who are the victims of those predators. Prevent shoplifting and you can make an impact on other crime. Retail anti-theft devices from Sensormatic can make merchandise that is popular with thieves hard to steal. As shoplifting is reduced the shoplifters look for other stores to steal from and other criminal activity tends to decline as well. Sadly Sensormatic Safers and similar devices cannot directly help your customers who are victims of fraud predators or criminal activity directed at them personally.
A perfect example of this took place not long ago in the store where I work. An older customer came in and said they needed to purchase an unusual number of re-loadable giftcards. I wasn’t too surprised at first since we do cater to a lot of small businesses and sometimes we receive unusual requests. I was thinking that perhaps the patron was going to put $20 on each and give them as incentives to their employees. It turned out the customer wanted $500 on each card. This got my attention and I immediately called for the store manager to assist with the purchase, it smelled of fraud to me and I was afraid the customer was the victim. Both the manager and I asked the customer several times if they were sure who they were giving the giftcards to. It was explained that this is frequently a method used to defraud older citizens. The concern was heightened as the patron pulled out cash to pay for this transaction. The customer insisted everything was legitimate and they had contacted their attorney. My manager and I finished the transaction and as soon as the customer left my manager contacted his manager. Well, about an hour later the customer returned and apparently did get in contact with their attorney and was told this was a scam. My manager was able to put a stop on the giftcards and the customer would get their money back some time in the near future.
This was a big save but not every one of your customers can avoid being the victim of fraud or theft. As I mentioned, Sensormatic Safers and electronic article surveillance prevent shoplifting they don’t prevent return fraud, crimes against persons or property crimes against your patrons. I have investigated property crimes when customers have had purses and wallets stolen from their shopping carts. I have had to help those victims trace their steps, contact their banks and speak to police. I have assisted a customer when their car was broken into and valuables were stolen. Review of video, looking for suspects it was interesting from an investigator’s perspective it was disappointing that the incident took place on our property and for the loss the victim experienced.
I have had panhandlers and shady characters hang around the store and harass people trying to walk in and out of the building. No, it may not have been illegal but it was intimidating and concerning. Most people don’t want a stranger approaching them in a parking lot because you can never be sure what their intention or motive is. In some cases a person is trying to be nice and starts to reach into a purse or wallet and it is snatched from them and the criminal flees.
These personal and property crimes will happen anywhere. They happened at the stores where I worked and we controlled our shoplifting. The problem is the growth of this activity when store managers and owners don’t make an effort to prevent shoplifting. Don’t allow your store to become a repository for all types of crime. Your customers need to feel safe otherwise they will shop somewhere else. Using Sensormatic Safers and tags to protect your merchandise will be a good starting place to begin cleaning up other crime. It will make your store more profitable by lowering shrink and helping to increase sales through a growth in customer traffic.
Get more information on how to prevent shoplifting, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
Sensormatic Safers are super at protecting your merchandise from theft. In a sense they can even help make a store safer from criminals who are attracted to stores where shoplifting runs rampant. Where one type of crime is out of control you will often find that other crime and fraud is taking place. In some instances it is your customers who are the victims of those predators. Prevent shoplifting and you can make an impact on other crime. Retail anti-theft devices from Sensormatic can make merchandise that is popular with thieves hard to steal. As shoplifting is reduced the shoplifters look for other stores to steal from and other criminal activity tends to decline as well.
A perfect example of this took place not long ago in the store where I work. An older customer came in and said they needed to purchase an unusual number of re-loadable giftcards. I wasn’t too surprised at first since we do cater to a lot of small businesses and sometimes we receive unusual requests. I was thinking that perhaps the patron was going to put $20 on each and give them as incentives to their employees. It turned out the customer wanted $500 on each card. This got my attention and I immediately called for the store manager to assist with the purchase, it smelled of fraud to me and I was afraid the customer was the victim. Both the manager and I asked the customer several times if they were sure who they were giving the giftcards to. It was explained that this is frequently a method used to defraud older citizens. The concern was heightened as the patron pulled out cash to pay for this transaction. The customer insisted everything was legitimate and they had contacted their attorney. My manager and I finished the transaction and as soon as the customer left my manager contacted his manager. Well, about an hour later the customer returned and apparently did get in contact with their attorney and was told this was a scam. My manager was able to put a stop on the giftcards and the customer would get their money back some time in the near future.
