Retail Management the Art of Handling the Internal Customer
Retail Management- The Art Of Handling The Internal Customer
Professor K.J.George
Birla Institute of Management Technology Greater Noida
Email- george.kj@bimtech.ac.in
Country- India
Abstract-Retail as a business is prevalent since the ancient times, in its unorganized avatar it has mushroomed and succeeded in almost every town and city. It seemed an easy business when it became a part of the organized business houses menu, but soon to realize that it is an easy business but had to be done the difficult way. The paper explores the utility and importance of the Internal Customer that is the employees. A conceptual framework to study the importance of training, motivation and retention of the employees. To understand how to lessen the pressures experienced by the Retail Employees and develop a tool this is effective for development, validation and refinement of performance of the Retail employee. The study also explores the possibility to view the Retail Customer as a partial employee and to use them for furthering the profitability of the organization. With all companies buying and selling in the same environment what will differentiate the men among the boys will be how the “INTERNAL CUSTOMER” handles and uses the “EXTERNAL CUSTOMER”.
Keywords- retail, employees, train, gain, people, ERM, relationship
Retail is about detail…. It is the easiest business but has to be performed in the most difficult way. This could be a contradictory statement. Just to put things in the right perspective, Retail is easy because it involves buying, stocking and stacking of merchandise and selling to a customer who has the need for it, then why would it be difficult? The retail environment is fragmenting. Consumers want personalized shopping experiences. That means more stores, more channels, more choices and an increasingly segmented customer base. How to maintain market share and a competitive advantage? Retailers have to focus on customers because they are
Professor K.J.George
Birla Institute of Management Technology Greater Noida
Email- george.kj@bimtech.ac.in
Country- India
Abstract-Retail as a business is prevalent since the ancient times, in its unorganized avatar it has mushroomed and succeeded in almost every town and city. It seemed an easy business when it became a part of the organized business houses menu, but soon to realize that it is an easy business but had to be done the difficult way. The paper explores the utility and importance of the Internal Customer that is the employees. A conceptual framework to study the importance of training, motivation and retention of the employees. To understand how to lessen the pressures experienced by the Retail Employees and develop a tool this is effective for development, validation and refinement of performance of the Retail employee. The study also explores the possibility to view the Retail Customer as a partial employee and to use them for furthering the profitability of the organization. With all companies buying and selling in the same environment what will differentiate the men among the boys will be how the “INTERNAL CUSTOMER” handles and uses the “EXTERNAL CUSTOMER”.
Keywords- retail, employees, train, gain, people, ERM, relationship
Retail is about detail…. It is the easiest business but has to be performed in the most difficult way. This could be a contradictory statement. Just to put things in the right perspective, Retail is easy because it involves buying, stocking and stacking of merchandise and selling to a customer who has the need for it, then why would it be difficult? The retail environment is fragmenting. Consumers want personalized shopping experiences. That means more stores, more channels, more choices and an increasingly segmented customer base. How to maintain market share and a competitive advantage? Retailers have to focus on customers because they are
References: Leonard.L.Berry in his article “The old Pillars of New retailing” Published in Harvard Business Review. Cathy Hart, Grazyna B. Stachow, Andrew M.Farrell “ Employer perceptions of skills gap in retail:issues and implications for UK retailers Camphell Fraser and Anna Zarkada- Fraser: Measuring the performance of retail managers in Australia and Singapore John Byrom,John Harris, Cathy Parker: Training the independent retailer: an audit of training needs,materials and systems.