How to tell if ‘saving’ on staffing costs is actually affecting your sales
Follow the steps below to determine if your idea to save on staffing costs is actually costing you more in your loss of sales.
Is your footfall correlating with your sales?
Have a look at your footfall number for the day and then have a look at your sales number for the day. If your footfall seems to always be significantly higher than your number of sales, then it shows that customers are entering your store and then leaving without buying anything. This could be because the queues are too long, there aren’t enough people on the tills or they aren’t being served by anyone. In this case, it is probably wise to up your staffing levels.
A great solution is to have extra staff with iPad POS systems so they can put a sales transaction through anywhere in the store which eliminates queues. See how Virgin Media did this with Oplift Extend.
If your sales are down, compare the number of employees you had this month to the number you had this time last year
If you had high sales and lower employee numbers last year then you will know staffing is not the issue. However, if you had higher sales and a higher number of employees last year then this is a clear indicator that your reduced number of staff is affecting your sales. It is likely time to up your staffing levels.
If you have store iPads it is a good idea to set up simple questions that customers can answer when they leave. E.g. did you receive the help you were looking for today, or do you think there was a sufficient amount of staff in-store today? This will give you a true idea of what your customers think about your staffing levels.
Ask your staff
Who better to ask than the staff themselves, send out a checklist to all employees to see how their experience is. This should include checks such as "I never feel rushed off of my feet, do you agree with this statement." They can either swipe for yes or no. If they swipe no then they can leave a comment as to why.
Checklists are simple and easy to complete, meaning if staff are rushed off of their feet then they will be more likely to complete them. With Oplift's checklists you can set up a time or day when the checklist has to be completed by, this ensures that they are always completed. All of them are digitally logged, tracked and sent straight to head office.
How often do you call for extra staff?
Keep a log of how many times you call your staff last minute to come in for the day. If it is weekly then this is probably too much! If your store turns into a chaotic mess every time someone calls in sick or is late, then it's a sign that you are understaffed. You should have enough staff so that you can cope with these last-minute changes.
If you are continually understaffed it can put pressure on your employees and make you seem like a selfish employer. Read "Are you a narcissistic employer" to see if you need to start giving more to your employees and taking less.
