The Conference Coach™

Carolyn Bradfield

Retail stores and restaurants have long used conference calling as an integral part of how they run their organizations.  Managing a retail operation is often a logistical challenge.  The stores are spread out across the country, the pace of retail moves really fast and management is often young.  If retailers don’t stay on top of the trends, the merchandise, the sales, the personnel, they may lose momentum and revenue.

In every conferencing company I have worked with, retail operations have been an important market segment.  Conferencing happens each week on a regular basis and is an important management tool.  Here is an insight on what happens on a weekly retail conference call.  Here is a sample of what a call might sound like:

Sales Reporting
“Welcome to District 12’s weekly Monday conference call.  I’d like to start by congratulating the district on its weekly sales numbers of $230,126 in overall sales.  We’re up by 3% over this time last year, an awesome result.  I’d like to give a shout out to Megan Smith, manager of the North Point Mall store.  Megan’s store had $45,000 in overall sales and the highest growth this week.  Megan, why don’t you share some of the strategies you used to motivate your people on the floor?”

Merchandising
“I want to preview everyone that we have some new store sets coming this week that focus on our new design theme, the “New Urban Look”.  This look is based on the sleek blazer and it will be our challenge to encourage shoppers to select the blazer along with the accessories and clothing that complement it.  Joan, I understand you have some thoughts on how to up-sell the customer.”

Loss Prevention
“We have been experiencing a higher than expected employee theft rate and want to talk about strategies to slow that up.  First, we are going to install cameras on the floor and exits to dissuade employees or customers from hiding and taking merchandise.  I’d like to bring on John in Human Resources to talk about what we do if we find an employee that we are concerned with.”

Goal Setting
“I’d like to challenge everyone to run a contest for their sales people this week based on the Urban Look.  Also, I want us all to commit to having each customer who purchases a blazer purchase at least one accessory.  That means that we would like each manager to conduct a training in their store about how to work with the customer to make that happen.”

The downturn in the economy has challenged our retail customers to work more efficiently than ever.  Using audio conferencing, a tried and true communications tool, continues to enable them to move merchandise, reduce losses, motivate people and meet short and long-term goals.  Now, let’s go help them out – do some shopping!

If you’re ready to do some shopping and try Copper before you buy, just sign up for a free audio conferencing trial.