Cricket Merchandising Opportunities

Hey Team! Here are some ways you can easily merchandise Cricket in your stores!

-GameStop Bob

Cricket!

What does Cricket do for your store? If you can not answer that question, then you need to seriously reconsider your store's focus and selling points. Cricket is very simple to talk about. Unlimited talk, text, and data for as low as $35 a month. This is including tax already, so it's $35 even. This is of course with the $40 plan and set-up on auto-pay. Now, there are also several other things that can save guests monies. The first one is Group Save. Every line they add on to their account, either via BYOD or a new Cricket device, port-in or not, Cricket drops the plan by $10 each time. You can add up to 5 lines on 1 account. So for $40 plans, 5 lines would be $100 a month. $150 for the $50, $200 for the $60 plan, and $250 for the $70 plan. The other thing is that each line does not have to the same plan. Guests can mix and match as they please for what their needs are. If you know these items and are able to discuss them confidently in your store, then you can expect to see more Cricket sales in the new future. I will post more on Cricket in the future.

Dark Souls III

Hey Team! Dark Souls III came out one week ago today and we have seen fairly good sales from it. My GameStop has been trying to keep everyone excited about this release. Make sure to send out another set of PRN calls to make sure guests know that their game is ready to be picked up and that if they don't come soon, you may not be able to hold that Day 1 edition and they will have to resort to the standard edition. Now, the Dark Souls audience is a pretty hardcore one. This means that they are already bought into the series and many guests do not have to be convinced into buying the game. This is where it is your job to make sure they have everything they need to go along with their game purchase. This includes GPG's, Season Pass, guides, and collectibles. The GPG gives the guest ease of mind and great value because even if they rage and snap their disc in half, they are fully covered under a GPG. The season pass is a great value with Dark Souls III because it is only $25 and it has two massive expansions coming to the game. The one note with this is that the game makers have already said the price will go up closer to the expansions release window, SO, your guests will save money by getting in early on it soon. Last is the strategy guide. Even the most hardcore Dark Souls player will eventually get stuck. Now, they may prefer to find it out on their own, but, how I have worded the guide to those guests is that you can play through the game once on their own and then go back through with the guide to see what they missed. This creates replay value for their game and gets you another sale. Plus the guides are 20% off when they are purchased with the game! What a great deal! So get out there and keep selling Dark Souls to your guests and we'll see where the two week results are at in a week! -GameStop Bob

VIDEO: Helpful Cricket Tips with GameStop Bob

Hey Team! GameStop Bob here in video form! 

Check out the helpful Cricket tips below and comment your thoughts and experiences.

Reservations!

Hey Team! It's that time again to start refocusing your team and getting those reservation numbers up, up, up! Now, we are still straying away from the old style of business. The previous process to gain reservations was very numbers heavy and solely focused on those numbers. Now, we still care about those numbers, but our approach is very guest forward. Make sure we are suggesting titles that make sense and are compatible with the guests' previously selected choices. The FIVE to DRIVE are Battleborn, Overwatch, Uncharted 4, DOOM, and Mirror's Edge and OVERDRIVE with Song of the Deep. Push these titles to begin the circle of life you are all familiar with. Reservations, Sales, Pre-Owned Product, Further Reserves/Sales/etc. Get out there and gain some reserves!

SSA Tablet Usage

Hey Team! Here's a quick note for the month of April about the tablet and how to effectively use it in your store! Make sure you look up every guest and take a peek at their active offers. Almost every PowerUp Rewards Pro member should have a 20% off coupon in their active offers. This can be coupled with the $10 trade in boost on every two XB1 or PS4 games. This gives the guest the best purchasing power possible and drive several incremental sales into your store. So let's see everyone out on the sales floor talking up these great promotions! -GameStop Bob

Effective Leadership

Hey Team! Let's talk a little bit about what it takes to be an effective leader in your store. As a store leader, assistant store leader, senior guest adviser, and guest adviser you must understand what it means to have empowered leadership skills. Someone will not always be able to watch your every move and correct the possible mistakes that can happen in the workplace. So, it is up to you as an empowered leader to make sure you are doing tasks and providing excellent guest service with the solution selling techniques you have learned in the best interest of the guest, your store, and the company. That is the entire mantra behind my guest, my team, my GameStop. If you are able to portray this style of leadership to your team, then every other associate will follow suit and embody that style. -GameStop Bob

Survey Verbiage

Hey Team! With the new survey's rolling out to guests today on every transaction, we have noticed a severe dip in service matters score. With that being said, it is still highly important to make sure you and your team are providing the best guest service by making service matter with the solution selling tools you are provided. One minor change that can positively impact you service matters scores can be how to let your guests know about the survey on the bottom of your receipt. My team noticed an immediate impact of our Service Matters score from one day to the next with as change in verbiage discussing the survey. A conversation would go as follows; "Thanks, for coming in today. We have our survey at the bottom of your receipt. It let's us know how we personally assisted you today by answering 3 quick questions. PLUS it gets you a chance at that $100 GameStop Gift Card." Now, this can be tweaked to best suit you taste. But the important and key part is the words "personally assist." This is because of the change in wording on the survey question which asks "Did an associate personally assist you today?" If the guests answer no to that question, then you automatically miss 5 out of the possible 7 points. So this is the MOST important question. Get out on the floor and let's see this put into practice! -GameStop Bob

NCO: Neat, Clean, Organized

What does NCO mean to you and your team? To my team it means what it stands for. Furthermore, it means the standards those 3 words are to be upheld to. If your standards are not high for NCO, then your store may never actually be NCO. Let's break it down into the 3 parts. Neat: in a pleasingly orderly and clean condition. This definition goes into the other two parts quite nicely. To be NEAT means to be CLEAN and ORDERLY (organized). Clean: characterized by a fresh, wholesome quality. I prefer this definition of clean because it steps away from the standard definition and redefines it according to your store. You want your guests to view your products as if they a freshly opened up and and in tact and wholesome. This means refreshing cover art in sections as well as pre-owned bagged merchandise. It means re-doing ID labels that are piled high or faded. It means keeping up with cover art in coming soon, Best Sellers, and DLC sections. All of these items are what it means to have a clean store. Organized: to arrange in or according to a system. This is the exact definition for what every GameStop store should use as their definition or organized. Not only should product be organized on the wall for guests to see, but also in your back room and especially your drawers. Having fully organized product not only makes things easier on your guest, but on your associates as well when it comes to CAT counts, TOH's and finding products for guests. -GameStop Bob

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