This was a big save but not every one of your customers can avoid being the victim of fraud or theft. As I mentioned, Sensormatic Safers and electronic article surveillance prevent shoplifting they don’t prevent return fraud, crimes against persons or property crimes against your patrons. I have investigated property crimes when customers have had purses and wallets stolen from their shopping carts. I have had to help those victims trace their steps, contact their banks and speak to police. I have assisted a customer when their car was broken into and valuables were stolen. Review of video, looking for suspects it was interesting from an investigator’s perspective it was disappointing that the incident took place on our property and for the loss the victim experienced.
I have had panhandlers and shady characters hang around the store and harass people trying to walk in and out of the building. No, it may not have been illegal but it was intimidating and concerning. Most people don’t want a stranger approaching them in a parking lot because you can never be sure what their intention or motive is. In some cases a person is trying to be nice and starts to reach into a purse or wallet and it is snatched from them and the criminal flees.
These personal and property crimes will happen anywhere. They happened at the stores where I worked and we controlled our shoplifting. The problem is the growth of this activity when store managers and owners don’t make an effort to prevent shoplifting. Don’t allow your store to become a repository for all types of crime. Your customers need to feel safe otherwise they will shop somewhere else. Using Sensormatic Safers and tags to protect your merchandise will be a good starting place to begin cleaning up other crime. It will make your store more profitable by lowering shrink and helping to increase sales through a growth in customer traffic.
Get more information on how to prevent shoplifting, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.
Stop Shoplifting – 3 WC Blog 803
Sensormatic Tags- 3
It Takes Teamwork To Run A Store And Stop Shoplifting
Efforts to stop shoplifting in a store must involve more than just the store owner or manager. An effective strategy incorporates the input from department managers or whatever leadership hierarchy a store has in place. This has been something I have always been in favor of since my days as a Loss Prevention Manager. It came to me again recently when I was invited to be a part of a Veterans Committee at the college where I work. This was the second meeting of this particular group (I was not a member at the first meeting.) The Chairman of the committee outlined some of the goals from the first meeting. As discussions about everything the committee wanted to accomplish were laid out it appeared there was much the leader was taking upon himself. This group of military veterans and retired military leaders and college leadership started jumping in and giving suggestions and offering solutions to some big challenges. For example one of the goals of the committee is to send five members of the student veteran’s leadership team to a national conference. This includes finding sponsors, donors, arranging flights, hotels rooms, etc. The Committee Chairman was trying to do this and run his department on campus. My fellow committee members are men and women of action. They started volunteering to take on some of these tasks. What does this have to do with Loss Prevention? Theft prevention cannot be the responsibility of one person. Whether it is ensuring merchandise is being tagged with Sensormatic tags to daily testing of equipment to creating a shortage plan, it cannot fall on one person.
Store managers have to have a team of people who will assist them in putting together an effective shortage prevention strategy. The manager has to have a vision for what he/she wants but without the help of people who are willing to share the load that vision will not be fulfilled. The store owner or manager can make the initial purchase of a Sensormatic security system and have it installed but once that is complete there is more that goes into a Shortage Plan. Someone has to be responsible for the training of employees who will be responding to electronic article surveillance alarms when they activate the towers. Since turnover is going to occur from time to time this trainer has to be continually reviewing procedures with employees and training new employees. Properly responding to alarms is important and can determine if merchandise is recovered or how the person will respond who has caused the alarm. When executed in the right way, responders to electronic article surveillance alarms can stop shoplifting and recover merchandise without causing a scene. They can also keep a situation from escalating by the manner in which they interact with the customer who causes the alarm.
Not only does someone need to take responsibility for alarm response training someone has to be charged with the tagging and auditing of merchandise. The store management team should determine the items that they want to have protected with Sensormatic tags. At that point someone has to get the job done and make sure it is a continual process. It can be tedious (I know I have had to do it) but when the merchandise program is followed on a daily basis it is easy to keep up with. Lapses in tagging and auditing create headaches as employees have to backtrack to locate what is not tagged and get caught up. You can understand how hard it would be for a Store Manager to do this with the rest of his/her workload.
