Without a skilled team, a business can fail at any moment. The team is the company’s DNA and, aside from the storefronts and window displays, the first touchpoint with the consumer. That’s why a good manager needs to understand how to manage teams efficiently.
But, just as with customer service, there’s one particular challenge: human beings are complex, and learning to bring out the best in them is a difficult process that requires technique and patience.
To help you build team management at the POS that will truly take the shopping experience to another level, we’ve put together a few tips. Check them out!
1. Set goals for team management
Both the manager and the team they lead need to work with goals in order to track their own progress. Choosing a few KPIs will give you the ability to turn team performance data into something visual.
After measuring these indicators for a while, putting together simple charts to show what needs improvement and which strategies are putting the company on the right track is much easier than talking about it in the abstract.
When management revolves around goals, it has a clear benchmark that’s easier to share with employees. They know from the start that there are expectations for their work, and they’re motivated to grow.
A reward for the top performers on the POS team is a way to foster healthy competition that will push everyone to improve their performance.
Setting goals is also important for building better communication with the people who work at a company. It’s what will get employees to “put a name” to their problems and propose solutions to them.
Goals, metrics, and the assurance that their ideas will be heard and considered are the main hallmarks of good team management.
2. Invest in good communication
Building good communication with your team isn’t just about listening to what they have to say. Leaders can learn to share ideas more effectively, which has a big impact on the business.
How do you get messages across to your team? Are they clear enough? Are there guidelines on how to handle tasks that fall outside the usual routine? How integrated are they into the culture of the brand they represent?
Working on the way you address your employees is essential to improving how POS teams function.
3. Define your own management model
The idea that every team can be managed by the same rules simply isn’t true. Even departments within the same organization tend to be run differently by their heads. Team management is no different, and there’s no magic formula.
What kind of target audience does your business serve? How do these people like to shop? What experience does your company want to deliver? How is the brand positioned in the market? What role does the POS team play in this equation?
Answering questions like these will help you create a management style that takes into account the particularities of both your customers and your employees. Using what has worked at other businesses isn’t a mistake, but simply copying models won’t bring the results you expect at the POS. You need to adapt the experiences of other brands and companies in the same field so they work within your business.
4. Use examples from within the company
There’s always one team member (or several) who stands out from the rest. That’s why major companies around the world use the “employee of the month” model to spotlight these people. But you don’t need to do that to call attention to good work.
One of the simplest management principles to adopt is to praise in public and reprimand in private. If an employee isn’t doing their job properly, has discipline issues, or can’t hit their own goals, this should be addressed directly and privately with them. On the other hand, when someone performs exceptionally and can share their expertise with colleagues, those qualities should be highlighted in front of everyone.
5. Train your POS team
When we talk about team management at the POS, we’re not just referring to salespeople. Although they’re a significant part of the organization, they’re not the only people involved in creating an amazing shopping experience. Visual merchandisers, assistant managers, cashiers, and everyone else who works in your store need to share a common purpose and be good at what they do.
This is one of the main reasons to hold in-company training. On-site sessions are customized to address each business’s specific problems and are a great investment in improving the team’s work.
As hard as you may try to hire competent professionals, the truth is that every company works differently. It’s up to the manager to make the corporate culture part of the daily routine of the team members they oversee.
Developing, together with specialized companies, a code of conduct that will be reinforced in on-site training ensures that employees can take part in these sessions, showing them that the organization believes in their potential and boosting your HR retention rate.
To create a good training program, remember to:
- produce quality content that’s relevant to your staff’s activities;
- teach sales strategies and techniques for building customer relationships;
- create an assessment format to gauge the effectiveness of the sessions;
- be flexible and offer training in shifts that fit employees’ schedules;
- plan activities during the in-company training to strengthen team relationships;
- offer these courses on an ongoing basis, keeping the knowledge of everyone who works for the organization up to date.
Retail isn’t the only industry where team management is a challenge. Businesses of any kind and any size can face this type of problem. It’s up to the manager to stay informed and find creative ways to motivate the people around them so they deliver good results.
Using technology to connect with employees or help them do their tasks more efficiently will also help. Consider adopting systems with good usability so they actually boost team productivity, and create channels for specific needs through which you can reach both the group as a whole and each person individually.
Liked these team management ideas and want to learn more about how training can help you with this task? Then be sure to read our article on the importance of training for your sales team!
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