Years ago I had an incredibly talented retail associate working for me. He was smart, charming, a fast learner, and one of the best sales people I ever met. There was, unfortunately, one major problem: he was lazy. He did only enough to get by.

1. The Myth of Motivation in Retail
and the Customer Experience

2. Years ago I had an incredibly talented retail associate
working for me. He was smart, charming, a fast learner,
and one of the best sales people I ever met. There was,
unfortunately, one major problem: he was lazy. He did
only enough to get by.

3. I spent an incredible amount of time and energy trying to
motivate him. I could sometimes get a one or two day
bump in his performance, but he invariably slid back into
mediocrity. It drove me crazy.
What I didn't understand at the time is that the ability to
motivate others is a myth. I know that sounds like
leadership blasphemy, and it's a statement I would once
have scoffed at, but I'm convinced you can't motivate the
unmotivated.

4. Motivation is the desire or willingness of someone to do
something. The desire to work with customers has to
come from within. The willingness to proactively engage
and sell customers has to be something a person likes and
wants to do. You can't successfully motivate people to do
something if they just don't want to do it. They have to
want to do something, and they have to enjoy doing it.

5. But wait. Doesn't money motivate people? A study by Edward Deci,
a psychologist at Rochester University, found that students offered
cash prizes to solve puzzles were less likely to continue working on
them after payments had been made, compared to students who were
offered no money.
Deci'swork helped clarify the relationship between intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation - doing things because you like doing them in
their own right or doing them because you want a reward that has
been offered. This is why hiring the right person is so important.

6. Offering a motivated person more money could result in
higher performance, but it will have little or no effect on
the unmotivated. I've said for years that if you pay more to
a mediocre employee, all you have is a higher paid
mediocre employee.
Instead of trying to motivate people, I believe the key is to
inspire the motivated and remove the unmotivated. Here’s
how.

7. 1. Make work fun. As many of you know, one of my favorite sayings
is, "You can't ask people to give service with a smile until you give
them something to smile about." That pretty much says it all. The
best leaders I've worked for and with have the ability to make each
day a great experience for their team.
2. Make each day challenging. I like to compare working retail to the
movie Groundhog Day. Every day can be the same day over and
over - if we allow it to be. That's why good leaders challenge their
employees to try new things, and to strive to improve something that
was not so terrific the day before.

8. 3. Constant and consistent staff development. Motivated people want
to learn. They want to grow. Many of them want career
opportunities. This is one of the most important parts of a leader’s
job, but unfortunately it doesn't happen nearly enough in retail. A
development plan doesn't have to be complicated, but it does need to
be constant and consistent.
4. Regularly recognize each individual's effort and performance.
Never underestimate the importance of specific recognition. People
want to contribute to a store's success, and they especially appreciate
it when their effort is called out. Recognition makes an even bigger
impact when it's put in writing.

9. 5. Create a strong sense of team. Good teams bring out the best in
each member, provide mutual support, and bring more purpose to
each person's work. A group of people isn't a team. A group of people
committed to a common cause and enabling each other's success, is.
6. Opportunities to earn more and win prizes. Short-term contests,
games, and incentives are a great way to inspire motivated people. It
can also be wasted effort with the unmotivated. It's as important to
focus on and reward the right behaviors as it is to achieve the desired
results.

10. 7. Empower and simplify. You can tell an employee how special he is, or
how much you appreciate her, but they're not really feeling the love and
respect if they have to get a manager every time to complete a small
refund or other simple activity. Give people ownership. Show you trust
them. Make their work easy. Of course, you have to have checks and
balances in there, but I'd rather have an inspired and empowered team
than spend time worrying about a fraudulent $10 refund. But that's just
how I think…..
8. Have well defined standards and expectations, with the appropriate
accountability. One of the fastest ways to demotivate a motivated
employee is to not hold everyone accountable for the expected standards
and expectations. Most people will rise to what's expected of them, but
they'll also lower themselves to the level of accountability set for others.

11. 9. A voice. Motivated employees want to contribute and be a part of
the future. They have good ideas and would like to share them. They
feel inspired when they can bring ideas up with their manager and
their manager's manager or the owner, and potentially see that idea
successfully put into practice.
10. Remove the unmotivated. An unmotivated person who doesn’t
meet the acceptable level of performance drags the entire team
down. Motivated employees resent it when the management team
accepts and even enables poor performance. Moving
underperformers up or out will actually inspire motivated employees,
and improve the customer experience and results.

12. So let me ask, how much energy are you wasting trying to
motivate the unmotivated? More important, are you
putting enough energy and focus on inspiring the
motivated?

13. Dynamic Experiences Group, LLC, a customer
experience and retail consulting company, helps retailers
of all sizes to improve their customer experience and
increase their sales and profits. Our retail consultants
assess the current approach of your business and then
recommend a solution based upon your organizational
needs and opportunities. Visit us:
http://www.dynamicexperiencesgroup.com