While it is not as labor intensive the system equipment must be checked for operational readiness on a regular basis. This may be daily or weekly but it is a test that should include the pedestals, deactivation pads, Sensormatic cameras or traffic counting devices if they are part of a system and accounting of detachment tools. Identifying issues quickly plays an important role in store efforts to stop shoplifting. Broken or damaged equipment can mean that thieves are not being detected as they leave the store. That results in an increase in unnecessary shrinkage.
Putting an anti-theft program in place and incorporating Sensormatic tags and towers into that plan is important. Having a team that gives their support and participates in the program is crucial. No matter how well-intentioned a store owner or manager may be they cannot carry that load by themselves. Getting team buy in and support is necessry in all aspects of a business and theft prevention and shortage reduction is no different. Teamwork makes running a store easier on everyone and a more productive environment overall.
For more information on Sensormatic tags contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.
Efforts to stop shoplifting in a store must involve more than just the store owner or manager. An effective strategy incorporates the input from department managers or whatever leadership hierarchy a store has in place. This has been something I have always been in favor of since my days as a Loss Prevention Manager. It came to me again recently when I was invited to be a part of a Veterans Committee at the college where I work. This was the second meeting of this particular group (I was not a member at the first meeting.) The Chairman of the committee outlined some of the goals from the first meeting. As discussions about everything the committee wanted to accomplish were laid out it appeared there was much the leader was taking upon himself. This group of military veterans and retired military leaders and college leadership started jumping in and giving suggestions and offering solutions to some big challenges. For example one of the goals of the committee is to send five members of the student veteran’s leadership team to a national conference. This includes finding sponsors, donors, arranging flights, hotels rooms, etc. The Committee Chairman was trying to do this and run his department on campus. My fellow committee members are men and women of action. They started volunteering to take on some of these tasks. What does this have to do with Loss Prevention? Theft prevention cannot be the responsibility of one person. Whether it is ensuring merchandise is being tagged with Sensormatic tags to daily testing of equipment to creating a shortage plan, it cannot fall on one person.
Store managers have to have a team of people who will assist them in putting together an effective shortage prevention strategy. The manager has to have a vision for what he/she wants but without the help of people who are willing to share the load that vision will not be fulfilled. The store owner or manager can make the initial purchase of a Sensormatic security system and have it installed but once that is complete there is more that goes into a Shortage Plan. Someone has to be responsible for the training of employees who will be responding to electronic article surveillance alarms when they activate the towers. Since turnover is going to occur from time to time this trainer has to be continually reviewing procedures with employees and training new employees. Properly responding to alarms is important and can determine if merchandise is recovered or how the person will respond who has caused the alarm. When executed in the right way, responders to electronic article surveillance alarms can stop shoplifting and recover merchandise without causing a scene. They can also keep a situation from escalating by the manner in which they interact with the customer who causes the alarm.
Not only does someone need to take responsibility for alarm response training someone has to be charged with the tagging and auditing of merchandise. The store management team should determine the items that they want to have protected with Sensormatic tags. At that point someone has to get the job done and make sure it is a continual process. It can be tedious (I know I have had to do it) but when the merchandise program is followed on a daily basis it is easy to keep up with. Lapses in tagging and auditing create headaches as employees have to backtrack to locate what is not tagged and get caught up. You can understand how hard it would be for a Store Manager to do this with the rest of his/her workload.
While it is not as labor intensive the system equipment must be checked for operational readiness on a regular basis. This may be daily or weekly but it is a test that should include the pedestals, deactivation pads, Sensormatic cameras or traffic counting devices if they are part of a system and accounting of detachment tools. Identifying issues quickly plays an important role in store efforts to stop shoplifting. Broken or damaged equipment can mean that thieves are not being detected as they leave the store. That results in an increase in unnecessary shrinkage.
Putting an anti-theft program in place and incorporating Sensormatic tags and towers into that plan is important. Having a team that gives their support and participates in the program is crucial. No matter how well-intentioned a store owner or manager may be they cannot carry that load by themselves. Getting team buy in and support is necessry in all aspects of a business and theft prevention and shortage reduction is no different. Teamwork makes running a store easier on everyone and a more productive environment overall.
For more information on Sensormatic tags contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.
