Secret #13: Challenge Employees.

The mundane daily tasks given employees in the retail industry, coupled with their typically low compensation, puts employers in a precarious situation. To avoid a complacent or transient workforce, retailers must develop rewarding, motivating, and team-building challenges within the company. Not only does this give stellar team members the chance to showcase their skills, but it also raises the spirits and energy of the entire workforce, which positively affects the retailer's bottom line.

Secret #14: Indoctrinate Employees into the Corporate Culture.

A corporate culture exists within a company either through deliberate intention or by default. To be successful, retailers define and deliberately foster the culture of their choosing. This requires creating, sustaining, and expressing the business's values in every aspect and function of its operations. By continually developing methods of increasing employee awareness of and participation in their self-defined corporate culture, retailers achieve greater productivity, innovation, stability, morale, teamwork, and customer service. These, in turn, lead to a healthier bottom line.

Secret #15: Manage by Storytelling.

Staff members relate better to a business's vision if they are given pictures of what this vision looks like. Tell stories that describe and detail what you are looking for from a team member's performance.

Secret #16: Praise Publicly, Reprimand Privately.

In short, like everyone else, retailers catch more bees with honey than vinegar. To properly indoctrinate your team members with a statement of purpose and encourage them to buy into your corporate culture, pat them on the back publicly. Respect them enough to criticize them only behind closed doors.

Secret #17: Throw Out the Newspaper.

Traditional marketing efforts are no longer effective in today's market, and e-commerce is usually a waste of time and money for retailers. Instead, independent retailers must capitalize on the direct contact and relationships they have with customers. Through surveys and incentives, owners can examine where, why, and how their customers visited the business. That information can be used to focus marketing campaigns to have the greatest impact.

Secret #18: Talk Directly to Your Customers.

Their community connections and customer relationships are a retail owner's best resources. Advanced point-of-sale systems provide immeasurable opportunities to delve further into the interests, individuality, and purchasing habits of their customers. Retailers must use this information aggressively, wisely, and respectfully.

"Fresh ideas for knock-your-socks-off customer service that result in increased customer loyalty and huge earning potential."
-Barbara Wold, retail and consumer expert, author of The Yearbook