Mentoring Great Young Talent

29th Apr 2016 • CLAIRE HARPER

I have always been very passionate about developing brilliant teams and nurturing great talent. I have known Jess, 25 for over 8 years now. Jess used to look after my own daughters, Coco and India in her former role as a Senior Nursery Nurse at a local nursery.  After working for me at IndiaCoco for a year, it gave Jess the inspiration and confidence to finally make her own business idea happen and be in charge of her own destiny. Jess has recently launched a new exciting craft venue ‘Crafty Kids’ in Springfield Mills, Denby Dale, Huddersfield.

Crafty Kids is an innovative new craft venue for children aged 0-8 years. A world of craft materials and resources for your little ones to get crafty with. Children can take home whatever they make. It is a fun and dynamic new environment for families and friends to meet and spend quality time with children.

Designed to take the hard work out of messy play at home, customers and children will experience an interactive and bright play environment where children can learn and make crafty delights. Along with craft activities there are some free play areas such as sand and water play. Children can access these areas independently while parents or grandparents take a seat and enjoy a hot drink.

Jess put together a robust business plan and has worked very hard to bring it to life and I have been very proud to support her in a mentoring role along the way.

Jess is a busy working mum and she struggled to find an environment offering a great alternative to soft play and allowing children to make fun crafty projects taking the hard work out of messy play at home. With her extensive nursery nurse experience and child care qualifications she is very passionate about allowing children to try new things and learning in an environment such as Crafty Kids where anything is possible! Jess will also be offering Crafty Kids parties making it easy for parents and for kids to enjoy. Together with fantastic customer service, and product knowledge, I am very confident Crafty Kids will become a destination for customers to come back to time and time again.

Jess certainly does exemplify the best attributes of young people today and has proved resilience, determination and the ambition to launch her own, successful business. Jess has worked very hard to gain her professional childcare qualifications whilst juggling the demands of becoming a young mum at the age of 20. Jess has demonstrated maturity, confidence and she should be very proud of her professional achievements and I know she is very proud of her beautiful daughter, Poppy.

At different times in my career, I've been lucky enough to have some hugely inspirational mentors who helped me with my self-belief and resilience, and shared their extensive knowledge and experience in areas like effective communication and leadership. Not everyone is lucky enough to have that person in the workplace, which is why I offer my advice and experience to others.

I feel very proud to be part of this journey. Jess has made significant progress in her achievements over the past year and launching Crafty Kids has shown huge potential for Jess to believe in herself and become a strong leader in her profession.

Find Crafty Kids at www.craftykidshuddersfield.co.uk

For more information, please contact: Jessica Wood
Email: craftykidshuddersfield@outlook.com

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Customer service as a competitive advantage. A fresh perspective for the bricks and mortar customer experience.

18th Apr 2016 • CLAIRE HARPER

As I start to prepare my speech for the 2016 conference BIRA (British Independent Retailers Association) I wanted to share my thoughts on 'Customer service as a competitive advantage. A fresh perspective for the bricks and mortar customer experience’

Drawing on my extensive multi-channel retail experience I will be sharing my own story on why customer service should be at the very heart of any organisation.

Engaging content and experience

Traditional methods of customer service are no longer equipped to deal with the expectations of today’s customer and so many brands neglect the ‘heartbeat’ of their brand values. One of the biggest weaknesses is reliance on old customer service techniques, including traditional call centres often outsourced and detached from the central organisation.

Today’s consumers are demanding and savvy, not only do they demand an instant response; they expect that interaction must exceptional if their loyalty is to be retained or developed. But what does this mean for businesses and how can these changing expectations be harnessed for marketing advantage?

To take their customer service to the next level, companies need to invest in a broader total community approach, that goes beyond the customer service department to tap into expertise from not only employees in other business units but also customers and stakeholders. This new central cultural approach of growing and developing an online community, offers new opportunities for businesses to improve their customer service and better market to existing and potential customers.

Poor customer service can have a significant and long-term impact on brand health and sales. It has been proven time and time again via research that more than 50 per cent of consumers are unlikely to spend with a brand again following a negative experience (and then go on and share their negative experience with friends and family via social media) – even more reason to adopt a more holistic approach to customer service.

On top of this, customers moving online have high-expectations that their queries will be responded to promptly, with the majority expecting a brand to respond to an email or tweet in less than an hour. In order for brands to capitalise on these customer interactions, not only do they need to respond quickly but the responses also need to be to engaging, relevant, proactive and reflect the brand’s tone of voice.

