Category Archives: Engagement

Customer Service, Engagement, engaging people

Recognizing Supermarket Workers

It is likely you have witnessed the struggle that many businesses face with attracting, retaining, and engaging employees; and supermarkets continue to face their share of the challenge.

A recent SupemrarketNews article shared some interesting perspective on the importance of incorporating recognition into the employee engagement and people management process.

The piece referenced the fact that February 22nd was “Supermarket Employee Day,” which is among the programs The Food Industry Association (FMI) is using to “recognize talent, achievement, and industry initiatives that make a positive impact in neighborhoods.”

This is not a new concept, as retailers have held Supermarket Employee Day-themed special events for several years, which, according to the article, have included offering their employees special promotions or discounts, along with in-store signage and social media posts.

The piece also quoted an infographic from FMI, which states “In the face of natural disasters or global pandemics, these frontline heroes keep communities going. Show them your gratitude.”

In addition, FMI is providing a list of talking points for messaging:

  • The food industry feeds families and enriches lives, and supermarkets are the cornerstone of their communities
  • There are more than 40,000 stores that sell food and grocery items in the U.S. alone
  • Millions of supermarket employees come to work daily to keep shelves stocked and to provide communities with essential services that help them survive and thrive
  • Supermarket employees maintain the critical pipeline of food and consumer goods that sustain the health and well-being of their customers
  • Supermarket employees have personified compassion and courage when communities have most needed to be encouraged
Engagement, engaging people, Supermarket marketing

Holiday Marketing in Supermarkets

Spectrio is one of the nation’s leading end to end technology-enabled customer engagement marketing companies, and they shared some simple and innovative ideas for in-store holiday marketing.

Here are a few examples:

  1. Set the holiday mood in your store. First thing first, decorate and embellish your store so it has a holiday feel. Consider adding a few lights, holiday wreaths, or trees. Or, simply update your in-store digital signage so it includes relevant seasonal content.
  2. Create a holiday-themed in-store photo op. While you’re setting up your store for the holidays, create a specific scene that can be used as a great holiday-themed photo op. A photo op is a background or unique element that customers take a photo of and share on social media. This helps spread your brand across social media as people share their user generated content.
  3. Design a high-quality holiday overhead music playlist. It’s not enough to just put on a holiday music radio station. You should curate and use a high-quality overhead holiday music playlist. What makes it high-quality? It’s a list of songs that will please customers — but not annoy your employees.
  4. Infuse your store with holiday scents. Amplify the season by tying it to the sense of smell. Use scent marketing to add fresh holiday smells to your store like peppermint, evergreen, or pumpkin spice.
  5. Update your website. As you create holiday promotions, make sure customers know about them in your store, as well as online. Update your website so customers can clearly see the holiday specials and deals you’re offering. You might also consider combining this step with an email campaign. Spread the message about your holiday promotions by creating email campaigns to send to your customer list. Don’t just send one email. Create a plan for promoting up to the holiday and featuring individual sales, deals, and events.
  6. Create a plan to give back. Don’t make the holiday season all about buying gifts. Also, focus on giving back. Partner with a local charity and donate proceeds or run a food, gift, or clothing drive to spread holiday cheer with your local community.
employee engagement, Engagement, engaging people

Wegmans Wins High Rating on Fortune Best Places to Work List

Once again Wegmans has been recognized as one of the best places to work in the country, as they ranked #2 on Fortune’s 2018 list.

“Company loyalty runs deep at this more than century- old grocery chain, which spent $50 million on employee development last year (plus $5 million in scholarships) and filled half of its open positions internally,” the Fortune web site states.

The piece went on to share that staffers say “fulfilling” work gives them a “sense of purpose,” thanks to Wegmans’ mission of “helping people live healthier, better lives through food.” The civic spirit helps too: The chain reclaims millions of pounds of food every year to feed the hungry.

Salesforce was listed atop the list, which, according to the company’s website, measures companies on the following characteristics:

  • Executive team effectiveness
  • Innovation
  • People-focused programs
  • “Great Place to Work For All”

In a Great Place to Work For All, employees report high levels of trust, credible and respectful leadership, pride in the work, and camaraderie.

More than 315,000 employees provided feedback to determine the winners of the 2018 list. To be considered, companies needed to have at least 1,000 employees and receive enough survey responses to achieve a 95% confidence level with no more than a 5% margin of error.

employee engagement, Engagement, Grocery shopping trends, Supermarket management

Employee Engagement at Hy-Vee

According to a recent SupermarketNews article, Hy-Vee Inc. has introduced a benefits program for part-time employees.

Calling the move a “first of its kind in the retail industry,” the Midwestern grocer said the program offers 11 benefit options to its more than 58,000 part-time staff ages 19 and older. Spouses and dependents also are covered by the plan, whose options include:

  • Health
  • Dental
  • Vision
  • Short-term disability
  • Accident and critical illness coverage
  • Hospital indemnity
  • Group  and individual life and disability insurance
  • Auto, homeowner and renter insurance
  • Pet insurance

Read the full article… 

Customer service and loyalty, Engagement, how to improve profitability in retail, Process improvement, Supermarket management

Sam Walton & the 5th “P”

In a recent article published by the International Speaker’s Bureau, author Michael Berghdahl referenced Sam Walton’s retail success, noting that Walton intuitively knew that retail marketing is all about the “4-P’s,” which are having the right products, price, placement, and promotion.

However, the article goes on to say that Sam Walton knew the “4 P’s” were not enough; that he was not satisfied to simply apply traditional methods, but rather always out to do more… to try new ideas.

“You might say he [Sam Walton] embraced change like a welcomed friend,” Berghahl wrote. “Never complacent, he sought ways to improve every aspect of the Walmart success formula each and every day.”

As part of this approach to continuous improvement, Walton figured out the key to creating a sustainable competitive advantage in the retail marketplace was by adding a “5th P” to his success formula: PEOPLE. Success required fully-engaged people working together as a high performing team, and serving his customers.

This perspective is consistent with the latest research on the critical importance and value of an engaged workforce.

But beware! Traditional efforts to engage employees have not been fruitful!!  These unsuccessful attempts have been haphazard at best, and have largely focused on trying to make employees happy.  Unfortunately, research and experience has proved that happy workers are not necessarily more productive workers.

Clearly a more strategic approach to engagement is needed, yet few retailers or organizations of any type have a formalized engagement strategy.

If you would like to create such a strategy, here are ten behaviors  you might initiate, which are based on research and experience that shows productive employees tend to be engaged employees, not the other-way-around.

Read more…