I am obviously not a retail CEO. While I know the retail supply chain pretty well, I don't know much at all about store operations principles and strategies.
But I have many years in the business trenches overall, and have become, partly out of professional interest, an observant consumer as I head to the store.
One thing that drives me crazy: store managers sitting in their offices while troubles, lines, and other sales-preventing developments are occurring just a few feet away. It is getting worse.
Some recent personal shopping examples:
At one of the large office products chains, where service overall has become a bit better as a group from the horrible levels of a few years ago, I see the manager consistently in the office even as lines pile up, and customers have strange returns or other issues that staff members seem unable to deal with and which exacerbate the wait problem.
Last week, the manager at the store I most frequent could be seen talking to a floor associate as all this was going on, either oblivious or unconcerned about what was actually happening to customers in the store.
Another example: I frequent a specific chain of convenience stores to get a drink during the day, stores with increasingly large scale formats, including hot food, etc.
Again, the lines can get deep, especially when either there is some problem (e.g., the corporate gas card isn't being accepted, and again frequently the person at the register seems to have no clue what to do except say, "It's not working") or someone is buying dozens of lottery tickets, etc.
Is the manager ever to be found? Rarely. They are in the back somewhere. Often, there are several other employees around, tending to food, doing this, that or the other - anything but serving customers directly.
The proximate cause of the problem? I believe it is all the reporting required by store managers. So, to make corporate operations and/or financial people happy, they spend most of the day filing reports of what happened, what's going to happen, or analyzing all the metrics a store can throw off. They come to believe that is their job, not serving customers. Retail store managers are spending most of their day at a computer.
So, getting to the main point, if I were a retail CEO, I would make it clear that job number one is serving customers. If there is a long back up, you get your rear end out of the back office and either start serving customers yourself, or start directing others to do so and helping solve the problems the staff is incapable of handling or is painfully slow in doing.
If I came into your store and found you in the back office while trouble was brewing at the front of the store, you'd be looking for a job at a competitor the next day - and I would be pleased if they would take you.
You would think "Management by Walking Around" would be a no-brainer at retail - but increasingly to me it is simply not.
Discussion Questions: Do you likewise find store managers are often too remote to address common customer complaints such as long lines and POS problems? To what degree do you think required reporting by corporate is misguidedly pulling managers away from the selling floor?