The emphasis on customer engagement has got to be delivered through a constant stream of fresh, stimulating content that has been backed up with passionate and talented resource.

Best-in-class service

Brands must be focused on delivering best-in-class service via delivery, returns and exceptional customer care

Supporting customers through every stage of their journey is essential for delivering a best-in-class service. This is achieved through continually developing and improving self-service initiatives such as updated help sections and making more help and information available on both desktop and mobile sites.

It’s not just about saving money; brands have also found that customers who spend more time in online communities tend to spend more than regular customers. You only need to look at socially engaging brands such as ASOS, Ocado and Apple to see how the customer experience is reflected through every touch point of their brand. These customers view the online community as an important place to find reviews and recommendations by fellow customers before they purchase, and the support they find from peers makes purchasing more likely.

Many marketers may find the idea of linking social media and sales daunting. However, the move from a traditional call centre approach to a more holistic online community model has again been proven to reduce response times to customer service queries, is cheaper, and can increase brand loyalty and spend. Utilising a platform that can help your business build trusted relationships between customers and the brand, is key to retaining competitive advantage.

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Be Courageous

23rd Mar 2016 • CLAIRE HARPER

One of our brand values is to 'Be Courageous'. New ideas are opportunities to be better, so we should embrace them. Be open to change, listen to our customers and each other and take action.

This value certainly represents how we got started and is now just as important as we are currently making some changes to our business, IndiaCoco. I set up IndiaCoco from the dining room 3 years ago and I am very proud of the brand growth and working with such a brilliant and talented team. We have won many awards and really grown the retail side of our business. Our move to Trinity Walk Shopping Centre in Wakefield last year was a very positive move for the brand. However, on a personal level we are planning to relocate as a family from Yorkshire closer to London this summer. After a long process with strong competition, our daughters have been offered places at a fantastic school with an outstanding reputation and will join from September 2016 so the family relocation is now all systems go. My husband has been working away in London for several years now and we need to be back together as a family. I am also currently thinking about the future and location of the business as practically it will be hard manage the retail side of the business when we move. I am also doing more corporate speaking events with Speaking Office in London and consultancy work and really enjoying getting involved in some new retail projects.

We will be sadly exiting our Trinity Walk, Wakefield store at the end of March. We will continue to make changes and review our retail strategy  once we have relocated.

I’m sure you can appreciate running any business you have to be courageous and make difficult decisions along the way. You have to be brave and have the confidence to explore new territory. We have certainly used Yorkshire as a great pilot for our business and excited to be moving South in the next few months. 

We would like to thank all of our lovely customers for your support and will keep you updated on the next chapter.

We would like to wish you all a very Happy Easter.

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Blackstone Women's Networking Event at Burberry

16th Mar 2016 • CLAIRE HARPER

Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment firms who seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for investors, companies, and the communities in which they work. They are a firm of more than 2,000 employees in 17 offices worldwide. Their portfolio companies employ more than 520,000 people across the globe.

I was delighted to be invited by Blackstone to be a guest speaker at their women's network hosted at Burberry on the 15th March 2016. The theme of the event was to celebrate brand heritage. I was asked to share my own story working across many different brands and to engage and inspire the audience. My own journey and experiences reinforced the key guardian principles shared by Blackstone of accountability, teamwork, excellence, integrity and being entrepreneurial. 

Speaking at a venue such as Burberry was incredibly inspirational. Burberry is a distinctive global luxury brand. The Company designs, makes, sources and sells products under the Burberry brand. The business is led by the brand, with decisions taken in its best long-term interests. Burberry is committed to the creation of authentic and distinctive products and continuous innovation in design and UK manufacturing. Burberry aims to be sector-leading in understanding, engaging and serving its customers, both online and offline. More productive and efficient ways of working are a priority across the organisation, together with ensuring a culture of responsibility.

Following my speech we all got an opportunity to really get up, close and personal with the products. Burberry kindly hosted a styling session with the iconic trench coat and we all got an opportunity to preview the new season ranges especially the brand new 100 lace trench coats in partnership with Vogue to celebrate a century of style.

A fantastic evening of fashion, inspiration and such a great opportunity to work with two leading brands who really champion the importance of brand heritage. 

