Former CEO explains how Dreams went from nightmare to fantasy
Listen, plan, talk, and pay attention once more – that’s how Mike Logue, former CEO of Dreams, mentioned he took the retailer from an organization that had “gone bust” to one which bought for “£533m”.
Speaking on the Retail Tech Show 2022, Logue mentioned that when he joined the corporate in 2013, one of many first issues he did was to determine why it had gone into administration, what wanted altering, and how he would go about it.
While some folks warned him he was an “old-school” retailer with restricted expertise in digital, he joked that he wasn’t “going to make it any worse”.
“I could only take it in one direction.” he mentioned.
The retailer had acquired £54m from an funding fund, placing the stress on Logue for a fast upswing in income to please traders.
Realising the companies was struggling not due to a scarcity of economic availability, however due to a drop in gross sales and revenue, Logue started to develop a plan.
“What do you do when you’re the CEO of a business that’s in administration?” he mentioned. “I go and listen to the people who know what they’re talking about, I go out and listen to the colleagues and I try and find ways to talk to as many customers as possible. If you gather all the comments around and you filter it down, you really find your strategy.”
Logue mentioned there have been a number of issues that have been consultant of why the enterprise was underperforming – the primary was indicators within the automotive park for govt parking. Logue mentioned he had these eliminated immediately, as a result of he needed a “followship”, not a dictatorship.
The second issues was a chest of drawers that had remained unsold in a retailer for eight years – a two-drawer chest with one drawer lacking, diminished from £59 to £49.
With little time to show that the companies may enhance, Logue utilised expertise to guarantee he may collect as a lot knowledge as doable.
For gathering worker opinions, Dreams used Denison Consulting to survey employees, and Logue mentioned the survey “told me quite a lot just by how many people completed it – 51% – that’s not very engaged, is it, if you can’t even get feedback from your colleagues”.
Pillow Talk
Externally, Dreams labored with Service Management Group (SMG) to develop Pillow Talk, an experience-sharing service although which prospects may present suggestions, opinions and knowledge – initially, 30% of consumers accomplished the survey.
“A bit of tech, actually quite smart tech as it turned out, to gather as many customers’ feedback as possible and respond to it as quickly as I could, because the clock was ticking,” mentioned Logue.
This turned Dreams round, mentioned Logue, who referred to as the info “golden” and “game-changing”, not solely as a result of it helped to spotlight the place a number of the issues have been with the enterprise, but additionally as a result of suggestions straight from prospects is extra motivational to staff than somebody increased up within the firm telling them what to do.
Logue devised a plan – to create a greater firm tradition, promote higher merchandise, and enhance the shop and model expertise.
“We listened to the customers, we listened to the colleagues, we analysed that data,” he mentioned. “I’m a pain the ass, I don’t stop – we review, we go back, we review, we go back until we find a solution. And that’s what we did.”
Monday and Tuesday on the enterprise turned meetings-based, crammed with “pure data” from buyer and colleague suggestions – each assembly began with a buyer, and in a while, digital was at all times the second aspect of the conferences.
“I communicated, I listened to the response,” mentioned Logue. “I communicated to colleagues, I communicated to customers, I listened to the data, what was changing, and I communicated again.”
But having a plan and a technique means nothing with out communication, mentioned Logue, who identified that until everybody within the firm is stuffed in, and feeding again, on the technique, then it won’t go anyplace.
Early steps in direction of success included recruiting an govt workforce who “love fixing things” to work in direction of the aim of “improve the brands, improve the shops, improve the website”, mentioned Logue.
Draw in prospects higher
The model began to work on advertising and marketing to attract prospects higher – mentioning that it was not fairly correct to say the corporate was a “bed specialist” when the corporate was “bust”. Instead, mentioned Logue, the model started to deal with giving prospects night time’s sleep, in addition to on a brand new marketing campaign urging folks to substitute their mattresses each eight years, which led to a rise in gross sales.
Working with Google, Dreams discovered that throughout one month, of the 20 million folks seeing its adverts on TV, 2.2 million ended up trying to find a mattress and 1.4 million have been visiting the Dreams web site. Logue admitted to then shifting the main focus away from the outlets to turning into “a little bit more techy”, as a result of conversion charges on the web site have been “appalling”.
In 2013, which Logue calls a “lifetime ago digitally”, solely 7% of income for the enterprise was coming by way of digital.
Putting communication on the coronary heart of its new digital technique, he mentioned, colleagues throughout your entire enterprise have been concerned in creating a brand new platform that will cater to prospects, in addition to conducing A/B testing.
“I wanted everything tested – every button, every colour, every size of button – to push that conversion, push those page views, get the time on the page up,” mentioned Logue.
The agency’s inner tradition was one other necessary a part of the equation for Logue. When folks really feel they’re a part of an inclusive tradition the place they really feel they are often themselves, there is a rise in productiveness, creativity and retention, he mentioned, including that as colleague engagement grew, so did gross sales.
“Great engagement, great involvement – guess what, it does equal sales and profitability,” he mentioned.
When wanting into Dream’s gross sales, SMG highlighted a number of the issues that make an enormous distinction to basket measurement – greeting folks in the precise approach, providing them a drink on the proper time, and providing them a pillow, all of which turned a part of how prospects have been handled in shops.
“Quickly on results – what happened at Dreams?” mentioned Logue. “Sales went up 83%, profit moved up £69m, it came from 43% in the stores and digital was seven times, we had 100 million digital sales. Who would have thought that many people would buy a bed digitally?”
He added: “We listened, we understood, we acted, we had great data, we had a plan, we communicated.”