Free ROI Calculator – 3 WC Blog 796
Loss Prevention Calculator- 3
Before Making The Wrong Decision Use The Free ROI Calculator
I crinkle my nose and furrow my brow thinking about how I wished there had been a Free ROI Calculator for some of the bad hiring decisions I have made in the past. I could have made better choices in more than a few instances. I cringe when I reflect on my first two hires. Now, I will own the fact that I hired them but to be fair I was a new Loss Prevention Manager and my District Manager strongly nudged me to pick them. I don’t know if you can have a negative Return On Investment for a hiring decision but I certainly did. One of the two claimed to have Loss Prevention experience and put it on her application but I don’t think our background check company did any kind of employment verification. If she did work for the other company it soon became clear why she jumped ship…she was probably on the verge of being fired! Despite my training this employee could not or would not get the hang of being an undercover floor detective. I came to work and she would be wearing the most outrageous, bright, clothing and wearing ridiculous hats. I coached her about how to walk back aisles and behind fixtures. Nope! She would walk with my other employee on the main aisles gabbing. I did eventually get rid of both of them but I lost credibility with my new store manager and had zero apprehensions to show for the investment. Yup, I was in the negative. That was one of my worst decisions but not THE worst. In light of this decision on my part I wonder if any store managers have made their own bad decisions when it comes to their efforts to stop shoplifting?
If you own a store, have you chosen not to purchase a Sensormatic security system? Maybe you decided to buy a knock-off system from an internet seller. Either way you have made your own bad decision that could be having a negative ROI for you. Owning a Sensormatic security system has been proven to be effective at stopping shoplifting and that adds value back into your store. The Loss Prevention Calculator shows you how much you can save by installing a system in your business. Even better than that, the calculator shows you how fast a Loss Prevention system can pay for itself.
I would guess that if you opted to purchase a second-hand or cut-rate anti-theft system you had a few nagging doubts. Just as I had concerns about the Loss Prevention Officers my boss was pushing me to hire you probably had doubts about your system but ignored your gut feeling. Don’t be too hard on yourself neither one of us had a Free ROI Calculator to guide us in our decision (and for me it is too late to go back for a re-do). On the other hand, you do have the option of accessing the Loss Prevention Calculator and learning now how you can still get a new Sensormatic system and get it at an affordable price! If you chose not to purchase one at all because you did not think you could pay for it Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. (LPSI) has financing available for customers who choose to purchase with them. They also toss in free training for stores which purchase a system from them (I sure could have used them to train my associates maybe they would have learned something). In case I forgot to mention it the Free ROI calculator is exactly that, FREE. You can use it without any obligation of purchase and no one is going to flood your email with pushy sales pitches. LPSI just wants you to see that an electronic article surveillance system can save you money, help improve your sales and is extremely affordable.
Did I ever get past that bad hiring decision? Yes, after I helped my employees decide that finding other opportunities for employment would be a good idea I did hire two very productive Loss Prevention Associates. There were other bad apples that got past me over my 13 plus years at that store as a Loss Prevention Manager but overall I was able to bring in some good workers. Poor decisions can be the result of being in a hurry, being pressured, being deceived and even due to a lack of information but they can be overcome. If you have made a poor decision in whether or not to invest in an anti-theft system or purchasing a budget system that does not meet expectations you can turn that around. Use the Loss Prevention Calculator to see how you can alter course and purchase a Sensormatic system.
Need information on the Loss Prevention Calculator? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
I crinkle my nose and furrow my brow thinking about how I wished there had been a Free ROI Calculator for some of the bad hiring decisions I have made in the past. I could have made better choices in more than a few instances. I cringe when I reflect on my first two hires. Now, I will own the fact that I hired them but to be fair I was a new Loss Prevention Manager and my District Manager strongly nudged me to pick them. I don’t know if you can have a negative Return On Investment for a hiring decision but I certainly did. One of the two claimed to have Loss Prevention experience and put it on her application but I don’t think our background check company did any kind of employment verification. If she did work for the other company it soon became clear why she jumped ship…she was probably on the verge of being fired! Despite my training this employee could not or would not get the hang of being an undercover floor detective. I came to work and she would be wearing the most outrageous, bright, clothing and wearing ridiculous hats. I coached her about how to walk back aisles and behind fixtures. Nope! She would walk with my other employee on the main aisles gabbing. I did eventually get rid of both of them but I lost credibility with my new store manager and had zero apprehensions to show for the investment. Yup, I was in the negative. That was one of my worst decisions but not THE worst. In light of this decision on my part I wonder if any store managers have made their own bad decisions when it comes to their efforts to stop shoplifting?
