How To Make The Store Employee Care

In 2006, an executive with Best Buy sent a memorandum to all Best Buy store employees. It explained that the only content allowed on screens in the store was content approved by corporate. It was to be followed for several reasons, most notably that the “6-60″ demographic might not take kindly to the latest R-rated movie release playing in its entirety, or that the big game be broadcast in the store, and along with it the competitor’s advertising during the breaks.

To my knowledge, not a single employee read the memo. To this day, I still see this activity going on. Does that make it wrong?

Store employees want programming that does three things for them. Depending on your situation, these may have a different order of importance:

• Sell the product.
• Energize the employee.
• Speak to the customer.

Recently I wrote about a department full of blank screens. Some comments and e-mails concerned the apparent apathy of the employee I spoke with. Sadly, the apathy was real. The employee didn’t care any more about those screens than he cared to answer my questions. I kept thinking, “These have been out for a week. Did anyone call corporate? How about the manager or GM? Did anyone care?”

Instead of trying to figure out why the employee doesn’t care, I see an opportunity. The challenge is to provide the employee with a vested interest that will foster care for the program and a proactive attitude, especially when situations like blank screens occur. Below are four plans that can help engage the employee in the broadcast of your environment’s program.

YOU KNOW WHAT I’M SAYING?
Employees see the program every day, all day, and they see what customers like and don’t like. Create an email address every single employee has access to and solicit feedback. When you get the feedback, read it and respond to it. In some cases, just being heard is a huge win for the employee.

It was a suggestion from a store employee to me that helped support my desire for Closed Captioning on the HD Program in all Best Buy stores in United States. To this day, Best Buy remains the only retailer in the world with Closed Captioning on an in-store closed-circuit program.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION
If employees have a hand in the production, they will have pride in the broadcast. There are three ways to give them ownership:

1. Ask them what would be good for the program. Is there a big, burning question that all customers have about a product? Can it be answered in about five words? If so, then make a piece of content that answers that question. Then, give them credit for providing you the details needed to create the content.

2. Have them help you write the playlist. A little more underwater footage for the HD program? A little more Tiger Woods golfing for the gaming department? Let them help you think about what works.

3. Perhaps one of the strongest methods of employee engagement is user-generated content. With technology zooming at full speed, employees are now capable of creating content as easily as the big shots on Madison Avenue (and sometimes just as good). Present to your employees the opportunity to submit content for the network. Give them guidelines and have them to fire up the camcorder. The pride an employee will take in seeing her stuff on the store’s program for a few days or weeks can be immeasurable.

TEACH OUT
A terrific way to maintain the relationship of “were all in this together” between corporate and retail is to show the store employee the numbers. Invite them into the corporate strategy and show them the reason behind what you put on the screen. If you can explain that broadcasting a certain ad at specific times results in sales lift, they will understand the strategy instead of looking at the screen and asking, “Why is that on the TV?”

After building a playlist, distribute it to the employees before the program goes live, and allow access to the playlist during the broadcast. Just knowing what is coming can give the employee the advantage to start and build a relationship with the customer.

For example, if a customer is shopping for a new food mixer, the employee may know of content on a program that speaks directly to the particular line of products the customer is interested in. Those moments where the employee and customer spend more time together, talking and possibly waiting, will help foster the relationship.

It can also provide benefits when you program a spot that may not be right for the environment, and it gives opportunity to the employee to notice this and suggest it be questioned before anyone sees it.

COMMON GROUND
The right content at the right place and the right time means optimal customer engagement. We know this.

The same can be said for the employee engagement. If you’re targeting a certain demographic, there’s a chance you have staffed your department to cater to that demographic as well. Program segmentation (dayparting, geography, departmental, to name a few), if technically feasible, will create a discussion point if both the employee and the customer have something in common with it.

Too many times I have seen content produced and deployed where one of the two parties has no comprehension of the subject. It creates an awkward situation.

By no means should these guidelines exhaustive. In my experience, they are tried and true methods of employee engagement that can make a huge difference between creating an optimal customer experience, or wandering through a department of blank TV screens.

What else works in customer engagement?