Retail Leaders are Drowning in a Data Swamp and Micromanagement

Here's what needs to change

Jul 18, 2024

I don't know if you know, but grocery stores time their cashiers. The companies track how long it takes them to ring you up. If they're too slow, they get in trouble.

These days, so much of retail work is tracked and measured, and then reviews are based on those metrics.

Much of it is an ungodly waste of time.

Managers have so much data that they get a sense of false productivity. Access to all of these reports must mean we're on the cutting edge of business, right?

Not always.

Let's look at that cashier example for a minute.

A fast cashier is a good cashier according to the standards the company wants you to meet. But what if an item doesn't have a tag or a barcode? Then, the cashier is waiting for someone to get that information for them.

Their speed slows; they may get penalized for that. It's not their fault.

What if the register crashes, the pin pad doesn't work, or you get a customer who walks away to grab more items?

Not the cashier's fault.

Also, speed is not the only thing that makes a cashier good. Fantastic cashiers interact with their customers based on the interaction the customer wants. Some people want to chat it up, others don't. A good cashier can tell and adjust their level of interaction.

What if this fantastic cashier has a day full of chatty customers? Should they get in trouble because their speed goes down? Probably not.

I ran retail stores for two decades. I knew who the great cashiers were and who was slow. I didn't need a report to tell me. If these reports had been added to my workload, I would've lost it.

Micromanagement is rampant in retail, but it can be sneaky. These reports are a kind of micromanagement in disguise.

Share The Voice of the Frontline

Do More, Be Faster with Less Support. It Doesn’t Add Up.

Pretty much everything we do in retail is tracked and has a metric tied to it: cashier speed, credit card sign-ups, email collection, loyalty sign-ups, transactions with a loyalty number attached, online orders in your queue, online order processing, etc.

There's more, but I'm tired.

You get it.

All this information has created a data swamp.

Managers who sit in offices are excited about the data swamp because it gives them insight. Sure, the data can be helpful, but it often leads to further micromanagement of store leaders, which hinders their ability to do their jobs well.

"We need to send numerous emails a week with an ‘action plan’ if we are falling behind on credit card apps, conversion, payroll updates, etc. with less payroll and more operations." - Nancy, Store leader.

That comment landed on one of my LinkedIn posts this week and gave me instant PTSD. It's a perfect example of the data swamp/micromanagement marriage. The bosses up top have all these numbers and demand action plans to get numbers to rise.

Here's a better way.

Trust Your Store Leaders

So, you have someone running a store for you, yet you feel the need to micromanage the shit out of them. You demand they send you action plans and update you hourly on whatever the fuck.

Sorry, that's just dumb.

Trust your store leaders.

Give them everything they need to succeed (this includes payroll), and inform them of what metrics you think are essential and where you think the standard should be.

Give them an office day on Monday. Part of that day should include business analysis. They need to look at all the numbers, determine the successes and opportunities, and share how they will affect those numbers.

They can share their business analysis and plan for the week on a district conference call.

The end.

The endless action plans for different metrics and hourly emails are a total waste of time. They only make the store teams mad. Nobody wants to do that work because it's unimportant.

Guess what? District managers don't want to have to read all those emails, either.

If a store is really struggling, a district or regional manager needs to visit it to see what's really going on.

Getting that email like, "Your credit card sign ups slipped, what's happening?" is

The
Worst.

You want to know what happened with the credit card sign-ups? Two people called out yesterday. One person quit without notice, and the rest of us are drowning in markdowns, shipment, online order fulfillment, and a fall floor set. But sure, credit card applications should be a top priority.

When everything is a top priority, nothing is.

Cut the crap.

Faster is not always better.

Tracking everything under the sun is fun but not always necessary. Faster is not always better. Why are credit card sign-ups important on a Monday when the stores are flooded with returns?

Running a retail store successfully is pretty straightforward.

Take care of the team.
Take care of the customers.
Communicate like crazy with everyone.
Keep the store clean and get stuff fixed.
Write a great schedule and plan out your tasks.
On Monday, analyze your business and drink coffee.

That's about it.

If you have a store manager who is struggling, help them out. Go to their store. Work alongside them. Stop having all the stores in the district email their action plans, hourly updates, and yada yada.

It's such a waste of time.

We can learn a lot from the data swamp, but we are mostly drowning in it.

Use it wisely. We work with humans, after all, and the best thing about humans is not their ability to cashier quickly. It's their ability to connect and help one another. Let's remember that.

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Kit Campoy is an author and retail expert with 20+ years of experience leading retail teams. She thrived on building relationships with customers and motivating sales teams.
Now, as a ghostwriter, she leverages this people-centric approach to craft compelling content that resonates and sets brand apart.