If you own a store, have you chosen not to purchase a Sensormatic security system? Maybe you decided to buy a knock-off system from an internet seller. Either way you have made your own bad decision that could be having a negative ROI for you. Owning a Sensormatic security system has been proven to be effective at stopping shoplifting and that adds value back into your store. The Loss Prevention Calculator shows you how much you can save by installing a system in your business. Even better than that, the calculator shows you how fast a Loss Prevention system can pay for itself.
I would guess that if you opted to purchase a second-hand or cut-rate anti-theft system you had a few nagging doubts. Just as I had concerns about the Loss Prevention Officers my boss was pushing me to hire you probably had doubts about your system but ignored your gut feeling. Don’t be too hard on yourself neither one of us had a Free ROI Calculator to guide us in our decision (and for me it is too late to go back for a re-do). On the other hand, you do have the option of accessing the Loss Prevention Calculator and learning now how you can still get a new Sensormatic system and get it at an affordable price! If you chose not to purchase one at all because you did not think you could pay for it Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. (LPSI) has financing available for customers who choose to purchase with them. They also toss in free training for stores which purchase a system from them (I sure could have used them to train my associates maybe they would have learned something). In case I forgot to mention it the Free ROI calculator is exactly that, FREE. You can use it without any obligation of purchase and no one is going to flood your email with pushy sales pitches. LPSI just wants you to see that an electronic article surveillance system can save you money, help improve your sales and is extremely affordable.
Did I ever get past that bad hiring decision? Yes, after I helped my employees decide that finding other opportunities for employment would be a good idea I did hire two very productive Loss Prevention Associates. There were other bad apples that got past me over my 13 plus years at that store as a Loss Prevention Manager but overall I was able to bring in some good workers. Poor decisions can be the result of being in a hurry, being pressured, being deceived and even due to a lack of information but they can be overcome. If you have made a poor decision in whether or not to invest in an anti-theft system or purchasing a budget system that does not meet expectations you can turn that around. Use the Loss Prevention Calculator to see how you can alter course and purchase a Sensormatic system.
Need information on the Loss Prevention Calculator? Give us a call at 1.770.426.0547 now.
Sensormatic Labels – 3 WC Blog 787
Stop Shoplifting – 3
Utlra-Slim Sensormatic Labels – A Big Solution For Little Products
When I was a Loss Prevention Officer I hated trying to stop shoplifting when it involved small merchandise. If it could fit in the pocket of a shoplifter it was a risky decision to make if I chose to stop the crook. Small merchandise like cosmetics, bottles of medicine, batteries and even hand tools or accessories could be easily concealed in a pocket and just as easily removed from a pocket. Whether I was watching someone on closed circuit television cameras or doing a live floor observation I found it could be a pain in the neck to keep a close eye on the suspect’s hands. What compounded the problem was there was often no method of protecting these little objects from shoplifters. Sensormatic understands that these small products could present a big problem for retailers. There are now Sensormatic labels created specifically to address this concern.
Sensormatic ultra-slim EAS (electronic article surveillance) acousto-magnetic labels are small enough to fit on most of the merchandise that shoplifters tend to pocket. This is especially true for cosmetics some of which can be as slim as a pencil. When I was actively involved in Loss Prevention we did not have any tags or labels that could be used to stop shoplifting in our cosmetics department. We were forced to depend on closed circuit television and public view monitors as well as customer service to deter thieves in this area. That was just in our cosmetics department and did not include the other departments where merchandise was small enough to pocket but hard to protect as I mentioned earlier.
Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. (LPSI) recognizes the problem pocketable merchandise poses and the difficulty in finding adequate anti-theft devices for those items. When they learned that Sensormatic labels came in the ultra-slim size they made it a point to ensure sure their clients were made aware of it. They know the risks a Loss Prevention Officer or even a Store Manager takes when they try to stop someone they suspect of shoplifting small merchandise. Even if concealment is observed the items are so small that a suspect can discretely dump the item without being seen. Stop that person and they don’t have merchandise on their person and you open a HUGE can of worms. In fact the risk of making a bad stop on small merchandise is so great that when I was a Loss Prevention Manager our Regional Loss Prevention Manager directed that apprehensions could not be made if the suspected theft only involved cosmetics. Bad stops had become a regular issue and it was determined that the losses were not worth the time in court and the expenses involved in settling those bad cases. I should make one clarification, if a suspect was grabbing and pocketing a large quantity of cosmetics we were permitted to stop shoplifting in those situations.
