In this special format bonus episode I welcome back to the podcast Kevin Graff, the founder of Graff Retail, top 100 global retail influencer and Since 198 working with retailers and service businesses around the globe to help them get better results from their teams. Kevin is also a speaker at the RCC Retail HR conference coming up March 25th. I ask him for two starts, and one stop, based on what he has learned and experienced over the past year of the COVID era.
Welcome to the The Voice of Retail , I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is brought to you in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada.
In this special format bonus episode I welcome back to the podcast Kevin Graff, the founder of Graff Retail, top 100 global retail influencer and Since 198 working with retailers and service businesses around the globe to help them get better results from their teams. Kevin is also a speaker at the RCC Retail HR conference coming up March 25th. I ask him for two starts, and one stop, based on what he has learned and experienced over the past year of the COVID era.
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Thanks for tuning into today’s episode of The Voice of Retail. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss out on the latest episodes, industry news, and insights. If you enjoyed this episode please consider leaving a rating and review, as it really helps us grow so that we can continue getting amazing guests on the show.
If you are a retail HR professional you don’t want to miss the RCC Retail Human Resources forum, March 25th. Learn more and register at http://rcchrconference.ca/
I’m your host Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company, and if you’re looking for more content, or want to chat follow me on LinkedIn, or visit my website meleblanc.co!
Until next time, stay safe and have a great week!
Michael LeBlanc
Welcome to The voice of Retail. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc. This podcast is brought to you in conjunction with the Retail Counsel of Canada. In this special format bonus episode I welcome back to the podcast, Kevin Graff, the founder of Graff Retail, top 100 global retail influencer. And since 1988, working with retailers and service businesses around the globe to help them get better results in their teams. Kevin is also a speaker at the RCC Retail HR Conference coming up March 25th. Asking for two starts, one stop, based on his experience, with the COVID era. Let's listen in. Kevin, welcome to The VoicRetail podcast, my friend. How are you this afternoon?
Kevin Graff
I'm fantastic. Now that I'm here with you, sir.
Michael LeBlanc
Well, I should say welcome back. This is your, I think third, at least third chance I've had the opportunity to tap into your wisdom and, and many people will be ableForum coming up on the 25th of March. So, in this format, we've talked about a bunch of things over the course of the podcasts together. In this instance, it's a kind of a short form, a bit about yourself for those few people who may not already know of you. Where I'm going to ask you two starts, and one stop, based on what you've learned, advice in the HR space, what you've learned in the COVID era. What you've heard with your, your clients. And then a little bit about what you're talking about on stage. So, that's what we're going to talk about short form bonus episode. Let's jump right in. Give us the 411 about yourself and about the company and what you do.
Kevin Graff
Great stuff. Thanks, Michael. Well, as you know, and if anybody's listened to your podcast, as you said, I think this is my third time on it. I'm the founder of Graff Retail. And I hate saying this, I started this back in 1988, which just makes me sound like such an old guy.
Michael LeBlanc
You're like, you're like 9 or 10 when you started it. So, you were an early entrepreneur.
Kevin Graff
Yeah, yeah, school wasn't for me. I thought, what the heck, let's go and do this thing. How hard could this possibly be. right?
Michael LeBlanc
Exactly, Exactly.
Kevin Graff
And I mean, look we do, you know, would, you know, if I was to boil this down, I'd say what we really do is one thing. You know, District Managers, Store Managers, sales staff, so that they can meet the ever increasing needs of consumers and the demands that just keep going up. And that's changing dramatically. And, you know, as I say to my clients, "yes, don't worry, you know, we're gonna help you drive your sales and your profits". But, you know, what really drives us, and it's really what's helped us keep going over the past number of years, is you know, what floats our boat it's growing people. Like we want to make them successful at work. But just as importantly, we know that, you know, if we can make them successful at work, that confidence, the self esteem, the skills, it goes with them outside of work, and we make their lives better outside of work. And that sounds a little, you know, hoity toity. But that's really why we do what we do.
