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The next time you shop at a Chico's clothing store, don't be surprised to see the CEO working the register.
It's all part of Shelley Broader's plan to turn the struggling women's retailer around. Broader became the CEO of Fort Myers-based Chico's FAS Dec. 1.
In her first quarterly earnings conference call with Wall Street analysts, Broader says she gained valuable insight by working the front lines of customer service when she was an executive at Wal-Mart, Michael's and Sweetbay Supermarkets.
“That is the best deep dive of any brand I think that you can do,” she told analysts, according to a transcript of the call posted on SeekingAlpha.com.
“I just show up on a Sunday or a Monday at an unannounced store and I work in that single store for six days straight as an associate, running the register,” she explains.
Broader says that's the best way for corporate executives to get a feel for the business, for both employees and customers. “You not only become completely aware of the associate experience and what torturous things from the corporate office we are sending that we need to stop immediately, but also you get just a true, true sense of what's happening with our customer.”
That kind of firsthand experience will help Broader assess how to improve results in the year ahead. In the most recent quarter, sales at Chico's fell 4.5% compared with the same quarter one year ago and it reported a net loss of $21.1 million on sales of $627.4 million.
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