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International Women's Day 2016 - The Wakefield Girls' High School Leading Ladies Panel Event

8th Mar 2016 • CLAIRE HARPER

The theme for International Women's Day 2016 #IWD2016 is all about pledging for parity.

Worldwide, women continue to contribute to social, economic, cultural and political achievement.

And we have much to celebrate today. But progress towards gender parity has slowed in many places.

The World Economic Forum predicted in 2014 that it would take until 2095 to achieve global gender parity. Then one year later in 2015, they estimated that a slowdown in the already glacial pace of progress meant the gender gap wouldn't close entirely until 2133.

Everyone - men and women - can pledge to take a concrete step to help achieve gender parity more quickly - whether to help women and girls achieve their ambitions, call for gender-balanced leadership, respect and value difference, develop more inclusive and flexible cultures or root out workplace bias. Each of us can be a leader within our own spheres of influence and commit to take pragmatic action to accelerate gender parity.

Today I was personally invited to join an inspirational panel of very successful Yorkshire women at Wakefield Girls' High School. The girls from year 7 to 11 had been personally selected by the Head to attend this positive event celebrating International Women's Day. 

We all spoke passionately with the girls to encourage, support and offer our experience and advice. The girls were super bright and confident and asked brilliant questions and the women on the panel were engaging and extremely motivational. These girls are the future generation of talent and no barriers should be in their way to achieve their career goals. 

In summary, a very positive day with great energy and enthusiasm. I'm confident with mentoring, encouragement and support these girls can achieve gender-balanced leadership, respect and accelerate gender parity.

Many thanks to Claire Young and Head of Wakefield Girls' High School, Nina Gunson for organising this event and to all of the inspirational women on the panel, Caroline Atkinson, Linsey Birkett, Gail Glover, Stephanie Hirst, Helen Knowles, Gill Laidler, Helen Massey, Joanne Roney, Charlotte Sweeney and Katie Town.

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Delivery Innovations Disrupting The Retail Industry

11th Feb 2016 • CLAIRE HARPER

I was delighted to be invited to join a highly experienced and lively panel last night debating how delivery innovations are disrupting the retail industry.

On the dot, part of CitySprint, welcomed guests to attend a great networking event on trending innovations in the retail industry, with particular focus on dealing with last mile delivery challenges.

Joining a great team of panelists we discussed recent delivery innovations and how these are shaking up the retail industry. With a key focus on shopper profiling, retail, technology, culture and the importance of the brand and what this means for retailers, this certainly generated some great debate and Q&A's amongst the panel and the audience. 

Skills Matter's new home, CodeNode proved to be the perfect venue and is the UK's largest venue dedicated to technology events. With more than 23,000 sq ft of Central London space, Code Node is a buzzing hive of activity offering the perfect space for inspiration and thought provoking events.

Proudly sponsored by Harman, it was a pleasure to meet Andrew Till, Vice President at Harman. Many thanks to the other members of the panel, Santosh Sahu, Shaun Bridgeman and Keir Bosley.  

I'm sure this will be the first of many great events which can really help both the industry and consumers drive improvements in the retail environment.

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Creating a Stronger Future Together

16th Jan 2016 • CLAIRE HARPER

Delighted to announce that I will be a guest speaker at The British Independent Retail Association (bira) High Street Conference 2016. This conference will connect you to other like-minded, forward-thinking, independent-focused individuals. It will inspire you to introduce new ideas to your business plan and understand what it takes to implement them. It will help you progress your business for the future of independent retail. 

Key reasons to attend:

Hear from 'game-changing' speakers helping to set the path for the retail industry

See how digital technology can progress the bricks and mortar experience

Discuss business ideas with inspiring cutting-edge retailers providing advice based on true experience

Work together to define what it means to thrive in the retail industry

Look forward to seeing you there!

Book now for the bira High Street Conference, Wednesday 11th May 2016. Bira will be hosting their annual High Street Conference at the Chateau Impney in Droitwich Spa, Worcester.

http://www.bira.co.uk

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Northern Power Women and 2016 Awards

14th Jan 2016 • CLAIRE HARPER

Northern Power Women is a campaign to improve gender diversity from the North of England. It will increase opportunities for women to drive economic growth and drive positive change, working alongside businesses, universities and government. By enabling development of a strong regional pipeline of real talent, driving gender pay equality and providing women with the knowledge and skills they need to drive their careers forward against the backdrop of the Northern Powerhouse agenda. 

