It’s well established that engaged employees perform better. In retail, the impact of an employee who’s invested in their work is easy to see – it results in greater productivity, more customer satisfaction and a better bottom line.

If you know anything as a retailer, it’s that shoppers want what they want when they want it. We want to shop from our couches at 11 p.m., or we want to drop into a store and have an experience; we want to get things delivered, or we want to pick them up the same day. We want every option so we can create the experience we want and need in the moment.

If you grew up in the ’80s like I did, you’ve seen some great movies. While some of them might fall into the “so bad they’re good” category, most ’80s movies seemed to carry with them an important life lesson, many of which translate to the retail industry. So find your scrunchie, pop that collar and reminisce!

Dear Experts:

My company implemented self-checkouts a few years ago. Customers seem to love them, but they’re a challenge to properly manage. Any tips?

— Director, Store Operations

An excerpt from Bad Stores and How to Fix Them

Lack of compliance with currency management procedures is a natural consequence of the industry’s high turnover — if staff is always changing, procedures get sloppy. But even without an ever-changing team, procedures and the ability to govern how and when they’re executed can suffer without the proper tools.

To say retail scheduling is a headache is an understatement. In my retail days, we had a fairly sophisticated system for scheduling that took into account stocking time, previous months sales trends, previous year same week trends, holiday lift, week of the month, average sales per customer, customer count trend, time to transition to or from holidays, and much, much more. But in the end it’s at best 90 percent science — the rest is instinct, a little bit of luck, and looking for opportunities in unexpected places.

Not long ago, my first-grader wanted to make slime. Not just any slime, but ice slime, which requires clear glue – so off we went to a local store. We couldn’t find the glue we needed, and unfortunately, I had been to this store many times and knew I probably wouldn’t find anyone to help us. Instead of trudging around looking for someone, I opened the store’s app on my phone, used the wayfinder, and found the aisle I needed immediately.

Is this a customer experience success or failure? Depends on how you look at it. 

Shoppers making in-person purchases in 2018 have more payment choices at the register than ever before. They can pay with check, debit or credit, or by scanning their phone or watch. Or they can pull out their wallets and pay with cash — and despite convenient advances in payment technology, many do.

Get 10 retailers in a room and ask them what their most expensive form of payment is. What do you think they’ll say? I’d wager most of them would say credit – but they’d be wrong.

In my early restaurant days, part of our mission was to ensure the 3 F’s: food, feel and flow. Was the food great? How was the feel/vibe? Was there a great flow through the line and the restaurant? Maintaining these key metrics – and profitability, of course – was the mark of a great manager. One F I hated dealing with? Funds. Managing and reconciling cash at the end of the day was a chore and a headache.