MONEY SHOP
Footwear Today’s financial plumber, footwear retailer David Gummers, has some New Year resolutions
N
ow, we are entering the New Year, I thought I would come up with some timely resolutions for the people that affect our lives! What better place to start than with those that govern us. In a utopia would we as retailers like to make our lives easier. Well, number
one resolution for our leader, David Cameron, would be pay for the three or four days each month footwear retailers work for the government doing their VAT returns, paye, and complying with all the ludicrous red tape ideas his Government dream up in their ivory towers! This is not an attack on any particular party, it is just that they are all utterly clueless about business, as they are with a few exceptions, professional politicians. We would like nothing more than to buy shoes from our suppliers and sell them to our customers. If any politician reads this please bear this in mind! That would be a good resolution for our Lords and masters, so we can all work in harmony. Turning to our local Councils. Their job surely is to promote our towns and
cities and make it as easy as possible for retailers to trade. A suitable resolution here would be: Minimise the business rates so that there are not as many empty properties. In a town near ours there are a staggering 65 empty shops on the main High Street. Surely, it would be better if they reduced the rates and received something from a trading business, rather than nothing from an empty property? Now, turning to the Mary Portas report on the High Street and how this
impacts on the Council. My biggest bug bear is that people who spend time in Town centres have to pay to park. If they had to pay at out of town supermarkets as well I could just about accept it. Please can we have a level playing field. The motorist in this case is seen as a soft target, therefore my resolution for local Councils in 2014 and beyond would be: Provide 4 hours free parking in towns and cities. This would prevent shop employers and staff taking the prime site car parking, which would be utterly counter- productive. The Council could/should, occasionally pop into the small shops to see if
there is anything they could do to help. I have not had a visit from any councillor in my entire time as a retailer. I think this to be shameful, so I suggest a suitable resolution for a local Councillor would be Visit local shops in 2014. Turning to our suppliers, of course they are paragons of virtue as we
know. They always deliver goods on time, and the product is always utterly faultless, IF ONLY! If, on the odd occasion when things go wrong, perhaps they can remember that our customers are the life blood of both their and our business. As regards a resolution for our suppliers in 2014, I would suggest:
Think outside the box. If a retailer has a complaint from a customer that a style is not available in the size they require, the retailer should not just say they have no stock, the supplier should try to get it from another retailer they have supplied. I am more than happy to help any supplier who would ask me if I had a particular shoe to solve a complaint for another retailer. I had one instance where when I suggested this I thought I had grown a second head again!! They reluctantly acquiesced-I had a happy customer and it saved us losing profit unnecessarily. I also do firmly believe that if a delivery is more than 2 weeks late, a supplier should add a month’s dating to the invoice, and allow us to take the full settlement discount, which, I feel, would be another important
38 • FOOTWEAR TODAY • JANUARY 2014
resolution for those who supply us. Why should we if we order something 3 months previously have our cash flow compromised, by their mistakes?! Most manufacturers are very good and do deliver to time, but when they don’t it is their cash flow that should suffer not the retailer. Turning to the retailer, of course like our suppliers we get everything right
and always treat our customers perfectly, and they always happy with what we do. That must be me dozing off and dreaming again. When we do make mistakes we should bend over backwards to help put it right, do not blame the manufacturer – that really does not interest the customer, at all. The great skill is turning the negative into a positive. I will give an example of something that happened to me away from work. I was double charged on my credit card in a restaurant, which naturally had me miffed. As I was going back to the restaurant later in the year I suggested they leave a voucher for the amount and then I can have a meal to that value. I went back and the bill came to about £10 more they did not charge me anything at all. This is a good way to win back a disgruntled customer. I also wrote a very positive review on the restaurant. Everyone won! Happy customers do help the bottom line. Retailers do have a responsibility to our suppliers as well, that is the deal. If the supplier send goods in on time we have to ensure that we pay them on time and honour any agreement we have with them. We should not expect them to do the right thing and abuse their trust. We also have a duty to be fair to our employees. It is reasonable to expect
high standards from them but retailers should pay their staff fairly and not expect them to do anything that we would not do, which would also be a good resolution for retailers in 2014. I have a zero tolerance of customers shouting at them. They have my permission to ask customers who do to leave. If they shout at me, I do not like it, but it goes with the territory. To end on a positive, the economy is on the turn and for the first time
since 2008,I am more optimistic that there will be some growth. I wish you all a happy, prosperous and most important healthy New Year
in 2014.
If you would like David to look at your business costs, he promises that if he cannot save you any money you pay him nothing. But for every pound he saves you pay him, 15 pence. If you want to learn more email David on david@fdickinsonfootwear
Website: http://www.fdickinsonfootwear
.co.uk or call 01229 580654
.co.uk/
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