While we are talking about preventing the theft of any small item I am focusing on cosmetics for two reasons. First, I have had my own share of close calls when it comes to nearly making a bad stop when I suspected someone had stolen cosmetics. Fortunately I usually thought better of it or I found dropped merchandise when I briefly lost sight of the suspect. Second, according to the 2014-2015 Global Retail Theft Barometer within health and beauty departments makeup products ranked second in most stolen items (fragrances came in first) (pg. 55).
There is no reason to rack up losses in small merchandise any longer. Sensormatic labels can take care of a big chunk of the theft you may be experiencing. I am not minimizing the importance of customer service in deterring criminals from shoplifting but your employees can’t be everywhere at once. Sensormatic ultra-slim EAS labels will give you the advantage you need to make an impulse shoplifter think twice before pocketing that beauty product. Don’t let little things continue to be a big problem let LPSI help you with a Sensormatic system and labels.
For more information on Sensormatic labels contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
When I was a Loss Prevention Officer I hated trying to stop shoplifting when it involved small merchandise. If it could fit in the pocket of a shoplifter it was a risky decision to make if I chose to stop the crook. Small merchandise like cosmetics, bottles of medicine, batteries and even hand tools or accessories could be easily concealed in a pocket and just as easily removed from a pocket. Whether I was watching someone on closed circuit television cameras or doing a live floor observation I found it could be a pain in the neck to keep a close eye on the suspect’s hands. What compounded the problem was there was often no method of protecting these little objects from shoplifters. Sensormatic understands that these small products could present a big problem for retailers. There are now Sensormatic labels created specifically to address this concern.
Sensormatic ultra-slim EAS (electronic article surveillance) acousto-magnetic labels are small enough to fit on most of the merchandise that shoplifters tend to pocket. This is especially true for cosmetics some of which can be as slim as a pencil. When I was actively involved in Loss Prevention we did not have any tags or labels that could be used to stop shoplifting in our cosmetics department. We were forced to depend on closed circuit television and public view monitors as well as customer service to deter thieves in this area. That was just in our cosmetics department and did not include the other departments where merchandise was small enough to pocket but hard to protect as I mentioned earlier.
Loss Prevention Systems, Inc. (LPSI) recognizes the problem pocketable merchandise poses and the difficulty in finding adequate anti-theft devices for those items. When they learned that Sensormatic labels came in the ultra-slim size they made it a point to ensure sure their clients were made aware of it. They know the risks a Loss Prevention Officer or even a Store Manager takes when they try to stop someone they suspect of shoplifting small merchandise. Even if concealment is observed the items are so small that a suspect can discretely dump the item without being seen. Stop that person and they don’t have merchandise on their person and you open a HUGE can of worms. In fact the risk of making a bad stop on small merchandise is so great that when I was a Loss Prevention Manager our Regional Loss Prevention Manager directed that apprehensions could not be made if the suspected theft only involved cosmetics. Bad stops had become a regular issue and it was determined that the losses were not worth the time in court and the expenses involved in settling those bad cases. I should make one clarification, if a suspect was grabbing and pocketing a large quantity of cosmetics we were permitted to stop shoplifting in those situations.
While we are talking about preventing the theft of any small item I am focusing on cosmetics for two reasons. First, I have had my own share of close calls when it comes to nearly making a bad stop when I suspected someone had stolen cosmetics. Fortunately I usually thought better of it or I found dropped merchandise when I briefly lost sight of the suspect. Second, according to the 2014-2015 Global Retail Theft Barometer within health and beauty departments makeup products ranked second in most stolen items (fragrances came in first) (pg. 55).
There is no reason to rack up losses in small merchandise any longer. Sensormatic labels can take care of a big chunk of the theft you may be experiencing. I am not minimizing the importance of customer service in deterring criminals from shoplifting but your employees can’t be everywhere at once. Sensormatic ultra-slim EAS labels will give you the advantage you need to make an impulse shoplifter think twice before pocketing that beauty product. Don’t let little things continue to be a big problem let LPSI help you with a Sensormatic system and labels.
For more information on Sensormatic labels, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547
