What’s wrong with this picture? Two things — the first, and most obvious, is that the green apples are labeled as red apples, and the red apples are labeled as green. But the most glaring problem is the fact that they were labeled wrong when I stopped in this Times Square market in the morning, and they were still labeled wrong when I went back that evening.

This tells me that no manager or owner walked the floor that day, making sure that everything was in order.  Do you walk through your shop every day, looking for items that are out of place, straightening displays and adjusting signs?  One of the few positive results of the down economy is that store owners and managers are “working the floor” more, and that can only be a good thing.  Not only can you make sure the store looks great, but you will also have more opportunities for feedback from customers.

Another benefit of being more present in your store in the chance to pay attention to all that your staff does every day.  Have you seen the promos for the new TV show called Undercover Boss?  Maybe you were even among the 38.6 million people who watched its debut on Super Bowl Sunday.

The concept of Undercover Boss is that executives work incognito in their own companies. (“The toughest job the boss will ever do is yours.”)  The hope is that by getting to know exactly what their employees go through each day, the executives will appreciate their work more, and perhaps also improve working conditions.

There are probably no independent retail shops big enough that the owner would have to go undercover to work side by side with the rest of the staff.  But some of us forget to do so on a regular basis.  I think that you’ll find it worthwhile — in fact, a historic study of productivity showed that just paying attention to what workers are doing increased their efficiency.

This result is referred to as the Hawthorne Effect, a term coined in 1955 by Henry A. Landsberger when analyzing experiments from 1924-1932 at the Hawthorne Works (a Western Electric manufacturing facility outside Chicago). Hawthorne Works had commissioned a study to see if its workers would become more productive in higher or lower levels of light, or other external factors. The workers’ productivity seemed to improve when any changes were made — slumped when the study was concluded. Landsberger concluded that the productivity gain was actually due to the motivational effect of the interest being shown in the workers.

Instead of staying in your office placing online orders, spend some time paying attention to the details that are so important to making your store a success.  Walk through your store making sure everything is in good order, take your turn behind the register, and spend some time on the sales floor showing interest in what your staff is doing. After all, this contact with merchandise, customers and staff is probably what made you want to open a shop in the first place.

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder