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| Blogger: Shannon Tilley |
While sitting down to write the first entry for this new blog, there was an overhead announcement that if we looked out the window, we could see snowflakes coming down. Now if that doesn’t get me in the mood to write about the holiday season, I don’t know what will. Those of us in the Aspect Loss Prevention Support team have decided to venture into the world of blogging as a method of sharing experiences and suggestions based on requests from you, our users.
It has been really busy around here getting all of our customers set for this upcoming holiday season, as I am sure is also the case in your business. So, our first topic will be the five things you need to do to get the most out of your Aspect EliteLP system at the holidays!
Tip 1: Most retailers need to hire seasonal associates (good thing for the economy!). However, these seasonal and temporary associates can hurt more than they help. This particular group of employees is a higher risk than the associates who know they will still have a job after the holidays. To use a reference from my favorite pastime, this group is like a fast moving puck - they are in and out quickly! Therefore, you want to monitor them immediately. Training and awareness can be the defense to help prevent the theft and the Aspect tool can be the goalie that stops the theft on the goal line.
I’ll talk more about schemes hatched by temp employees in future blogs, but get started by creating an Associate Group to monitor this group of employees separately from other associates. Often your HRIS system will assist you in creating this group based on hire date or status (Seasonal/Temporary). If you have questions on this, have your system administrator call into the Aspect office and we can assist in the creation of these groups. This group is now available to run specific queries on.
Tip 2: We are seeing more and more companies opening “pop up” or temporary stores during the holidays. There are different risks for these sites and different metrics should be used. Make this analysis easier by building them into a store group. For some additional LP tips for these stores, check out this article: http://blog.lpinnovations.com/Loss-Prevention-Leadership/bid/43754/The-Pop-Up-Store-Success-Formula-for-Loss-Prevention
Tip 3: Holidays mean store hours change drastically – updating the Store Open/Close file will keep your “before open” and “After Close” indicators working properly. This is an Administration function, so check in with your corporate team. As we all know many stores are going to be opening at Midnight on Black Friday this year so this will be important to make sure your indicators are accurate. (Thank goodness "Twilight" opens the Friday before; otherwise there may have been a bunch of call ins from a good portion of your female associates!)
Tip 4: Flag the important or high risk SKUs! With the exponential increase in sales, the item table can become huge. If there are items that you are looking at on a regular basis, consider adding them to the Special SKU table. Your generic or “junk” SKUs should always be there but you may want to add the season’s hot items special promotional items or things you just know that people are going to steal.
Tip 5: There is going to be so much for you to do during the holiday season – make sure you aren’t overwhelmed with AutoMIND alerts that are triggered simply due to the higher volume. Make a plan to adjust thresholds as the business picks up. (this is one of those times where the “new associate” and “temp store” groups will come in handy!)
My next entry will include some good reminders for Black Friday and the official kick off to the holiday season. Please feel free to comment and offer some suggestions as to the direction you would like to see the blog of Another ASpect of My Day go. Hopefully we can get some lively discussions going and work together during our busiest time of the year.
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| Don't we wish they were all this easy to spot? |
Additionally: I will be posting some more specific tips regarding the set up of associate groups on our LinkedIn Aspect Loss Prevention UserFORUM so if you aren’t already a member, please join because it is yet another great place to share thoughts, suggestions, ideas and questions.
As always, please feel free to call Aspect Loss Prevention direct @ 1.888.777.0587 if you have any questions or need assistance.
Just another Aspect of my day,
Shannon
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