5 Qualities of a Good Retail Store Manager

Are you the owner of a retail store business looking to employ a manager for one of your outlets? Or perhaps you’re an employee looking to get himself promoted to the role. Whichever the case, you should know that a retail store manager is key to a store’s ongoing success and profitability.

Not only are they responsible for most of what happens in the store branch, but they’re also the person who does the important things that keeps the business going. This includes anything from solving crises and appeasing irate customers to keeping the staff motivated during peak business periods. As such, it’s imperative that the employee picked for this particular role is capable of being a good retail store manager.

With that said, what actually makes a good retail store manager? What kind of qualities should they have? To help you discover this, here’s our own list of the five qualities that every reliable and dependable retail store manager should have.

A good retail store manager works smart.

Being a hard worker is always a mark of a good employee. However, because a retail store manager has a lot more on their plate than just doing the inventory or stocking shelves, they have to make sure that their time and energy is spent efficiently. This allows the manager to make sure that any problems are dealt with during their shift to the best of their ability”whether it’s an emergency situation or an important business decision that needs to taken care of.

For example, instead of taking it upon themselves to help out when it seems like the store’s accountant is having trouble with the finances and bookkeeping, a good retail store manager should instead choose a reliable retail accounting system”a digital one that helps automate most of the processes involved, thus making the entire thing more efficient and error-free.

The first step to doing that, of course, is by getting in touch with someone knowledgeable with such solutions. By hooking up with a good SAP partner, a retail store manager or business owner can learn more about digital solutions that can streamline the many tedious parts of running a retail business, not just accounting but also inventory tracking and more.

A good retail store manager is a people person.

Another trait of a reliable retail store manager is to be someone who is very approachable and treats everyone with a large degree of empathy and respect. They don’t necessarily have to be too friendly, as that could make them feel insincere. They must have a way about them that lets customers as well as employees know that they’re someone who can be approached, trusted, and relied upon. They must not exude an air of superiority or menace since that can put off customers as well as lower employee morale. After all, no one wants to work with a glory hog or a nightmare boss.

A good retail store manager knows how to prioritize.

A retail store branch can have many concerns and urgent situations at any given time, no matter the day in the week. This can easily cause panic in lesser employees and make them lose focus on their work. A good retail store manager should absolutely know how to prioritize”to have the wisdom to see what truly needs to be focused on first before everything else. This also has the added side effect of them knowing just how hard to work the staff, when to push them to their limits, and when to back off and let them rest.

A good retail store manager must be resilient.

When it comes to the daily rigors of running a retail store, there is no one who suffers the brunt of it more than the manager. Not only do they have to soak up all the stress of being responsible for an entire branch”with its products, its finances, and its employees”but they’re also the place where most customer complaints end up. It can be quite challenging to deal with all of that, day in and day out. As such, a good retail store manager needs to have the moral fiber and the fortitude to deal with everything as it comes.

A good retail store manager is proactive.

It’s not enough that an irate customer is appeased with gifts or discounts when something inconveniences them to the point of losing their temper. The fact is, they shouldn’t have had a reason to be irate in the first place. By being proactive, a reliable retail store manager can identify scenarios and elements that could irritate customers and resolve them beforehand, thus allowing the store to avoid any untoward incidents. The result is that the customer continues on their way, satisfied and unoffended.

Good retail store management is essential for retail business success

Businesses, no matter their industry or model, rely upon the quality and standard of their employees to survive and make a profit. In this, the humble retail store is no exception. As such, employers and business owners should take heed and look for the above listed qualities in order to find the best manager in their current pool of employees.

Conversely, employees should make sure that they have the qualities above before even pursuing this particular promotion path in their career, allowing them to increase their chances of making a difference in their store.