June 2-8
MARKETING Start your planning for the second half of the year by asking yourself what one advertisement or promotion in your recent history elicited the biggest response. Just because a $10 coupon was hugely successful three years ago doesn’t mean you can’t do it again.
INSPIRATION Ask your staff to write down the top 10 reasons that people should do business with your store. Discuss this feedback at a staff meeting.
EVENTS In a lifestyle center, strip mall or downtown location? Take the lead in organizing a community block party. Loads of fun and a great crowd generator.
June 9-15
MANAGEMENT The Small Business Administration makes available a helpful guide to minimize risk. Find it here petsplusmag.com/6191, and then create your risk-management plan.
ONLINE If you don’t know how visitors are interacting with your website or where they are coming from, it’s hard to devise an effective online strategy. Google Analytics is free and easy: There is a great tutorial on the Google site and a bunch of YouTube how-to videos that can help you understand how to use it. Make mastery of Analytics a summer priority!
PERSONAL Shake up your routine. With pen and paper, write a thank-you note to someone who’s influenced you in your career. Don’t forget to mail it.
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June 16-22
STORE Update your in-store video loop. For a change, forget the promotional videos and run something that’s got nothing to do with selling at all, but that is a good fit with the summer holidays — Coco, The Lion King, Piper, Finding Dory, Madagascar, there’s no shortage of fun, animal-themed productions.
OPERATIONS What’s your pre-opening drill? If it’s “All hands to the pump!” you may want to try something more systematic. Many retailers use a 10-point checklist to make sure that all the important things are taken care of before they open the doors.
WEBSITE What hours are you open? What pet food brands do you carry? Think of the top 10 reasons people call you and then get the information up on your website in the form of an easy-to-find FAQ page.
June 23-29
evenOFFICE WORK The phone slows over summer. It’s time to do some housekeeping: Organize all the paperwork and procedural stuff that gets put aside, such as updating the customer data with new phone numbers and email addresses, reading the POS manual and so on.
STAFF Hold an “Assistant for a Day” contest this month. Award points for each positive action you determine — e.g. one point for each pet name remembered, 10 points for an outreach exercise that results in a new customer coming in, 1 point for asking for an add-on sale, 10 points for completing it. At the end of the month, tally up the points for each staff member. The winner gets you as their “Assistant for a Day.” You make them coffee, clean up their workspace, wash their car, whatever your “boss” wants.
MANAGEMENT Start meeting with staff at least monthly to share three “good things” to build on and three “development areas.”
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