Can you afford to pay your staff not to work? Probably not. Yet we can’t tell you the number of times we’ve called on stores, only to find employees sitting around, doing nothing because there are no customers to wait on.
You are paying your employees for their time. If they are on the clock, they should be engaged in activities that add to your bottom line. Not texting friends or playing video games.
The last thing you should hear from staff members is that “there is nothing to do.” There is always something to do. As an owner or manager, it is your job to identify what employees should be doing when not waiting on customers — and make sure they do it.
Here are five things your staff can do when not helping customers.
1 Keeping everything clean
No one likes to shop in a dirty or cluttered store. There is always something that needs cleaning, dusting, straightening or vacuuming. Every surface in your store should be cleaned at least once a week. Many surfaces require more frequent cleaning. Let employees know that keeping everything clean is a top priority.
2 Re-stock and face shelves
Countless studies show that customers are less likely to buy from shelves that look picked over. You can’t afford that. If you can’t keep your entire inventory on the shelf, let employees know that they are responsible for pulling items from overstock to replace other items as they sell.
You want your shelves to be “faced.” This means that items are aligned with the front of the shelf. You will move more merchandise this way. Obviously, you want your oldest inventory to be in front so that it sells first.
Explain these principles to your staff. Let them know this is part of their regular responsibilities during downtime.
3 Update inventory
In an ideal world, the inventory recorded in your point-of-sale system would perfectly sync with your actual inventory. Unfortunately, this is seldom the case. Your POS inventory can become out-of-sync with actual inventory for any of a variety of reasons. These can include:
- Sales rung up under the wrong item number.
- Items lost to damage or theft.
- Inventory initially entered incorrectly into the point-of-sale system.
This lack of synchronization can have many devastating effects, including:
- You can end up overstocked on some items and out of stock on others (and not even know it).
- If you sell online, you could take a customer’s money for an item that shows as being in stock but isn’t.
- You will have a hard time determining the real value of your inventory.
As much as possible, you want to keep your actual and POS inventory perfectly aligned. This is a good activity for employees to do during downtime.
Give your employees a POS printout showing your theoretical inventory for one or more items. Have them check this against your actual inventory, noting any discrepancies. This will allow you to correct your POS inventory to reflect reality.
4 Update the mailing list
Your mailing list is among your most valuable assets. With it, you can do regular email newsletters and promotions that can drive a surprising amount of business to your website and store.
Most stores use their point-of-sale system to maintain their mailing list. However, you don’t want to limit your mailing list to just people you’ve sold to. Other sources of email addresses can include:
- Names collected at consumer shows and events.
- People who sign up for your mailing list on your website.
- People who use your mailing list signup form in the store.
A good downtime activity for your staff is to enter these names and emails into your point-of-sale system.
Additionally, each time you do a mailing, whether through Constant Contact, Mailchimp or something else, you will get a certain number of emails reported as going to bad addresses. There will also be a certain number of people who unsubscribed to your mailings. These must be corrected in your point-of-sale system. This is a good task for otherwise idle employees.
5 Update displays
Every time you return to a department store, you will notice that several displays have been moved or revamped. This helps stimulate sales.
The same applies to your store. Stale displays hurt sales. Fresh displays help sales. Updating displays is a good downtime task for your employees — especially those with a knack for merchandising.
It’s your employees’ time but your money
You are paying your staff to work, not sit around. Make it clear that if they are not waiting on customers, there are other things they should be doing. There is never a time when it is okay to do nothing.