Michael LeBlanc
And take that one level deeper for me in terms of your tradecraft. Is this by video? Is this in person? I guess, these days a little more improved, a little more by video than in person, but,
Kevin Graff
Were you just making, looking to make me cry, because again, do the in person stuff anymore.
Michael LeBlanc
I know, if anyone can adapt and overcome, it's you. But tell me a bit about how this training happens. And well, I guess now and in, you know, the before time and the time to come?
Kevin Graff
Yeah, exactly. Well, you know, if you talk to, you know, my wife or my staff, they will tell you that my real happy place is being in front of a crowd, a live crowd. Whether it's, you know, 15 people or 1500. That's, that's my real happy spot. But, you know, thank goodness, you know, given given the new world order, you know, back in, you know, 2008, you know, we started to deliver a lot of our training online. You know, video based training, interactive stuff, in that, that really revolution, revolutionized our business. And well, thank goodness that we did have been going down that path for a long time. Because, well, that's kind of all we're doing right now isn't it?
Michael LeBlanc
Right.
Kevin Graff
Yeah, and so, you know, back in 08, you know, we launched what we used to call a Graff Retail TV that we're now just call Graff Retail Online. And thank goodness, we did, because, you know, my least favorite word over the past year has been "pivot". Because, you know, my colleagues go, Kevin, you got to pivot, you got to pivotI'm, like, stop it.
Michael LeBlanc
Pivot, I've pivoted 360 degrees. I'm back where I started this time last year.
Kevin Graff
And so you know, you know, and for our clients, it's been great. And so we continue to just keep pushing down that path, and delivering, you know, the type of value that we think we can deliver, you know, to our clients from an online learning perspective. And so that's, that's been really good for us. It's been really good for our clients as well.
Michael LeBlanc
I'm kind of curious, just one more question about technology and how you look at it. I mean, you're an early adopter of video, as you said, you call it Graff TV before now you could call it online or live stream and you've got apps and you're an early adopter. What are you thinking about these other things that are on the horizon? This Clubhouse for example. You know, are these are these things you're thinking about is as, let's call them legitimate or viable tools to augment what you do in terms of reaching out to to the field. Because that's very important for you, is reaching out to the, the, you know, the men and women in the field across the country. Are you, are you looking at other the other these technologies? I guess you're always on the, looking at the horizon to see what would help.
Kevin Graff
Yeah, you have to be right. You know, and look, you know, things like Clubhouse as an example, you know, fantastic tools to be able to build community, right. You know, to be able to get people together. To be able to like share ideas, you know, in a virtual space.And so, you know, we're always pushing them that, down that. We've had our, you know, our plateful, because, you know, we've been taking, you know, all of our training that typically resided on a traditional LMS, you know.
Michael LeBlanc
Sure.
Kevin Graff
There's nothing wrong with them, but they tend to be big and bulky, and transitioning everything over to much more of a mobile first learning approach, you know, because everybody's living on their phones. You know, more microbased. Which has proven to be so much better from a, from a learning perspective. And so, you know, for the past year, year and a half, we've been pushing so hard on that side. We're now just kind of coming up for air as we're working through all that element and going, alright, so now what? And the great news is, there's a whole bunch of now, so now what opportunities out there?
Michael LeBlanc
Well, let's, let's get to the kind of the learnings and the meat of the the meat of the sandwich, so to speak,. Two starts that you would advise the listeners, retail HR practitioners to start doing based on what you've experienced, and what your experience has been in your company over the past, you know, 12, 13 months of the COVID era.
Kevin Graff
Great, terrific. Well, the first one's an easy one, especially, you know, if I was to talk to HR people, but Gosh, if they don't get this. I think they've always gotten this, but if I extended the, you know, the audience for this, first of all, out to the broader base retail community and the executives, is it's about your staff stupid. You know, if there's, if there's one thing that's been proven time and time again, throughout this pandemic is, for goodness sake, take a look at how important your staff are. Take a look at the stuff that they're actually doing out there. They're not, they're not your expense. They're, they're your single greatest asset. And if it was your sink, if you looked at a business, and if you looked around any type of business and said, okay, that's my most important asset, you would look after that asset. You would try to grow it. You would invest in it. You would nurture it. And that's, that's the first start that we're seeing. And we're seeing lots of retailers pick that up and run with it. And that's a really good thing.But there's still people out there who are like, "Yeah, okay, well, what, how many hours? Can I cut?"
