Building and Defining a Retail Culture

July 25, 2016

Culture is intangible. It’s hard to define, it’s difficult to understand, and yet it shapes behavior and structure of an organization. The word “culture” comes from the Latin word “colere” which means to tend to the earth and grow, or cultivate and nurture. Everyone belongs to multiple cultures. You have a work culture, a culture you grew up in, a culture with friends, and with volunteer organizations. But have you ever thought about defining one for your retail operation? And why do you want to do such a thing? Because culture shapes behavior and because that behavior can be changed.

Culture is your jointly-held beliefs and values, it is how you feel and think and your shared view (shared awareness) on the what-is and why-is within your organization.  That is why sometimes when a new employee doesn’t seem to fit in—they don’t share any of your values, beliefs, and thoughts—they can’t assimilate and so they need to be moved on.  But when you do find that right job, that right fit like a glove on a hand or as comfortable as an old shoe, you have no problem jumping right in and fitting in with the culture.  Your beliefs and values are aligning with the new environment you are in and with a slight learning curve you are on board.

It’s interesting, then, thinking about culture as an intangible to try to describe and put down on paper what that culture is.

I have been thinking about our team and culture.  We have a strong foundation with a dedicated group of volunteers and paid staff.  Through our volunteers we have a wealth of varied life and work experiences more often than not in the retail field.  Everyone, whether paid or volunteer, brings many wonderful attributes and many varied experiences and a wealth of knowledge.  As a team, we got together and thought about our strengths and behaviors.  What we came up with eventually looked like this:

• A commitment to success and professionalism
• A commitment to each other and a willingness to accept and train new team members
• A commitment to being organized and prepared
• A good level of product knowledge
• A high level of passion for what we do
• A sense of humor and a positive attitude
• A willingness to do whatever it takes; and
• A willingness to consider new approaches

A definition of culture should align with your mission, vision, values, goals and objectives of your institution.  Having core values well established, defined, and reinforced helps you overcome problem areas.

True excellent customer service is the result of a team that lives their core values and philosophy every day.  Accountability is one of the highest priorities.    The way we reinforce our values is through communication; training; setting expectations; performance measurement; team feedback; coaching; and behavior adjustments.

Our culture is defined by continuous training, guidance and learning from feedback.  We do this through our training classes as well as weekly information sheets.  We listen to staff.  We use this information to determine what knowledge they may need in order to provide excellent customer service.  Our culture includes the products that we offer to our guests and that they are of high-quality at all price points.  Our high quality products should match the high quality customer service that we give each customer.  Our culture is all of our beliefs in the institution and our business.  It’s the standards that we’ve set.  It’s the attitude that we outwardly face our customers with.  And our culture should show consistency in our training and guidance.  This includes encouragement as well as praise.

How do you define your culture?

Barbara Lenhardt, Director of Retail Operations, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts