Hang up the phone and get out to the field

Being in charge of a frontline team is a fantastically difficult job.

Every day you head to work, read through various memos, and try to implement whatever your corporate office has directed you to do.

Someone, somewhere, has decided to add some tasks to your department. You have to figure out where to put it and how to make it work with no additional help.

Also, three people called out sick today. There is no backup.

I ran retail stores for twenty-four years, and I understand what running a team on the frontline of customer service is like. I understand it on a granular level.

People with customer-facing jobs are faced with enormous challenges every day. They have to manage a never-ending task list with little help, and leaders in upper management or corporate positions are nowhere to be seen.

This causes the frontline leaders to bear the weight of a tired and cranky general public with crappy pay and no support.

This is not new, but it’s now worse

There is a massive disconnect between the people who run companies and what happens at the business’ frontline.

There are many people sitting in a corporate offices who have never worked in the field. They couldn’t do those jobs; they wouldn’t even know where to start. That’s okay, but they need to understand them. They need to listen.

The people at the top are creating policies and new departments. They’re rolling out special teams. They’re deciding to implement a hiring freeze. They’re pouring over spreadsheets.

They must stop and listen to their store leaders — at all levels. Department and support leaders, too, not only the store leaders. Ask them questions and listen to what they need.

Listen closely because some things are not working. Stop guessing. Stop talking to the person in the office next to yours and go work in a store.

Get out of your office and into the field.

Work in stores for a week every quarter. Hell, even a day. Make it happen. That’s not a lot to ask. Shift your priorities and make time for it, or else your business will stay stuck. You’re going to keep making the same mistakes. Turnover will continue to be a problem.

Your employee retention will be lost, and you will spend more money to continually hire and train new people — if you can find any.

Update processes — like, right now

Stop treating high-volume stores the same way you do low-volume stores. They’re not the same. They require different things. Talk to them, and you’ll find out.

Stop drowning in the way you currently do business.

Stop saying, “Well, that’s how we do things.” Because your business will not last if you refuse to change.

Here are a few ideas for you:

• Update your payroll allocation when you add more customer amenities. When you offer your customer more options, your employees now have more stuff to do. Support them.
• Gather your leaders together and ask them what’s working and, more importantly, what’s not working.
• Work for a week in one of your stores. Actually work there. Don’t walk around taking notes. Talk to customers, watch the flow of traffic, bag groceries, whatever you need to do. Talk to the support staff like a normal human.

Shift your focus/shift your perspective

When was the last time you got out and into the field?

“We want to visit stores, but we get busy” shouldn’t be the answer I hear to this question all the time.

Visiting the frontline should be the number one priority. Don’t lose sight of that.

The only way you will succeed going forward is to get out into the world and see what’s going on with your own eyes.

Just because something looks good on paper doesn’t mean it’s working. It could be short-lived, and you need to be ready for it to fail. Your frontline leaders can tell you if it’s about to fail.

Frontline leaders are the backbone of the economy. They’re often under-appreciated, underpaid, and subjected to outlandish abuse. I know because I’ve lived it. I didn’t only read about it in The New York Times.

Show up and give them what they deserve — a chance to be heard and the opportunity to help make their workplace better.

(also, give them all more money)