Michael LeBlanc
Right?
Kevin Graff
You know, and can in times are a little bit tough out there. So, can I cut a benefit off the table. When you look at it, and this is a really message for the brick and mortar retailers. I always go, a price is a price, and a product is a product. And a cool store design is really nice, but it's just a cool store design. The greatest differentiating factor between one retailer and the next is the quality of the staff interaction that happens between that frontline staff member and the customer. That's the greatest differentiating thing. And you've heard me talk about this on stage. The variance in performance from one retailer to the next on things like price, and supply chain, and logistics, and, it's pretty narrow that range. But the variance in staff performance from one organization to the next one store next, it's dramatic.
Michael LeBlanc
Yeah. I like you know, what I like about the approaches? It's, it's very fungible in terms of doesn't matter what format you are luxury, value, efficiency, experience, it's, it's that the performance of the team in whatever context, you put them in to deliver the brand expression, right. And that's what I've always admired about your focus. Which is, you know, you could be talking to the high end luxury or the value oriented retailer, but and the functions in the store are different. But the principles are the same, right?
Kevin Graff
Yeah, absolutely. Like go over to look, go over to Costco as an example. That's not an environment where you were expecting any interaction with the employees.
Michael LeBlanc
Right.
Kevin Graff
For the longest time, they've always had a philosophy in that organization that says we will look after our staff first, and our shareholders second. And all you have to do, go and track their stock performance against most every other retailers' stock performance that was just chasing the bottom line profitability and payback to their shareholders.
Michael LeBlanc
It's a big, it's a big trend. I mean, in the States, it's a it's demonstratively, it's demonstratively present when it comes to Black Friday, and closing the stores on Black Friday. Which, which I always thought was a tyranny. Like, I think it's our biggest holiday, you know, having to work Thanksgiving in America, just you know, didn't really encourage a lot of people that retail was a great place to be.
Kevin Graff
The craziest thing of all, I used to always say is, wait a minute, we finally have a time here where customers are prepared to spend money, you're gonna put it on sale.
Michael LeBlanc
That's a whole other. Okay, that's a whole other discussion.
Kevin Graff
You're gonna give away margin now?
Michael LeBlanc
The slippery slope iof the black, the Black Friday in Canada discussion. All right, let's leave that to another day. Okay, that's a good first one. What's the second one?
Kevin Graff
Double down on what you know is right. What you know, you do well. What you know, your consumers really want, you know. And it's, it's the opposite of, you know, pivoting. It's that look, if you're a purpose driven retailer, man, oh, man, Chase, chase that baby down, right. Like, go hard on that if you're value driven retailer, be really phenomenal value driven, retailer. If your experiential, for whatever that means to you, like double down on it. Because the last thing that you can be as we go forward is just kind of okay, at something.
Michael LeBlanc
Yeah.
Kevin Graff
Right, just in the middle of the road, you know, so what do you do? So, you know, like, in, like, for us here, you know, and apply it to what we did and we talked about at the beginning, it's kind of like, okay, let's, we went through a phenomenally horrific, you know, 2020. You know, with our client base, just like everybody else in the marketplace, you know, not a heck of a lot of fun. But we looked at it and we said, "okay, so look at what is it that we really do well, that our clients really want?" Because it's not just a question of what we think we do well, it's matching it up with what the heck it is they really value. And that's why you said, "Okay, great, well, we're doing this online stuff, but man, it could just be a heck of a lot better". So, how do we get out in front of the pack and deliver stuff at a higher level that makes the training better? Makes the value experience better for our client, for their frontend staff? That's kind of what it meant to us. And so when I think about what's the second thing that would be it.
