Price Tickets

Here is a technique that is fundamental and, in actuality, many agents already use it. The problem is, most of them are doing it wrong and their company has set then up for failure without knowing it.

Ticket-tracking is something that many retailers require their Loss Prevention teams to do. Here is the concept:

• agents routinely walk the floor and find discarded price-tickets
• they log the information into a database
• the system tells them what departments are being hit and at what time

The conclusion is, the agents are supposed to use the information to increase their apprehensions. From my experience, I’ve found that it usually goes more like this:

• agents do ticket-tracking because it’s a required part of their district visits
• agents find tickets  at random times and collect them in the office
• tickets stack up for a few days
• agents eventually log them in, but have to guess at the times/places they were found
• the system generates incorrect and useless information
• agents do not make any apprehensions based on the information
• the agents are not successful using the system and end up using it less and less
• agents are no closer to improving their shoplift abilities
• they have one more useless task to complete
• the company wasted thousands of dollars equipping each store with the software

Nowadays, it is common to see technology get in the way of success. We’ve become so reliant on it that we see a problem and automatically say, “throw some technology at it and it’ll make the process better”. While this is certainly beneficial in some instances, this is not one of them. Here, technology actually slows down and destroys the process.  This system has to be more organic and here, it is much more effective to use the mental computer.

Ticket collecting was very successful for me when I used it this way.

• I collected tickets throughout my store at least three times a day
• I dug through and under areas that I knew a bad guy would hide them
• I looked for whether or not any particular ITEM came up more than once
• I looked for any AREAS that I found tickets in more than once a day
• I watched every item and area that met the above criteria
• I did this every day
• I caught shoplifters

Just like every and any strategy that an agent uses, they will not work for them if the agent in not consistent. Patience is necessary for this technique to work. The agent must be in tune with their location to the point where any deviation from the norm is noticed and responded to. If you find tickets in any area, someone felt comfortable doing their dirt there. This means that they will either come back and do it again, or, someone else will like that spot to steal in. Makes sense?