Throughout the month of May, we will be uncovering each of the Five E’s and identifying action items you can take to improve and sustain your price image.   

The next “E” to improving your price image: ENGAGE.  

Engage the work:

As you work through the Five E’s, remember that you should be building upon the previous “E”. Use this opportunity to continue empowering your employees to offer ways to simplify their work, take costs out of the process and learn more about their expectations of the role.

Start by scheduling time to work hands-on with your pricing coordinator to understand their work and what goes into their daily tasks. This is a chance to build camaraderie and trust with your team.

Schedule time to work with your pricing coordinator to understand the work and processes that go into their daily tasks. This is also a time to build camaraderie with your team and continue to Empower them.

While you are working with your team, make sure you are taking notes about the process, so you can review afterwards on areas for improvement. Don’t be afraid to be hands-on during this time and ask questions of your team to learn more.

The purpose of this “E”is to fully immerse yourself in the work of your employees and develop your own perceptions based off the hands-on work you are doing.

During my time with a large retailer, we implemented a program called “Walk A Day In Their Shoes” where store management or executives selected a department to work in for the day. This opportunity gave management the chance to discover areas for improvement or make recommendations off what they saw. We conducted this program once a quarter and it was a great way to improve efficiencies throughout all store operations.

It also provided employees the chance to learn more about their role and give direct feedback to their supervisors on ways to change or improve aspects of their role. This removed a lot of uncertainty from both the management and the employee side.

After you’ve engaged with the work, take time to reflect on what you’ve learned and ways you can improve operations to increase the experience for your employees, your customers and your overall store image.

Stay tuned as we unveil the next “E” to improving your price image on May 23^rd.    

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At Storewise, we pride ourselves not only on our platform, but also on the deep wealth of industry knowledge and experience we offer to our partners. Storewise customers gain access to seasoned technologists, former grocery operators, CPG professionals, and support specialists ready to work together and strengthen their businesses.       

One such expert in our network is former Corporate Pricing Manager for HEB, John Ulmer.   

John offers 40+ years of retail industry experience and leadership roles with independent grocers. Through his numerous leadership roles in operations, John has led teams of over 400 employees and created tools that continue to be used daily. John’s experience leading the pricing and price optimization teams delivered improved price index, price image, and gross margin improvements across his organization.