Michael LeBlanc
All right, now one stop. Things that you observe retailers doing and you, you kind of got close to it when you talked about, you know, consider your your employees not a line item expense. But beyond that, what is, what is the one thing? And maybe it's just, you know, the times have changed or something you observed. What would be your advice?
Kevin Graff
Yeah, this point really applies to everybody that is not a pure e-commerce player. Be careful about the the shiny lights that you're chasing out there. If you're a brick and mortar retailer, you are there to provide value to your consumer, at the end of the day. The right product, the right combination of experiential events, however you want to define it. You're not a technology company. Technology is the tool. But it's just the tool to help you deliver on that. And the stop that I have for people is just be really careful about you know, where you, where all of your attention is going. Because, we see so many people right now chasing this bright shiny light of this investment and technology. And I'm not pooh-poohing it. I'm not saying that's not an important thing for people to chase. But they're doing it at the expense of what the heck it is they're really supposed to be delivering out in their stores on a day in day out basis. You know, the stores are being stripped bare, they're being starved of investment. Because we're running around behind the scenes going, "Oh, my God, I've got this opportunity to implement this technology, this technology, this technology, this technology". None of which are inexpensive, and some of them are going to have phenomenal ROI for the retailers. But not all of them. And so that's, that's the thing, it just, you know, stop getting distracted by the the exciting new new stuff, and start remembering what the heck it is you're really supposed to be doing out there.
Michael LeBlanc
All right, so you're on the virtual stage coming up on the 25th. What are you doing?
Kevin Graff
Well I have the joy of interviewing Tanja Fratangeli, who's the head of Reople and Culture over at IKEA. And I mean, I've had a chance to talk to her a few times in advance. And she's a, she's a firecracker. I'm looking forward to it. You know, she's got an outstanding experience. And I think what everybody knows is IKEA is phenomenally well known for their culture, in their stores. They've got a phenomenal reputation for how it is they deal with their staff. And we're going to be talking about, you know, how is it that you maintain and build that culture in this remote experience? Right, and it's gonna be really interesting. She's got a lot of interesting things that she wants to be able to share with people. I think there's a lot of really strong lessons in it.
Michael LeBlanc
All right, well, I'm looking forward to to hosting. I'm looking forward to hearing your content and having the opportunity to introduce you and that will be on March 25th. And learn more you can go to retailcouncil.org. Kevin, it's such a treat to speak with you in this short format and look forward to a longer form conversation a bit later in the year. And looking forward to catching up and hope you and your family continue to be well.
Kevin Graff
Great, and before we go, Congratulations, sir, on being on the Top 100 List of Retail Influencers. Well deserved sir.
Michael LeBlanc
Thank you. Join you're, joining your list, you know, the opposite of what Groucho Marx used to say, right?
Kevin Graff
I was just glad they didn't do it in numerical ranking. They did an alphabetical order.
Michael LeBlanc
What I love about it, I think is I'm not sure they ever update those pictures. So forever young for all of us. Once those pictures get in and you stay on that list. It's a good thing.Well, listen, it's great to join you know, the fact that I'm joining you on a list like that just really adds credibility and importance to me. So thank you for that.
Kevin Graff
Hey, listen, you're doing a phenomenal job with The Voice for Retail and everything else you're doing over there. Keep up the great work, Michael.
Michael LeBlanc
Thanks for tuning into today's episode of The Voice of Retail. Be sure and subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss out on the latest episodes, industry news and insights. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a rating and review as it really helps us grow so that we can continue to get amazing guests onto the show. If you're a retail HR professional you don't want to miss the RCC Retail Human Resources Forum March 25th. Learn more and register at www.rcchrconference.ca or retailcouncil.org. I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, President of M.E. Leblonc Company Inc. And if you're looking for more content or want to chat, follow me on LinkedIn or on my website at www.meleblanc.co. Until next time, stay safe and have a great week.