I feel very passionate about this area and I was delighted to be nominated recently for 'Small Business' award. The winners of the 2016 Northern Power Women Awards will be announced at a gala awards dinner on the 3 March, 2016 where it will be fantastic to see a celebration of positive role models across the whole of the north. To support my nomination I had to submit additional information in terms of gender balance in the workplace and the recruitment, development and retention of female employees.

It really made me think  -  I took the plunge to leave my former role as Marketing Director of Mamas & Papas to set up my own children’s clothing brand, IndiaCoco when I couldn’t find the type of clothes I wanted for my daughters Coco and India so I ventured into retail, initially via online from the dining room and then via pop-ups, eventually establishing my own stores in community-based locations. I also required more flexibility as a professional, working mother with a young family. The key in delivering our customer proposition is down to the strength and talent of my brilliant female team past and present. My team are all professional, working women with children who want to work in an exciting and positive environment. My team all require flexibility and family must come first so we work together as a close team and ensure this is a business that supports female talent and gender balance in the workplace.

My background is in marketing and creating talented teams is an area I am extremely passionate about. That’s only one element of running a business but it’s a very important element. Women make brilliant entrepreneurs. I think from my own experience, being a working mum, the business is inspired by my two daughters  – I’m used to juggling lots of things. I’m used to being very busy. I have to be very focused and disciplined with my time.

You have to share your brand vision and values with the team members. You’ve then got to empower and encourage them to do a fantastic job – and they will if they’re motivated, if they’re feeling empowered, if they feel recognised and valued. You’ve got to let people get on with what they’re great at. You’ve got to let go, you’ve got to delegate.

A lot of new ideas that have been brought into the business haven’t been from me, they’ve been from team members. You are only as good as your team so I have to trust them so that I can focus more strategically on growing the business and taking it to the next level.

To be nominated for such a prestigious award is a huge achievement but the biggest achievement to date is working with great female talent and offering each other flexibility and support in a positive environment.

This award nomination is dedicated to our customers and my team for making it happen!

www.northernpowerwomen.co.uk

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What's New For Retail in 2016

7th Jan 2016 • CLAIRE HARPER

Retail has always been a volatile industry with an ongoing fight for customer sales and increased market share. This is an industry used to dealing with constant change. However, the change we are seeing today is far more profound than anything the past has thrown up. We have only just started a new year and already we have heard about two big announcements from M&S and Sainsburys. This morning's news that the CEO Marc Bolland is stepping down and will be replaced by an M&S veteran, Steve Rowe. Steve has no CEO experience but has vast experience of the business and is a good old fashioned retailer. I'm sure he will not be under any illusion with the difficult retail challenges the company face and I'm sure he will do a great job getting back to basics.

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Why do too many retail brands discount early?

21st Dec 2015 • CLAIRE HARPER

So we’re barely days away from Christmas Day, and already the winter sales have kicked in on the High Street, with at least 50% off banners everywhere. Discounting has become the Class A drug of the retail world, with more and more retailers launching new season collections earlier than ever, then heavily discounting within a matter of weeks. Not only does this short term sales strategy lead to low margins and financial instability, but also long term brand damage – what used to be highly respected fashion and lifestyle brands have now become little more than discount outlets.

But what about the customer? Unfortunately it’s a slippery slope, and once brands start to chase the short term wins rather than investing in the long term future of their brand, there’s rarely any turning back.

Retailers across every sector of the industry have spent the last year teaching customers to only buy on sale. UK retail now has too many companies, with too many stores and too many websites, chasing too few customers. A excess of supply over demand is forcing the majority of the industry to resort to price cutting in order to put money in the tills. 

This year IndiaCoco launched our flagship store at Trinity Walk Shopping Centre, Wakefield and our neighbours are national retailers. As a growing independent retailer we are holding our nerve, protecting our customers, quality products and strong retail values. 

Our future retail strategy is focused on rolling out to key locations and delivering on our brand values. All we can do is build our market share by focussing on what we can control – innovative retailing, clever technology, outstanding service and a great product range. We feel the retailers that will fare best in these challenging times are those who commit to full price with collections that are confident, on-trend, merchandised with care and appropriately priced.

We look forward to launching our Winter Sale on Boxing Day. We believe that is how it should be, so that’s what we’re going to do.

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