5 C for your customers!

Sometime ago I had the opportunity to attend a day-long knowledge session conducted by Dr. Steven Covey on “How to Overcome Challenges in Today’s Times” and I would like to share what I learnt there, connecting it to a short story set in a retail environment, with which some of you may be familiar.

A man used to sell hot dogs by the roadside in the city of New York and he was illiterate, so he never read newspapers. He was hard of hearing, so he never listened to the radio and his eyes were weak, so he never watched television, but enthusiastically, he sold lots of hot dogs. He was smart enough to offer some attractive schemes to increase his sales. His sales and profit went up. He ordered more and more raw material and buns and his sale kept increasing. He recruited a few more supporting staff to serve more customers. He started offering home deliveries. Eventually he got himself a bigger and better stove.
As his business grew, his son, who had recently graduated from college, joined his father.

Then something strange happened. The son asked, "Dad, aren't you aware of the great recession that is coming our way?" The father replied, "No, but tell me about it." The son said, "The international situation is terrible. The domestic situation is even worse. We should be prepared for the coming bad times."
The man thought that since his son had been to college, read the papers, listened to the radio and watched TV, he ought to know and his advice should not be taken lightly. So the next day onwards, the father cut down his order for raw material and buns, took down the colorful signboard, removed all the special schemes he was offering to the customers and was no longer as enthusiastic. He reduced his staff strength by giving layoffs.

Very soon, fewer and fewer people bothered to stop at his hotdog stand. And his sales started coming down rapidly. The same happened to his profit. The father said to his son, "Son, you were right”. “We are in the middle of a recession and crisis. I am glad you warned me ahead of time."

Moral of The Story: We fuel this recession by our own actions and attitude!

I can relate this story very clearly with the current scenario in many of the modern retail brands where shelves are empty, there is less staff on the floor and no new range of merchandise has been introduced for a long time. Regular shoppers are repulsed by this careless, unfriendly environment. Already made wary by media horror stories, these negative signals scare them right away.

The story clearly suggests that you must not confuse intelligence with good judgment. You must choose your advisors carefully; and you must learn to trust your own judgment.

Dr. Covey proposes that a person or an organization will survive forever, if they have the 5 Cs:
• Character
• Commitment
• Conviction
• Courtesy
• Courage

I strongly believe that this is the time when retail brands will work internally to reunite as organizations, and motivate their people, their biggest assets. This is the time retailers will discover the value they offer to their consumers and communicate it to their consumers by re-aligning their business processes and service standards through a rejuvenated team serving the consumers in the stores.

Retailers must make sincere efforts to show higher levels of commitment towards their consumers.