Shoplifting seems to be theme of the week.  Two articles in my local newspaper on the same day caught my eye.  The first was two guys that stuffed merchandise into backpacks while 60 police officers were in the store helping 155 children pick out clothes and school supplies for the annual “Shop With a Cop” event.   Evidently their theory was the officers would be too distracted to notice.  What they also counted on was the store security personnel also being distracted.  They weren’t.  Both went to jail charged with theft.

In our training classes, we often discuss customer service.  It is ALWAYS about listening to the customer and then delivering more than they expect.  Another topic we discuss with our clients is how relevant their rules, policies, and procedures are in the way they do business.  Do they make sense?   Very often, routines are entrenched that have become obsolete or no longer applicable in the marketplace.

A friend of mine who knows that I consult with retailers and restaurants on loss prevention sent me this e-mail below on an experience he had at his favorite fast food (QSR) restaurant.  Well, I guess I should say what used to be his favorite lunch spot.  Unfortunately, the situation he describes is not uncommon, and generally falls into the “unintended consequences” category.  The manager made some decisions, probably for good reasons, but with disastrous effects.   My friend does a pretty good job describing the various effects of those decisions on losses and profitability.  There was no presence of the usual suspects on profit drains – theft, manipulation, fraud or other crime.  It simply is poor management, but profit draining just the same.  Upset customers will give feedback on poor operations – they won’t come back.

I attended the 31^st annual conference of the National Food Service Security Council in St Louis, MO this past week with over 200 fellow professionals that support the restaurant industry with security, safety, risk management or products and services.  It was great to see old friends and make new acquaintances.

How would you like a 5% increase in your retail or restaurant business? According to an article in The Street, fraud is responsible for an estimated 5% drain on profitability. Stop fraud and theft directed at you from several sources and realize an increase in profitability. Loss Prevention Professionals and Fraud Examiners will certainly verify the negative effects of theft and embezzlement in business at a median loss of $160,000. When applied to the 2009 gross world product, the losses to fraud are estimated at more than $2.9 trillion! That’s trillion! Even I had a double take at that number.