I wrote this post before most places were shutting down for the coronavirus, but I believe that once the social restrictions are lifted, the difference between those companies that bounce back and those that don't will be in part linked to those that understand Anti-Customer Service. Photo by Icons8 Team on Unsplash This is 2020 and every retail … Continue reading Don’t Practice Anti-Customer Service
Photo by Abdullah Alam on Unsplash I'm a firm believer that you can gain knowledge from pretty much anywhere as long as you keep your mind open. This morning I was playing spider solitaire on my tablet, as I do many mornings in an effort to wake my brain up and get it into problem solving mode. I … Continue reading Business tips from Solitaire
My most recent post explains why you need a plan for this contingency https://www.kvue.com/mobile/article/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-austin-texas-update-shelter-in-place-open-essential-businesses/269-f104a14e-63f2-4ce8-b61e-0e7753269eb9
Photo by CDC on Unsplash Catching up with some friends about how they are handling working from home, I realized that we would have been the ones working on handling this pandemic for our old company. What are we going to do if the state (Texas) decides to shut down all non-essential businesses? What's our plan? Obviously, we … Continue reading Do you have a plan?
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash This is a crazy time to be alive much less be in business. If you own a business you're struggling to balance the need to earn money with the need to keep people safe and prevent the spread of the virus. I wanted to share how some businesses are coping with the … Continue reading Business in the time of Coronavirus
Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash While I've been trying to do my own thing, I have been continuing to look for a "day job". Three things I've noticed: There are a lot of bad websites out there.There are a lot of bad forms in use (too many by government agencies)Way too many dead links. (fingers crossed I'm … Continue reading Land of the Dead (links)
There’s a phrase I use that started out as a joke but has become an actually useful tool for time management. When I’m doing something and see that I’m not going to be able to complete it today, or it’s a project I’ve come up with but know I can’t start it now, I’ll say, … Continue reading Future You
The title of this blog is one of the lessons I learned from Jim Collins. I can't remember right now which book it is from, but it has always stuck with me. I'm responsible for helping our company change before it had to. I started with my mentor Mieka on redesigning our stores and after … Continue reading Change before you have to
I received my Weekly Retail Experience Newsletter from Doug Fleener today and it got me thinking. The title of the post was Planning for a successful day - or not, which gives some great tips for how to plan to be successful when running a retail store. The Meta-Message, if you will, is that you … Continue reading Having a Plan
Yesterday I got a nice reminder on how important it is to put together a great team. I got to work, and my partner is on vacation. I knew she was on vacation and that meant I had to handle reorders. Not a problem, that is what we do. However, I get to work and … Continue reading The Importance of Teams
Joe Robles 