This sense of separateness begins at the early stages of an L P executive’s career by virtue of the fact that all of us entered this industry because of our love of “the thrill of the chase”. This thrill which begins with the customer (i.e. shoplifter) and immediately transcends to our fellow employees (i.e. dishonest employee) sets us apart from the rest of the employee population and gives birth to the “us vs. them” attitudes that so many of us complain about later in our careers.

Initially this ideological and psychological separateness fuels our endorphins and accelerates our pursuit of the thief or policy violator. With this being our core responsibility that acceleration translates into success which feeds the “us vs. them” attitudes even more so. Ultimately giving rise to a host of issues at the single store level. From not being included in staff meetings, to groups of whispering employees, to a lack of support from store management, to not being included in store functions-programs and even bonus’s for that matter.

This separateness which all of us sign up for and take pride in initially is a double edged sword and not only gives us a team identity which can increase performance but it also isolates us which impacts our ability to influence the whole.

Therefore, this “us vs. them” mentality that so many complain about is in actuality a result of our own core responsibility and fed by our desire to improve performance. And not as a result of a third party’s bad attitude or management’s lack of support. Especially when taking into consideration the pressures put upon store management in today’s bad economy.

This separateness can continue throughout one’s career not only as a result of our core function but also at times, as a result of our own doing. For it becomes a comfortable and secure place to reside. It can prevent us from growing, from learning, from having to face change and from having to assume risk. And consequently it limits us from refining the services we deliver, and the results we achieve, which ultimately impacts corporate appreciation and individual compensation.

So, how does an industry, whose core responsibility fuels the negative perception of “us vs. them”, deal with this issue and increase appreciation and value?

The answer is simply, to evolve our approach to include “providing good customer service” to each one of our internal customers. As Ken Blanchard has said in his Raving Fans book, “successful organizations have one common central focus: customers. Success comes to those, and only those, who are obsessed with looking after customers”. And at the end of the day your customer is the nation’s retailers. Who are in actuality buying your service’s. And it is the quality of your services that will determine how much they spend and how much they appreciate you.

Therefore, if we can educate, instill, and practice strong customer service techniques and values at every level in the Loss Prevention industry then we can lessen the impact of the “us vs. them” divides and increase the quality of the service we provide by uniting with the whole organization.

Our industry is a service provider and as such we must be concerned with continuously refining the services we deliver and the first step towards that end is establishing strong relationships with our customers and ensuring that the entry level Loss Prevention executives understand and practice this approach. For it is the single unit Loss Prevention executive that is our first line of defense and if they view their store manager as a customer then not only will they hear more but they will also be able to do more. Which will ultimately impact shrink!