Optimize Your Workforce

An optimized retail workforce also means more revenue. Recent retail workforce studies consistently reveal a lack of workplace flexibility as the top reason frontline retail workers consider leaving their jobs.

REPfirst™, our proprietary workforce management/employee experience platform, helps us solve for this and many other workforce-draining problems and optimize staffing for our retail clients in more than 30,000 unique retail stores in the U.S.

Here’s how REPfirst can help you, too.

Optimize Staff Scheduling

REPfirst gives you greater visibility into your staffing realities and enables you to align them with your sales associates’ needs. From the REPfirst app on their phones, associates can:

  • Manage their shifts
  • Request time off
  • Calculate their hours
  • Submit timecards
  • Indicate their availability to work
  • View their schedule a few weeks in advance
  • Clock in/out
  • For those responsible for visiting multiple stores, use the map view of their schedule to plan their route

These capabilities give associates control over how and when they want to work, fulfilling their need for workplace flexibility. REPfirst allows you to meet your staff where they are, reducing staff turnover and creating a win-win, not just for you and your staff but your customers, too.

Reduce Rep Turnover

A McKinsey & Co. report identified lack of workplace flexibility as the top reason frontline retail workers cited for leading them to think about leaving their jobs. REPfirst empowers retail associates with control over their schedules and retailers with comprehensive visibility of their workforce at any given moment, optimizing both and giving associates less reason to want to leave. REPfirst helps you elevate the employee experience by empowering associates with control over their schedules, meeting their needs for flexible work schedules and additional work options. In an era where retail staffing shortages show no signs of stopping, retailers who innovate to meet employees’ needs can reduce their turnover rates by attracting and retaining quality, happy employees.  

Manage Complex Staff Scheduling Requirements

This is especially important when managing shift- and route-based brand advocacy reps, who have very different roles and needs.  

REPfirst empowers associates who want to work both kinds of jobs or take on additional shifts, rather than having to resort to securing second jobs. By giving associates control over their schedules and you visibility into how your staff’s availability aligns with your stores’ needs, the puzzle that is staff scheduling becomes easier to piece together. It also increases staff efficiency and decreases operational costs, leaving more room for profit. 

Organize, Engage, and Motivate Retail Associates

With its business social networking feature (the most popular one among associates), REPfirst offers employees an immersive, connected experience right from their phones.

The chat and bulletin features allow them to have real-time, private or group chats with each other, share what’s going on in their stores/territories, post urgent messages on issues that could impact other reps or stores, and collaborate on issues they encounter. They can also receive notifications when there’s corporate news or updates, strengthening their connection to the mother ship and to their colleagues in ways that keep them not just engaged but encouraged and motivated.  

Track Store Performance

REPfirst allows associates to create and respond to surveys that give retailers on-the-ground feedback on what they’re seeing in stores and insights they can use to improve sales performance. Associates can also complete call reports right from REPfirst, allowing you to capture sales data on things like customer preferences, the number of customers they engaged with, trainings, and merchandise information at specific locations.

Provide Associates with Essential, Ongoing Training

Whether it’s sales, product, service, brand, or retail store policy training, or training to onboard new associates successfully or to help existing staff expand their skillsets, certifications, work opportunities, or effectiveness, education opportunities abound on REPfirst.

Associates can also complete call reports right from REPfirst, allowing you to capture sales data on things like customer preferences, the number of customers they engaged with, trainings, and merchandise information at specific locations.

Ensure Customer Experience and Brand Consistency

REPfirst allows anyone with access to share real-time, push notifications regarding urgent issues or brand communications (associates can’t proceed in the app until they dismiss the notification), such as:

  • Brand-sanctioned social content for reps to share/post
  • Product or brand updates
  • Anything that would prevent us from serving the client, such as problems with store displays or brand inconsistencies

MarketSource can optimize your retail workforce so you can focus on maximizing profits.