We think our store staff are giving away student discounts when they shouldn’t. How can we put a stop to this?
It’s common for retailers to offer 10% discounts to customers who show they have a student card when they make a purchase. But it can be easy for shop staff to apply this discount to their friends, or not bother to check that the student card is valid or belongs to the person using it.
Malcolm Mailer , director at EPoS system supplier PXtech, says that a modern till system will allow a retailer to set up reporting on different types of discounts, including how many discounts particular stores and staff members hand out.
Thresholds can be set, and automatic alerts can even be generated when these expected levels are crossed. This will help area and store managers identify potential problems. Obviously the positioning of the store needs to be taken into account when benchmarking discount levels, as those near education campuses will be targeting students.
Mailer says once staff become engaged in defrauding their employer “it is rarely an isolated incident”.
Retailers usually find that once they begin monitoring, discount levels will fall without action needing to be taken. He says: “The very fact that you let staff know you are monitoring it normally improves the situation.”
He adds that this proactive monitoring is preferable to requiring staff to take down information from every customer who is given the discount, such as their name or student card number. It also continues to give staff the freedom to make a judgement call if they are unsure whether to give a discount of not.
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