Define the New Outcomes You Are Looking For
If there is a shift in thinking that is required and we understand the need for change in how we evaluate our business, it would stand to reason we need to define new outcomes as well. We know the measurements have to change. The environment is transforming in new ways. So, what do we want from this opportunity that sits in front of us?
It starts with asking yourself an updated question: “what are you trying to achieve?” Having too many metrics can create confusion. Beginning with the outcomes you want can help define the metrics you need to measure.
There are different parts of the business that may require a review to understand what new outcomes or results you are looking for. Below are some key areas you may want to start with to ensure you are capturing what will be most critical to your business in the coming weeks and months.
Associate Experience
What does the associate experience look like? (Many retailers are raising wages and putting the associate at the forefront - in some cases for the first time.) Creating a meaningful two-way dialogue with front line associates is absolutely critical right now. No one is closer to the customer than they are. What are they seeing and hearing from customers? What is on their mind regarding their own situation or concerns? It has been nice to see many communities celebrating front line retail associates as the heroes they are for serving customers during a frightening and challenging time. The risk to their personal safety has never been so apparent for a retail associate until now.
The more we can do as leaders to support them and how they feel, the more engagement we can build for the future. Developing and improving your overall associate experience can have a significant and lasting effect on your organization based on how you communicate, support, and protect your associates in the immediate future.
How are you capturing the sentiments and feelings of your team? Instituting short pulse surveys can be a good way to record how your associates are feeling as an employee of your company. Craft your questions in a way that will elicit honest feedback so you can take the actions to achieve the results you are aiming for. It is not always about money alone; making team members feel valued, safe, and appreciated right now may be as valuable to them as extra incentives. But you will only know this by asking and talking with your associates.
Customer Experience
Have you defined this the right way for a changing customer? The customer mindset will almost assuredly shift based on the experiences from the past few months and the current climate. Convenience, safety, ease, flexibility are all top of mind thoughts for customers for every business. Are you able to support that now? If not, how can you adjust to do so? Do you have a harmonized omni experience defined for your business? Can you support your customers to allow them to engage with you how they want, when they want, where they want, in a way that is simple?
Are you getting a full 360 view of the customer journey? How was the online experience? How was the in-store experience? How was the communication in between? Customers are experiencing brands differently now than they were just a few months ago. What are customers saying about what you are offering right now? You may want to do more text analytics with the data you are capturing from your customers. You will likely want more touchpoints along their journey path to ensure you are truly capturing their sentiments.
Time Frames
What is realistic? What is necessary? Those can be two tough questions to balance. There is rapid change still occurring in the marketplace - how long can you afford to measure something before you expect to see changes? The pace of change right now is as accelerated as it has ever been in our lifetime. Defining realistic time lines that can also be supported by the resources available and the necessity of the situation will define the levels of success you can achieve.
Productivity
We cannot afford to waste resources; we never could, but this is especially true now. What information do you have that can help identify where priorities, communication, and workloads are being used effectively? How are you balancing what needs to get done with what the priorities are? Do you have the tools in resources in place to succeed with those? Are you working the right way for a new set of business rules?
Productivity can mean so many things to businesses. In times of crisis, it can mean anything from managing the labor expense to putting your fixed assets to better use. Defining what you want productivity to mean to your business is important. It doesn’t have to be an expense metric. It can also help you understand where investments can be made. For example, as more business comes from digital origins (buy online, pickup in-store, curbside, and delivery) it means that more physical locations are fulfillment centers for those customer requests. Learning to measure in ways that may have been reserved for distribution centers may suddenly make sense for store locations. How many orders are picked each hour? What can be done to improve that? What would that afford you in other areas of your business?
Success Metrics
How will you know if you are achieving the outcomes you are seeking? You are likely thinking that ‘all of the above’ is the correct answer. I need to have metrics for all of the new activities we are working on to improve the associate experience and customer experience. And of course, we are always looking for improved productivity. But what does success look like? What will you measure for each activity and how is that different from what you have done before?
When answering those questions, consider what is relative to the situation. What is the environment for your industry overall? When looking at a more localized level, are all factors included in the metrics you are using, and do they change situationally? If your business may be impacted by government mandates to limit capacity, shut down on occasion, or only offer certain services, those must be factored into the metrics you select. You may even choose to have two sets - one for ‘no restrictions’ and another for ‘services restricted’ operations.
Finally, what can your current resources support? We will discuss this in more detail in the next article, but you may not be able to have metrics in each of these areas. You should not force yourself to or feel obligated to do so. Success will mean different things for different businesses. As I stated in the previous article, make sure you are concentrating on the ones that matter most to you.
What new outcomes are you defining for your business?
I also recently discussed this topic and some of the ideas from this series of articles with Graeme Grant , CEO of Blueday, on their webinar Measuring Store Performance in Turbulent Times: Defining Your Key Metrics for 2020 and Beyond.
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