The Bookseller.com

29th August 2008

Philip Stone is charts editor of The Bookseller. He was formerly a bookseller at Waterstone's.

Dressed to sell

14.02.08

When Waterstone's first announced that they were going to trial a dress code in all branches within a few regions, much like the loyalty card, student discount schemes, and Waterstones.com, I wondered what took them so long.

The "dress code" (and it is "dress code"--Waterstone's managers were banned from using the word "uniform" in regional meetings when the "Get Selling" scheme was first introduced back at the annual conference in 2006) seems to have been one of the most hotly-debated hot potatoes within the chain in recent years.  But now it is going ahead: Waterstone's is rolling out a compulsory new dress code across all regions by May.

Whether people agree with it or not, Waterstone's have spent a lot of ££££ on focus-group research into this area. And the feedback from customers (because, believe it or not, these ARE the most important people in the business) is that they find it difficult to RECOGNISE members of staff on the shopfloor.

It therefore, makes complete sense to me, that the scheme is introduced. But most importantly, it makes sense to the customers who are the ones responsible for Christmas bonuses.

In the short-term I agree that it is difficult to measure the impact of a uniform/dress code on sales, just as it is difficult to work out the effects of a "light drizzle" or "humid weather" on customer spending. And I should know. As "Charts Editor," I spend the majority of my working week trying to get to the bottom of nuances in sales patterns across the big-sellers in the book market each week.

I can't sit here and tell anyone that "smart staff" will mean J L Carrell's The Shakespeare Secret or Sophie Kinsella's Remember Me sold ten extra units because ten customers were able to find ten members of staff in ten different bookshops ten times easier than if they weren't dressed in a uniform.

But, if the feedback from the book-buying public is that they would prefer it if booksellers did wear branded shirts/t-shirts/sweaters then why shouldn't Waterstone's introduce a company-wide policy? In terms of building Waterstone's as a "brand", it's invaluable.

"Range" or "staff levels" has little room within a "dress code" debate—important though those areas are. Wearing black every working day on your upper body has little, if anything to do with how many shelves per-bay the "Classics" genre should have or whether Oliver Ponsonby's stats dictate that "literary criticism" should be placed adjacent to "poetry" and "drama".

The only branches that may have an issue with the "dress code" debate are the more unique stores like "Ludgate Circus" or "Leadenhall Market" - the majority of shoppers from the well-dressed, uniformed, City visiting in a short 3-hour period of the day. A "dress code" for such branches may have the effect that staff ended up looking a little more like their customers, rather than the other way around.

But, although some decisions from Brentford have raised a degree of skepticism in the past, the "dress code" initiative IS NOT one of them.

It's what the customers want.

It's what they'll get.
 

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